Special Section:
EDUCATION
Universities deal with unprepared students
Administrators learn to cope
By C. RICHARD COTTON
DBJ Contributing Writer
Let the kids pick up that high school diploma and then send them off to college. Simple enough.
But are they ready?
Many of the region’s universities ask that question regularly - and especially right now with the new school year looming in weeks ahead.
“Entering freshmen at Coahoma Community College are administered a placement test which assists the college in identifying students who may be academically challenged and in what areas,” said Vivian M. Presley, president of the college in Clarksdale.
At this point, Presley said, approximately 20 percent of CCC students are enrolled in “developmental studies courses.” As in many schools, mathematics is the subject in which most are under-prepared.
Rather than being a stigma, Presley said “the developmental studies program is a wonderful tool.”
She said students “who would have a severe problem succeeding in school” are given an opportunity to get up to speed and become successful college students.
The developmental program goes hand-in-hand with the school’s goal to provide college education to anyone in the community who wants to pursue it. Presley said CCC tries to be “everything to everyone.”
As such, the student population ranges from recent high-school graduates, many of whom are first-generation college students in their families, to students who are grown, with families, and have returned to pursue an education.
The school, like many, faces its share of obstacles: “A major challenge,” said Presley, “is trying to improve and expand our role in the community while combating a continuous decline in funding.
“Over the past four years, the community colleges’ funding has been slashed more than 17 percent.”
Funding seems always to be an issue at institutions of higher learning. And even better-heeled, four-year universities deal with the issue of educating students who are not quite prepared for the concentrated college experience.
Diane Blansett is in the middle of a 10-week developmental program this summer at Delta State University, where she serves as director of the academic support lab and a math instructor. She said incoming freshmen targeted for the classes held six hours a day are determined by combinations of ACT scores and grade point averages earned during high school.
She explained that those criteria and ones used to remediate students with subject deficiencies are fairly flexible and actually allow almost anyone who desires to pursue education at a major university to attend DSU.
“Usually one-fourth of the freshman class is in some kind of remedial class,” said Blansett. “It’s harder on teachers and it’s harder on the students.” She said remedial classes do not provide credits for graduation and usually delay that graduation by about one semester.
Blansett explained that some remedial students - ones deficient in two subjects or more and with ACT scores less than 16 - must also attend a yearlong class called the Academic Support Program. It comprises instruction in basic college skills like time management, study habits and effective note taking.
“Delta State University takes this very seriously,” said Blansett. “We are trying to produce students who will be successful in the workforce. If we admit them, we have the obligation to provide the services and the chance to earn a degree.”
The problem of freshmen entering college without the proper preparation for the experience baffles Blansett: “My mom made me do homework,” she commented.
“High school teachers are doing what they can with what they have to work with. I don’t know if these students are getting support at home.”
Remedial classes and developmental programs are no stranger to Dr. Maxine Funderburk Moore, vice president of academic affairs at Mississippi Valley State University.
“I think we share in the dilemma of education nationwide,” said Moore. “We have the largest enrollment of students in Mississippi’s eight public universities.” She said that number usually hovers around 90-100 per year.
“We are changing the culture, addressing issues that might not be as positive,” said Moore. Indeed, her candor about the problems facing higher education is refreshing; she knows there are problem areas, but she knows the positive aspects, too.
One of those positives is what Moore calls “phenomenal growth the last three or four years” at the school. Enrollment for the spring semester was 4,200.
“Maybe it’s in the water,” she said with a laugh. “There is an increased awareness of the value of education and the value of ‘Valley’s’ programs.”
One program that Moore points out as prompting increased enrollment at the school is its summer programs for secondary-school students. They attend “academies” that give them a taste of college life while teaching them math and science skills.
The school, said Moore, has also realized and is embracing a basic fact about the business of education today.
“The whole of education is changing,” said Moore. “We can’t teach from yellow notepads anymore. We can’t just lecture.
“We have to have interactive learning.”
The university, for example, is implementing a “bioinformatics” course, only the third such undertaking in the nation, that combines biology, chemistry and computers.
She said the school “must adapt to students coming in.” MVSU is working to help students feel more a part of their university community: “Research shows that a student more connected to the college experience performs better.”
Even larger schools deal with the developmental/remedial problem. Mississippi State University, which has “many students from the Delta,” said John Dickerson, has students from all over who are not prepared for the rigors of college.
“We have tried some intervention in cases where students are not necessarily prepared,” said Dickerson, MSU’s director of enrollment. One successful program has been the mentoring of freshman students by volunteer faculty and staff members.
Studies showed that simple class attendance, not mandatory on most college campuses, resulted in higher GPAs. Dickerson said attendance is tracked through a computer program and mentors are alerted when their students are missing classes.
Some colleges don’t have the problem of absences or the need for remedial classes. Stephen Becker, director of communications for Millsaps College in Jackson, said his school is one of them.
“We have lots of Delta students here,” said Becker, who explained that while Millsaps is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, the primary mission is educating students in its liberal arts curriculum. Religion is not primary, as at some other Mississippi independent colleges.
“Academic freedom is first,” Becker said.
Becker eschews the image that Millsaps is an exclusive institution: “These are not rich white kids.” Of the 1,200 students at the school, 20 percent are minorities; half the student body are from Mississippi and the other half are from other states.
There is one problem looming on the higher-education horizon that will affect practically all the state’s colleges and universities, possibly even the “phenomenal growth” at Moore’s MVSU, in some form in coming years.
“As a state,” said Mississippi State University’s Dickerson, “what we really need to address is the declining number of high school graduates.”
“Mississippi is just not a growth state. We’re on a declining pattern right now.” DBJ
