William Tierney and Michael Lanford in The Sacramento Bee: CSU experiment could hurt students

This op-ed, authored by Pullias Center co-director William G. Tierney and Pullias postdoctoral scholar Michael Lanford, was originally published in The Sacramento Bee, February 12, 2018.

Like it or not, California State University students are about to become guinea pigs in a grand educational experiment. Beginning this fall, CSUs will stop giving placement tests or offering remedial classes, and instead will place all students in regular classes to sink or swim.

The hope is to improve student success – and save money. Nationally, about half of students entering two-year colleges and 20 percent of those entering four-year universities take remedial courses in math, reading or writing, falling farther behind their peers and becoming less likely to complete their degrees. Studies peg the cost of remediation at between $3 billion to $7 billion a year.

The result has been a hue and cry to do something. Many states have cut costs by eliminating remedial classes, while several others have reformed them.

Read the rest of this op-ed at The Sacramento Bee.

William G. Tierney is co-director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California. Michael Lanford is a postdoctoral scholar at the Pullias Center.