[Assessment 490] GED and College AdmissionsCynthia Zafft cynthia_zafft at worlded.orgFri Sep 8 10:47:28 EDT 2006
I feel like every message, every sentence, in this discussion touches on important aspect of ASE/ESOL to college transition. It's hard to figure out where to start. Focusing primarily on college placement, there is good news and bad news all mixed up together. First, the statistics on persistence are discouraging for both traditional and nontraditional students, especially in community college where many adult education students begin. The problem is that adults are under a lot of pressure to do well from the start and have a hard time justifying tiers of coursework that doesn't count toward graduation. That said, over time, "despite a higher rate of remediation and more family obligations, low-income adult students [that includes GED recipients] earn slightly better grades, on average, than traditional students" (from Low-Income Adults in Profile by Lumina Foundation). So, it appears that if adults can make it over the transition point, they can do well. Second, one developmental education course won't do you in but the type and amount of developmental education does matter. "Among students who were in remedial reading for more than one course, nearly 80% were in two or more other remedial courses, and less than 9% earned bachelor's degrees." (The Kiss of Death? An Alternative View of College Remediation" by Adelman. See http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0798/voices0798-adelman.shtml). That said, students who place into developmental reading do best to take it (it is optional in some colleges) and do go on to be stronger students. So, the take-home message here is that the level of preparation in adult education is key. (See Research to Practice Brief at http://www.collegetransition.org/promising/rp2.html) I'll end here but just want to say, there are a lot of folks interested in this issue. I run the National College Transition Network (www.collegetransition.org). We are a member organization (free for all interested individuals but focused around the needs of adult educators) and our website has many resources you might find helpful. Regards, Cynthia Cynthia Zafft, Director National College Transition Network (NCTN) World Education, Inc. 44 Farnsworth Street Boston, MA 02210 (617) 482-9485 www.collegetransition.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/assessment/attachments/20060908/a0ecd54d/attachment.html
More information about the Assessment mailing list |