State college profs: HS kids are not ready

Dr. Ken James, commissioner of the Arkansas Department of Education, today announced the results of a survey of Arkansas college professors who teach freshman-level courses concerning the preparedness of high school graduates for post-secondary school. Eighty-two percent of respondents said that high school graduates are "somewhat prepared" or "not very prepared" for college. Only about 40 percent of professors say they are "somewhat satisfied" with the job Arkansas public high schools are doing in preparing students for college. Almost half are not satisfied with the job being done. However, at the same time, the majority of professors consider the level of admissions not to be very competitive within their colleges. About 28 percent expressed concerns that the level of admission standards is not very competitive at their college or university, and 54 percent said admission standards are not competitive at all. College professors "graded" the overall academic quality of public high schools in preparing students for college with mostly Ds (50 percent) and Cs (39 percent). One in 10 gave the overall academic quality an F. About 66 percent of respondents believe that remedial or development courses are needed by more than half of the freshmen they teach. James said the Arkansas Department of Education is working to: - Increase high school graduates` readiness for college and workforce. - Decrease college students` remediation rates. - Increase retention and timely graduation at colleges and universities. - Decrease high school intervention. The survey targeted professors from 33 Arkansas colleges and universities, both two-year and four-year institutions. The study respondents were anonymous and not identified individually or by the name of the institution where they teach. (Copyright 2006 Newsroom Solutions, LLC)