As finals approached, nearly 240 students in a computer lab worked through basic algebra problems at Ohio’s Kent State University, where they and more than 3,200 of their classmates had been deemed unprepared for college-level math. They struggled to solve for x in equations such as 3x + 1 = 7, a skill students are meant to master in middle school.
Just down the hallway, university officials were trying to crunch a few numbers of their own, analyzing how much it’d cost to keep providing such remedial education to students who don’t arrive ready for college-level work.
The annual price tag for remedial education in American colleges and universities is at least $3.6 billion, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. It’s also a reason that many college students quit in frustration, contributing to high dropout rates.…Read More
