Author: By Kate Zernike, Globe Staff

Date: WEDNESDAY, November 18, 1998

Page: B5

Section: Metro

The third annual College to School report shows that one-third of students in state colleges and universities are enrolled in one or more remedial courses, with percentages ranging from 17 percent at the University of Massachusetts to 56 percent at the state's community colleges.

The numbers, barely down from the previous year, reflect poorly on the high schools for not preparing students well, but almost equally badly on the colleges and UMass, for accepting students who are not cut out to do college work. And it costs taxpayers doubly when they pay to teach students in college what they should have been taught in high school.

"The cost of remedial education is the cost of opportunities foregone, because money spent there is money that could have been spent somewhere else," said Chancellor of Higher Education Stanley Z. Koplik. "Nobody likes to pay for things twice, whether it's in managing your own household or managing a higher education system. When resources are limited, we want to use them in the best way possible."

State officials have put in place tough new standards to try to limit the amount of remediation at colleges. Next year, a Board of Higher Education policy will limit the number of students in remedial classes at UMass and state colleges to 5 percent of the freshman class. Students needing remedial education will have to take those courses at community colleges.

Combined with a new graduation test for high school students and tougher admissions requirements at the higher education schools, state officials are hoping to improve the quality of students entering colleges.

The annual report was commissioned three years ago as a way to monitor how well state high schools are preparing students. The report looks only at home-grown students -- those educated in Massachusetts public schools who go on to state colleges or UMass -- tracking them through their first college year and recording whether they return for a second year. That population makes up the bulk of the public higher education enrollment in the state. Of the 24,540 freshmen who entered the state's institutions of higher education, 13,490, or more than half, came from Massachusetts high schools.

The percentage of students requiring remedial education changed little between classes that graduated from high school in June 1995 and June 1996, the last complete year available for review. In 1996, 4,314 students needed remedial classes, including 761 at UMass, 930 at the state colleges, and 2,623 at community colleges.

The biggest drop was at UMass, where the percentage of students needing remedial help dropped from 23 percent in fall 1995 to 17 percent in fall 1996. At state colleges, the percentage of students needing remediation dropped from 24 to 22 percent, and at community colleges, from 58 to 56 percent.

"These things need to be addressed at the high school level," Koplik said. "Even though these students can have success in college, it's time, and attention, wasted. Life is hard enough when you get to college. You shouldn't have to burden yourself with catch-up."

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