For Immediate Release: April 2, 2004

Why California’s K-12 system fails to prepare students for college
and what the state needs to do about it

SAN FRANCISCO – Too many of California’s best high-school students need remedial math and English. The state must undertake deep reforms if students are to be better prepared for higher education and the workplace, according to Not College Material: How We Can Better Prepare California’s Students for College, a policy briefing from the Pacific Research Institute. “Nearly half of incoming students in the Cal State system, more than 48 percent, need remedial English and more than 35 percent need remedial math,” said author Matt Cox.

The Cal State System accepts the top one-third of California’s high-school graduates. But too many of the best students arrive unprepared, the author said.

“The bulk of this failure rests with the state’s K-12 system,” Cox said. “The top third of California’s students are the false beneficiaries of grade inflation in high school, but CSU doesn’t have to continue the charade.”

The study examines in detail the way the Cal State system attempts remediation. The briefing challenges the CSU claim that it brings more than 80 percent of remedial students up to speed within one year.

“The inexcusable flaw in the CSU remedial system is the lack of an objective competency measure for the remedial students,” said Cox, whose briefing makes a number of policy prescriptions.

Not College Material recommends aligning tests with California’s tough academic content standards. The briefing urges policymakers to tie college placement to state’s high-school exit exam (CAHSEE), which the author viewed as a better diagnostic test for content mastery than current arrangements.

“Using the exit exam in this way would motivate students to continue to master the state standards even after they had passed the exam minimums currently required to graduate,” said Cox, who recommended other deep reforms.

“The K-12 system must improve significantly in order to prepare students adequately for college. This includes more rigorous standards, teacher accountability, test alignment, and stronger student incentives,” he said.

“The admission policy in the Cal State system should be revised to better reflect student preparation and the remedial program improved to better serve students one they are accepted.”

###

About PRI
For 25 years, the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI) has championed individual liberty through free markets. PRI is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting the principles of limited government, individual freedom, and personal responsibility.

About AEI
Founded in 1943, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is dedicated to preserving and strengthening the foundations of freedoms, limited government, private enterprise, vital cultural and political institutions, and a strong foreign policy and national defense – through scholarly research, open debate, and publications.