Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Many CUNY students not very sharp

About 83% of students entering City University of New York community colleges last year failed placement exams and had to take remedial courses in reading, writing or math - and most graduated from city high schools, records show.

Many entering CUNY students failed placement exams last year

"It costs a lot of money," said Matt Zeidenberg, a researcher at Columbia University's Community College Research Center. "You're basically paying for the same stuff over again."

About two-thirds of students graduating from city high schools will have to take remedial courses. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told the Daily News the number has declined in recent years, but more work was needed.

"We need to raise high school graduation standards," Klein said. "I supported the elimination of the local diploma, which I think will put greater pressure on us."

Local diplomas, which are less demanding than their Regents counterparts, are slated to be phased out.

In 1999, CUNY stopped offering remedial courses at its four-year colleges. The number of first-time freshman taking remedial courses has since grown 20% to about 8,700 last year.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Queens crapper you are apparently the one who is "not very sharp". Your own editorial dictates that students are coming into CUNY not prepared for college which has nothing to do with CUNY but rather the poor shape of our public schools.
You are very biased and should shut your mouth.

Queens Crapper said...

"Your own editorial dictates..."

My own editorial? Now who's not too sharp? This post consists of a passage from a news article, link included. Are you attending CUNY? I'm a graduate. I went to Catholic school and can tell you that high school was harder than college, mainly because the curriculum was "dumbed down" so that those coming from NYC public schools could pass. Maybe instead of criticizing the messenger, you should ask Bloomberg why he should be allowed to continue to control the schools when he can't graduate pupils now who can read, write and add.

Anonymous said...

Recycle that cartoon for the door to city council and the door the clubhouse and the door to the community board.

Nice work Crappy!

Anonymous said...

Same thing with the grade schools.

Figure 1/3 the kids cant speak English (and the parents dont care)
This is only getting worse with our elected sellouts inviting more sh*t here.
"Welcome to the United States Bordillo"

Schools (espcially that want Gov grant$) have to drop the passing bar down to 3rd world education levels or half the kids are going to get "left back"

Figure this this will flood the schools 90+ per classroom ??

English, Math, History, Skills, Science, self control ---OUT.

Sex, LaRoza, condoms, multiculturalism and Spangonic's ---IN

-Joe

me said...

I am currently in the social studies ed. MA program at nyu - the new "hit" in the education field is "child-based learning" - what this means is that the child becomes his own teacher and "real" teachers become "facilitators." I believe this is a push from the mayor to put the "burden of learning" onto the child because teachers are not... how can we say... educated enough on the subject they are teaching... watch out for those "project-based" high schools too - lol, kids playing with red balls because they "learn better" that way - blows my mind.

Anonymous said...

Now that cartoon reminds me of Jake LaSala.

Anonymous said...

CUNY students are dullards?

Duh....we could've told you that!

But they're great binge drinkers!

Anonymous said...

Salvatore is correct. The new curriculum that has been implemented in the city schools is garbage. Children are left on their own for much of the day to "discover" on their own or with their reading partner. There is no more phonics or traditional math. The new math program, Everday Mathematics, is a confusing substandard, costly program that bounces around from topic to topic daily.
Now, bright kids will have NO problem. Slower kids and ELL(English Language Learners) will have a HUGE problem.
The problem lies with the parents. They are unhappy with the new programs but are complaining to the wrong people (teachers, principals). It's Bloomberg and Klein they need to go after.
If you have hundreds or thousands of parents making a stink to the press, things will change.
And that's the problem with the city schools. Not enough parents giving a crap.

Anonymous said...

Another thing:

That's why you are hearing about kids continously being prepared for tests even starting in September. Klein knows the curriculums are not adequate to prepare the kids for the tests.

When did you do practice tests for the citywide tests years ago? I know we did them in April for the May tests. These new programs are garbage and they are making someone (maybe a friend of Bloomberg's) a lot of money all the expense of our kids.