More Colorado High School Grads Need Remedial Courses in College
DENVER
More and more Colorado high school graduates need remedial courses when they enroll at state-funded colleges, and bringing them up to speed is costing about $10 million a year, according to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.
The portion of graduates who need remediation rose from 28 percent in 2003 to 30 percent last year, the commission said. The subject area with the greatest increase was writing, up nearly 3 percentage points.
Female students needed more help than male students, and minority students needed more help than White students, the commission said.
Performance varied widely among high schools, even within the same school district, according to the report. In Jefferson County Public Schools, the state’s largest district, 22.7 percent of Chatfield High School students required remediation while 65.3 percent of Jefferson High School graduates did.
Rick O’Donnell, executive director of the commission, said many students are not getting the high school courses they need to prepare them for college, creating additional costs for both the students and the colleges.
