The California State University is getting rid of placement exams and remedial course requirements in an attempt to improve its graduation rate.
The Los Angeles Times reports that in an executive order issued by Chancellor Timothy P. White, the California State University system announced it will no longer require students to take the placement exams for math and English and will do away with remedial requirements starting in the fall 2018 term.
The Orange County Register also reports the CSU system will be ditching its intermediate algebra requirement, however, it claims it is only for non-math and non-science majors. Before this move, students who were enrolled in non-math and non-science majors had to take intermediate algebra before they could fulfill their major’s respective math course.
In addition, the LA Times also claims that under the new executive order, students will not be required to take the English placement exam or enroll in remedial English.
The LA Times says, in total, students could have been required to take up to three remedial courses before they can take courses for credit towards their degrees. Students who fail to pass their remedial courses are “removed from university rolls.”
Under the new executive order, however, students who are determined to not be proficient in math and English could potentially be placed in “stretch” courses that provide remedial help and simultaneously allow students to earn credits towards their degrees.
The move to do away with placement exams and remedial courses was made to combat the school’s graduation rate, which is reportedly less than 20 percent across the entire CSU system.
According to the executive order, the decision was made with “significant guidance and feedback from the Academic Senate CSU, discipline faculty, students and our educational partners.”
CSU’s senior strategist for academic success and inclusive excellence, James T. Minor, told the LA Times the plan “will have an enormous effect on college affordability, on the number of semesters that a student is required to be enrolled in before they earn a degree, and it will have a significant impact on the number of students that ultimately cross a commencement stage with a degree in hand, ready to move into the workforce, ready to move into graduate or professional school.”
California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley was also supportive of the plan, saying, “I personally strongly believe that standardized placement exams have handicapped hundreds of thousands of our students, and they particularly target low-income students and students of color. We have, in my opinion, been placing many students in remedial courses that really didn't belong in those remedial courses — and in doing so have made it harder for them to complete their college educations.”
The CSU system spans 23 campuses. According to the Associated Press, this change will impact the nearly 25,000 freshmen students.
Thank you for supporting MRCTV! As a tax-deductible, charitable organization, we rely on the support of our readers to keep us running! Keep MRCTV going with your gift here!