Issue date: 10/6/06 Section: News

After students graduate from high school, some are not prepared for classes on the college level, therefore forcing them to enroll in remedial courses.

Graduating high school seniors applying to national colleges should be concerned with one thing; hitting the books, a study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute said, according to The Golden Gate, San Francisco State University's weekly newspaper.

"Often maturity is an issue," said Dr. John Brown, associate professor of the mathematics department. "Some students are more interested in a healthy social life and don't put enough time into the academic portion of college," Boyd said.

The study found that 40 percent of professors consider their students to be lacking the proper preparation and skills for satisfactory performance in class, according to The Golden Gate.

Dr. Kimberly Boyd, associate professor of biology, believes that Cabrini College has a healthy concern for their student's academic performance. "Some students do get placed in more remedial courses to help them gain skills they did not bring to college, and while students might be upset with such placements, we do that to help guarantee their academic success."

In a joint effort to help track high school junior's progress, the California Department of Education and the State Board of Education are now conducting tests that are all part of the Early Assessment Program.

The EAP is being used by many colleges to determine first-years student placements. On the website for the California Polytechnic State University, it goes into detail about the EAP and how it is being used for all California State schools.

"EAP provides an early signal to high school officials, students, and families as to whether the 11th grader will be exempt from taking the English and mathematics placement tests upon admission to a CSU campus. Currently more than half of the first-time freshmen need remediation."

Although statistics are scary for some, Cabrini students don't find them hard to believe. Kerrin Monahan, a freshman liberal arts major, knows that many students are not ready for college on different levels.

"I think it definitely has to do with the different backgrounds we all have. I know that all high schools are not the same, and some are not as concerned with higher education as others, but if a student wants to do well in college, they will," Monahan said.

Continued...

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