The percentage of students entering the state's public colleges and universities unprepared for college-level coursework has fallen once again, marking the lowest rate since officials began keeping track in 1988.
The remediation rate has dipped from 43.2 percent of 20,064 students to 41.4 percent of 22,024 students, according to a report released by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
The report counts the number of first-time students who scored below 19 in math, English or reading on the ACT college-admissions exam and were required to complete noncredit, remedial coursework before taking traditional classes.
The percentage peaked in 2002, when 59.6 percent of students required the extra coursework. But it has trickled downward for the past six years from 55 percent in 2009.
"It's certainly welcomed progress," said outgoing Higher Education Department Director Shane Broadway, whose last day in that job was Friday. "But there's still a lot of work to be done. A student's chances of progressing toward graduation are much better if they are ready for college-level courses the day they enter campus."
More telling, he said, are the report's one-year remediation rates, which gauge remediation rates of only the 2014 high school graduates.
The one-year remediation rate for 2014 was 35.2 percent of 22,024 test-takers, about 6 percent lower than the more-general report. The main report includes all graduates, whether they graduated from high school in the past year or several years ago.
Remediation rates in all three test areas declined for 2014.
The number of students needing remedial coursework in math fell from 31.1 percent of 20,064 students in 2013 to 30.5 percent of 22,024 students in 2014. English remediation fell from 26.8 percent of 20,064 students in 2013 to 25.7 percent of 22,024 students in 2014. Numbers in reading remediation fell from 22.1 percent of 20,064 students in 2013 to 19.7 percent of 22,024 students in 2014.
Likewise, the state has spent less for remedial coursework. In 2014, two-year colleges and four-year universities in total spent nearly $38.5 million in direct and indirect costs for the remedial coursework, said Tara Smith, the Higher Education Department's senior associate director of institutional finance.
Higher-education officials have been working alongside public education officials to reduce the rate, Broadway said. Teachers for kindergarten through 12th grade are better preparing students for college-level courses and for the assessments used for placement, he said.
Broadway also pointed to weekend and summer programs statewide that help students improve their scores, along with a number of initiatives that work to prepare students for leaving high school. Also, schools, with some help from federal funding, have pushed more students to take the ACT.
The Higher Education Department report showed an increase in test-takers from 20,064 in 2013 to 22,024 in 2014 in both two-year colleges and four-year universities. Broadway said the 2014 graduating class was a little larger than that in 2013.
The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff were the only four-year colleges that saw small reductions in first-time test-takers.
UAPB Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Jacquelyn McCray said the drop mirrored lower enrollment in 2014. In the fall of 2013, the university had 2,615 students enrolled, with about 2,521 undergraduates. In the fall of 2014, the university had 2,513 total students and 2,401 undergraduates.
The four-year institutions had smaller percentages of students needing remedial coursework in 2014 -- 28.8 percent of 14,809 students.
Remediation rates for the state's two-year colleges were 67.2 percent of 7,215 students. Two-year colleges typically have higher remediation rates because they have lower admission standards.
Universities such as UAPB and the University of Arkansas at Monticello have open-admissions policies, allowing students to enroll regardless of test scores or high school grades. Those universities usually rank higher on remediation rates.
UAPB, where 71.8 percent of 496 students who took ACT tests required remediation, is again listed in last place among four-year colleges. That percentage, the most recent reported, is the university's lowest ever, McCray said.
McCray credited the university's new enrollment management office, which opened in May 2014, and a rise in state admission standards for the lower rate. In 2012, the state raised the minimum ACT score for unconditional admissions to 19.
At UAPB, students with an ACT-composite score between 15 and 18 can be admitted conditionally if they earn at least a 2.0 high school grade-point average. They must sign a yearlong contract with the enrollment management program, agreeing to attend workshops and tutoring sessions, and to enroll in the LIONS program during the summer.
The LIONS program -- or the Learning Institute and Opportunity for New Students -- began in 1998 to help high school students improve test scores and reduce the need for remediation. It has since expanded to allow all high school students to get started earlier.
That program also allows students who need remedial classes to take the coursework during the summer so they can enroll in regular classes in the fall. It helps students get through the transitional period and get familiar with the campus.
