No More Remedial Math at CUNY

Discovered through Parentalcation and Kitchen Table Math, an article discussing CUNY raising its admission requirements because students are so ill-prepared for college level math.

Dr. Goldstein said that the English requirements for the senior colleges would be raised as well, but that the math cutoff would be raised first because that was where the students were “so woefully unprepared.”

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In the fall of 2005, for example, more than 40 percent of students in introductory math courses — pre-calculus, college algebra and calculus — either failed or dropped out of the classes, numbers typical of many universities nationwide.

This could be a combination of poor education and poor grading. There could be kids who were given the impression that finishing high school meant they were ready for college. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. High school students should be given good information about the types of courses required to move into college and then actually have those courses taught well and graded appropriately (non leniently).