The “Getting Students Ready For College” article in the St. Petersburg Times has a discussion of how one high school reduced their students’ remediation from 70% to 10% when they went to college. How? With the help of the college to start with.
Seminole State College (formerly Seminole Community College) and the Seminole County School District are successfully collaborating to reduce the need for remediation.
Ten years ago, the college’s math chairman, frustrated that more than 70 percent of public school students who enrolled at the college needed math remediation, met with district principals. He offered the principals a course the college would bring to their campuses. The college would provide the course content and mentoring, and the school teachers would teach the course. One school accepted.
A planning team of top college and school administrators began meeting once a month at 6 a.m. for breakfast at a Denny’s restaurant, and the Mathematics College Readiness Initiative was born. Within a few years, the experimental school reduced its remediation rate from 70 percent to 10 percent.
The article has more, including how the state legislature reacted to the success.
I know I checked developmental writing as the category, but I figure if it worked for math, it will work for English as well.