This summer, the university is expecting about 300 students to attend the program, which would be its highest enrollment yet. Students who go through the LIONS program have a 98 percent retention rate, said Linda Okiror, UAPB's associate vice chancellor for enrollment management and student success.
UA-Monticello had the second-highest remediation rate among four-year colleges with 64.2 of 522 students, though officials there also saw a reduction from last year. In the fall of 2013, the Monticello campus had 67.2 percent of 506 students requiring remediation.
Interim Chancellor Jay Jones said the university is working to get over some of the hurdles.
"We see that as a very important strategic initiative, not only for fiscal 16, which is coming up, but beyond that," he said, adding that university officials were working on a coordinated plan to target student retention -- including those students needing remedial coursework.
"We believe that UAM provides a unique opportunity for many who may have underperformed in high school to have a second chance to demonstrate their true ability. We want to improve our success in retaining students and find that finances and the inability of students to conquer these remedial classes are often the top causes for dropping out."
The university has allowed students who scored a 17 or 18 on the ACT in English to write a "challenge essay," evaluated by the dean of the humanities school. The dean determines which students are ready for college-level coursework, and in the fall of 2014, 26 students who would have been in a remedial English class were moved to regular classes, Jones said.
The challenge essay will be expanded to all students in remedial English in the fall of 2015, he added. For the first time, the university is also searching for a tenure-track assistant professor in English who specializes in remedial reading and writing, he added.
Of the four-year universities, three -- including the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville -- saw a slight increase in the number of students requiring the additional coursework. But it still recorded the smallest percentage of students needing remedial classes.
UA-Fayetteville rose from 8.4 percent of 4,300 students needing remedial work in 2013 to 8.5 percent of 4,571 students in 2014.
Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia went from 42 percent of 650 students in 2013 needing additional coursework to 42.6 percent of 712 students in 2014.
The University of Central Arkansas' remediation percentage grew from 28.7 percent of 2,177 students in 2013 to 29.7 percent of 2,231 students in 2014.
UCA had seen declines in the percentage since 2010, said Steve Runge, executive vice president and provost.
"We're trying to make sure that students who come to UCA are given all the support needed to be successful," he said. "We're working hard to get these students into credit-bearing coursework more quickly. We're very confident that that is going to help us with that population."
The Conway university began a pilot program in the summer of 2014 for remedial math and reading.
During its first year, the math program had 35 participating students, with all but one completing it, and the reading program had 17 students enrolled, with 16 completing it, Runge said. The university is working to expand the program for this summer, he added.
Students taking the five-day math program pay $285 in housing, fees and a meal plan. Those not staying at UCA for the program pay $155. The amount is not financial-aid eligible.
These students take math workshops for four days and, on the last day, take placement exams. If a student scores high enough on the exam, that student will be placed into regular math coursework.
The reading program, which is three weeks long, costs $2,300 for students staying at UCA and $1,850 for students not staying on campus. That amount is financial-aid eligible because students take two classes: a transitional literacy course and a UCA-core course.
Runge pointed to research studies that he said shows students who need the remedial courses are more likely to persist if moved into regular classes more quickly.
"The summer program is specifically designed so that the students will come and get a very intensive pre-matriculation experience," he said, adding that the students get all of the transitional education out of the way before the fall semester begins.
The school is also working to retain students by reviewing courses that have high fail rates and expanding supplemental instruction, he said. It has also doubled the size of its academic center, adding 10 new academic advisers.
In addition, the university is changing its admission standards for the fall of 2015. For the current year, the university has accepted students who have high school 2.5 grade-point averages or higher, and ACT composite scores of 19 or higher. It has also conditionally accepted students with high school 2.25 grade-point averages and ACT composite scores of 16.
For the coming fall, the conditional acceptance will hinge on a high school grade-point average of 2.3 and an ACT composite score of 17. Unconditional acceptance will be a 2.75 grade-point average and a ACT composite score of 20. If applicants score in the single digits in either math, English or reading, they will not be accepted.
The change came after university officials studied data analyses on its current students' high school grade-point averages and ACT scores, he said.
"Part of it is we're trying to work hard to get our retention and graduation rates to improve," Runge said. "If we admit a student to UCA, it's with the expectation they're going to succeed."
SundayMonday on 02/08/2015