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A comment on Cal State will no longer require math and English placement exams. Parent comment

Re:Cal State will no longer require math and English placeme... by WheelsAtLarge on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @11:55PM (#14965426)
As far as I can tell from the article the goal is to reduce the number of classes the students need to graduate. They are not say that that graduates will not meet the graduation requirements for math and english but that they have better ways to get them to learn what they need to learn to graduate. I have no doubt that every extra class that a student needs to take makes it less likely that he/she will graduate. It seems like the change is positive.

The real problem is that high schools aren't preparing some students for college. That's really where things need to change.

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Re:Cal State will no longer require math and English placeme... by yeukhon on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @12:39AM (#14965588)
But then the change contradicts your statment that the purpose "is to reduce the number of classes the students need to graduate" because if a student readiness for Math and English are low, then it doesn't make sense for them to move ahead.

I agree with your final point. I also believe if the current mandate is to ensure students are prepared for upper course load, then at least the entry to admission perhaps need to be increased? Or at least offer a free one-semester remdial class. If someone is not ready to do a "2x+3=6" then high school education failed to do its job and allowing the student going into a college knowing every college requires some math class to graduate (pre-calc, or as calculus+), only do more harm.

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Re:Cal State will no longer require math and English placeme... by kfriede on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @09:14AM (#14968374)
Exactly. And sticking them in a 101 level class when they really should be in remedial can end up having taking the same amount of time if that student now needs to take the class twice (or more) to pass.
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Re:Cal State will no longer require math and English placeme... by jacalata on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @01:33PM (#14971585)
Except that they are now allowed to take other classes at the same time, which was previously disallowed.
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Re:Cal State will no longer require math and English placeme... by yeukhon on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @07:07PM (#14974608)
Well, if those classes don't require the Math/English level they needed, then that makes sense.
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Re:Cal State will no longer require math and English placeme... by cbhl on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @04:17AM (#14966534)
The Khan Academy is a great resource for those students. Ideally we would fix the system, but in the meantime we can point them to how they can use software to catch up with (and eventually surpass) their peers.

Fixing high schools for real would require us to get engaged with politics -- that's at least three more years of hard work ahead of us.

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Re:Cal State will no longer require math and English placeme... by wfunction on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @12:32AM (#14965560)
I don't know about you but the last time I saw a class take on extra teaching load to help students "catch up" and not sacrifice on other teaching goals was... never. You seem unrealistically hopeful that things are going to work out the way they claim.
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