Make sure kids are prepared for college

About six or seven weeks ago, kids all over the country headed back to school.

Throughout the country, families could be found shopping in Wal-Mart and other retail outlets for pens, pencils, notebooks and school clothing. On college campuses, bags were being unpacked into new dorm rooms as incoming students prepared for freshman orientation and their big inaugural year.

It can be an exciting time for freshmen. They are away from home for the first time, making new friends and becoming a part of campus life. Increasingly, however, it is also a time filled with apprehension. High school graduates today approach college asking themselves important questions: Am I ready for college? Have my high school courses prepared me for the challenging curriculum ahead?

More and more, we find students answer the questions with a resounding "no," as they register for remedial math and reading classes their peers took in high school.

Currently, more than one-third of college freshmen enroll in at least one remedial course. For community colleges, where many of the next generation of the technology-sector work force are trained, the number rises to 42 percent.

In some states, the numbers are even worse. The California State University system has reported that 56 percent of freshmen who enrolled in fall 2006 had to take remedial courses in English or mathematics. And last year, the Florida Legislature reported that 55 percent of freshmen who enrolled in public post-secondary institutions in the fall of 2003 required remediation in mathematics, reading and/or writing.

These numbers have a disproportionate impact on minority students. African-American and Hispanic students are only about half as likely as white students to graduate from high school prepared for four-year colleges. That means minority students are more likely to fail college placement exams and have to spend money on remedial classes in college.

According to the American Institutes for Research, a student taking two remedial courses at a four-year public college or university can expect to spend more than an additional $2,500 in education costs. For colleges and universities, these costs total nearly $2.9 billion. At the community college level alone, families spend $283 million in tuition for remedial education. In Ohio, the costs for remediation in 2005-2006, according to the Ohio Board of Regents, were in excess of $100 million. And, as you can imagine, these costs -- both to the students and the schools -- increase with every remedial course taken.

College freshmen who have to enroll in remediation classes begin college at a disadvantage. From day one, they are behind their peers who are prepared for college. They struggle to catch up. Most never do. Currently, only 30 percent of students who enroll in college-level remedial reading courses earn a college degree. That means we are losing a generation of engineers, doctors, physicists and even the professors who teach future generations of students.

We can no longer allow our students to graduate high school fundamentally unprepared for college. States must put in place rigorous standards that demand the best in our students and prepare them for life after high school. As we have learned, the rigor of a student's high school curriculum is one of the best predictors of success in college.

We also must ensure quality teachers in every classroom. It's no secret that effective teachers produce effective students. If we incentivize teachers, paying highly performing teachers more and increasing compensation for those who decide to teach in chronically under-performing schools or hard to fill subjects such as math and science, teacher quality -- and student quality -- will increase dramatically.

If you could look at the face of an incoming college freshman, you would see a face full of excitement. They arrive at college eager for success. Many have already decided what subjects to study or a chosen field or career path they will follow. Unfortunately, too many arrive at college unprepared for the course load they must take to graduate.

It is up to us to demand that the status quo allowing this to continue, and even grow, come to an end. We must begin now to put into place a framework of exacting standards and ensure every student has a capable, qualified teacher so high school graduates are prepared for college -- because if they are not prepared for college now, they will not be prepared for the challenges they will face later in life.

We have seen in our financial systems over the past six months what happens when status quo prevails and there's no accountability.

There were many warning signs in our financial system long before the crisis. There are warning signs in our educational system. Our children's education is too important for us not to take note and act.

J.C. Watts (JCWatts01@jcwatts.com) is chairman of J.C. Watts Companies, a business consulting group. He is former chairman of the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, where he served as an Oklahoma representative from 1995 to 2002. He writes twice monthly for the Review-Journal.