At first glance, the figures look promising: The number of college students taking remedial math and English courses is down 4 percent from the year before.

But that number is not necessarily down because high school students in Nevada are becoming better prepared for college.

Rather, since the Board of Regents stopped funding remedial courses on the university level, thousands of students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas have had to scramble to take the classes at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

And CCSN has been unable to accommodate them.

Despite the college's 153 remedial math courses last fall, 3,251 students weren't able to get into a class, according to CCSN officials.

And 916 students weren't able to enroll in one of the college's 53 remedial English classes last semester.

"There's no question that the number of students requiring remedial math and English has been increasing," said Carlos Campo, dean of the Division of Arts and Letters at CCSN.

"To be honest, it has been a little bit surprising for all of us," he added. "The sheer number of students requiring remedial work has been a little overwhelming."

Thirty-six percent of recently graduated high school students in Nevada had to take a remedial course when they enrolled in a Nevada college, according to a report issued by the Nevada System of Higher Education.

That's down from just over 40 percent the year before.

Despite the downturn, the report and system officials say the numbers aren't a product of better-trained high school students.

"We really think maybe part of that (downturn) is that CCSN has so many students and they've had a difficult time putting out enough remedial courses," said higher education system Vice Chancellor Jane Nichols, who will present the report to regents today.

In the fall 2005 semester at CCSN, 274 students weren't able to enroll in remedial English courses and 711 weren't able to enroll in remedial math courses, according to the report.

A total of 2,773 recent Nevada high school grads in 2006 were found, through test scores and evaluations, to be unprepared for math and English college classes at Nevada colleges and universities. They're required to complete remedial classes, which are high-school level college courses that are not for credit, before moving on to English 101 or 102 and college-level math classes.

The Board of Regents cut funding for university remedial courses last year, and UNLV has since only offered a few of the classes that pay for themselves.

The University of Nevada, Reno, where almost 33 percent of new high school graduates were enrolled in at least one remedial course, has continued to offer them.

But enrollment in remedial courses at all but two of Nevada's colleges are up from the year before. Truckee Meadows Community College had the highest rate of remedial enrollment at 67 percent of recent high school grads.

Only Great Basin College and UNLV saw a decline.

CCSN had the lowest rate of remedial enrollment among the system's four community colleges, with 38.8 percent of high school graduates having to take at least one remedial course.

Nevada State College saw a more than 10 percent increase to 50.6 percent, which college president Fred Maryanski attributed to the school's growth.

Millennium scholars statewide saw a decrease in remedial enrollment of more than 3 percent from the year before, to 28.1 percent. The $10,000 Millennium Scholarship doesn't cover remedial courses.

The shortage of classes at CCSN has prompted the college to get creative, although one problem may be a breakdown in communication between students and officials.

CCSN offers 20 remedial math classes and 18 remedial English classes at UNLV, but Campo said those classes mostly remained unfilled, possibly because UNLV students are not aware of them.

"I know that students, for the most part, are a little bit frustrated," Campo said.

UNLV students have to navigate a labyrinth of Web sites to enroll in the courses.

When they go to the UNLV Web site to search for remedial course schedules, students are redirected to CCSN's Web site, where they must register with the college and pay a $5 fee.

"I think that's been a roadblock for students who say, 'OK, that's it, I'm done,'" Campo said.

After registering and being approved by the college, students then have to sign up for classes online. But the online course listings don't specify at which campus the classes are located.

That has resulted in many CCSN students signing up for classes at UNLV unknowingly, and later withdrawing from the courses when they realize they have to commute far away from their CCSN campus to UNLV.

"It's confusing," Campo said. "And that's been part of the problem."

The report by higher education officials doesn't include the number of students who have to take the classes, only those who enroll.

"We don't ask for that information from the institutions, and most institutions don't have those records," Nichols said.

At UNLV, the mathematics and English departments don't keep track of the number of students required to take those courses, either.

Elaine Bunker, Assistant Director of Composition at UNLV, said the English department doesn't have a database of students who are required to take the classes.

Review-Journal writer Lynnette Curtis contributed to this report.