When $7B in Remediation Falls Short: The Broken Promises Colleges Make to Students Who Need More Help
“What isn’t clear from the festivities in front of the school, whose enormous main building stretches four city blocks along the Hudson River, is that not only will most students fall short of a degree — about 40 percent nationally who started community college in 2010 earned a credential in six years — but also that 80 percent of the school’s incoming students each year are assigned to remedial classes, according to administrators. From that moment, if averages hold, their chances of earning a degree — of even passing a college course — sink. And the more remedial classes they need, the dimmer their academic future. Some will beat the odds. A cheerful young woman named Alexis, about to complete her studies at BMCC, sits with friends at the student activities table. She explains that unlike most there, she’s not from New York. Her friends nod as if New Jersey must have been hard to overcome.”