Award highlights Fresno State remedial classes
By Adam Albrecht
The Collegian
The CSU system has been awarded with the Edison International New Era Award, which recognizes excellence in higher education in the areas of english and mathematics.
The award shines a spotlight on Fresno State’s writing center and learning center. They focus on remedial English and Mathematics skills.
While 185,065 students took the California Standards Test in Spring 2005, only 23.5 percent of those students passed the English testing. Juniors had multiple choices and essay formatted questions on their California Test. 172,000 high school Juniors took the Mathematics test and approximately a little over 8 percent of those students passed, Della Duncan-Schnell, Fresno State Professor and Early Assessment Program Coordinator, said.
EAP serves as an early program for students, parents, teachers and counselors throughout California’s public schools to raise the level of the education standards.
The EAP program originated in 1961, due to a need for remedial education at the college level. Today, there is a need for remedial education.
“More than 50 percent of the nearly 40,000 first-time freshmen admitted to CSU campuses require remedial education,” CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed said.
Fresno State has developed programs to help these students in their education and futures.
“Students are weak in these two subjects, and if their standards are not high enough for English and Mathematics they will have a harder time going further in their careers,” Duncan-Schnell said.
The amount of work by the CSU system and Fresno State has paid off.
“Edison International’s New Era Awards for Excellence in Higher Education support projects and initiatives that help prepare future college students to succeed in school and prepare them to be competitive to meet 21st century workforce expectations,” Katharyn Muniz-Bandoni, Edison International’s manager of education and community relations, said.
The CSU system administers the California Standards Test to students after their Junior year of high school. The California Standards Test will determine whether or not those education standards have been met.
Those students who do not pass the California Standards Test are advised to take additional preparation courses throughout their senior year of high school. If as seniors, they are still not at CSU’s standards, they will need to take remedial courses during their freshman year at a California State University.
The Early Assessment Program seems to be working.
“This program’s heart is in the right spot, it will get these students going and prepared of the University’s goals and achievements,” Duncan-Schnell said.
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