Redundant Costs of Remediation

Think the direct costs associated with Pre K through 12 public education end with graduation? A high percentage are simply handed off to our two and four-year institutes of higher education.

From Arkansas’s public school districts, 46% of 16,796 first-time two or four-year college students in the fall of 2011 required remediation. By contrast, only 29.5% of Arkansas’s 95 public charter students were remediated.

Remediated students are defined by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) as “those 1) first-time entering students entering college in the fall semester, 2) that are seeking an Associate’s degree or higher credential, 3) were placed in remediation by the institution, and 4) failed to achieve the cutoff scores as noted on their placement exam.”

The ADHE report says that Anytime Rate “is the traditional calculation of higher education and is a good general picture of all first-time entering freshmen as it ignores when the student graduated from high school.”

All public economic development incentives are performance-based. Since talent is now the major driver of economic development, perhaps it’s time to consider funding clawbacks for those districts and schools which consistently send their students to college unprepared.

Since we pay for it anyway, it’s unfair that our two and four-year colleges are bearing that burden alone.

When you do something right the first time, someone else shouldn’t have to do it again.

Highest Remediation Rates:

  • Hermitage – <10 Students – 100%
  • Hughes – 24 Students – 100%
  • Strong-Huttig – 17 Students – 88.2%
  • Marvell – 28 Students – 85.7%
  • Blevins – 20 Students – 85%
  • Augusta – 18 Students – 83.3%
  • East Poinsett County – 28 Students – 82.1%
  • Nevada – 16 Students – 81.3%
  • Marmaduke – 15 Students – 80%
  • Arkansas School for the Blind – <10 Students – 80%

Lowest Remediation Rates:

  • Fouke – 15 Students – 13.3%
  • Searcy – 156 Students – 14.7%
  • Haas Hall (Charter) – 27 Students – 14.8%
  • McCrory – 24 Students – 16.7%
  • Bald Knob – 20 Students – 20%
  • Lisa Academy (Charter) – 29 Students – 21.4%
  • Emerson-Taylor – 18 Students – 22.2%
  • Quitman – 21 Students – 23.8%
  • Salem – 29 Students – 24.1%
  • Benton – 199 Students – 25.6%
  • Greenwood – 172 Students – 25.6%
  • Bentonville – 406 Students – 25.9%
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