Oklahoma's college students spend over $22M more to learn what they didn't master in high school

Each fall, many Oklahoma high school graduates enter in-state colleges and universities with achievement deficits.

In 2015, just over 40 percent, or about 6,734 of the 16,796 college freshmen who graduated from 461 Oklahoma public high schools, enrolled in a remedial class, according to Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

Despite the growing number of students earning college credit while still in high school through the state’s concurrent enrollment and Advanced Placement programs, for whatever reasons, a large number of Oklahoma public high school graduates are not proficient in courses they should have mastered in high school.

“There is a gap year between when [students] need to use those skills walking into a college or a career tech center,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister. “We don’t want students to lose ground.”

Furthermore, national studies show that college and university students enrolled in remedial courses pay more in tuition because they delay their ability to enroll in credit-earning courses. Unlike remedial education in high school, which can be a catalyst for success, college students forced to remediate their higher education trajectory also face greater obstacles in completing degrees.

Read more: http://okgazette.com/2017/04/07/oklahomas-college-students-spend-over-22-million-more-to-learn-what-they-didnt-master-in-high-school/