Remediation Rates for the Class of 2013

With high school graduation ceremonies beginning soon, and students contemplating their next steps, now is a good time to look back at the Class of 2013 to see how prepared they were for their first year of college in Alabama. We have only one real, publicly-available measure that allows that view: remediation rates.

The Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE) produces reports showing how many of Alabama’s high school graduates who are enrolled in Alabama’s public colleges, two- and four-year, and were also enrolled in a remedial class in math, English, or both during their first semester.

Students who are enrolled in colleges outside of Alabama are not included in these measures.

In March, we looked at the Class of 2012. Now we’ll look at the Class of 2013.

Statewide, 31.8% of Alabama’s high school graduates in the class of 2013 who enrolled in Alabama’s public colleges were enrolled in remedial classes in math, English or both during the Fall 2013 college semester.

That measure can be broken down further into students enrolled in two-year and four-year Alabama public colleges:

• 46.1% of the class of 2013 who enrolled in a two-year college in Alabama were enrolled in remedial classes during the Fall 2013 college semester
• 16.8% of the class of 2013 who enrolled in a four-year college in Alabama were enrolled in remedial classes during the Fall 2013 college semester

Definitions to Understand

Tables are only helpful if you understand what they show. Here are the column headings and what the data in the column shows:

Total Number of Graduates at the High School: Total number of students who graduated from the high school in 2013.

Enrolled in Alabama Public College: 2012-2013 High School Graduates enrolled Fall Term 2013 at one or more public colleges in Alabama.

Enrolled in Multiple Alabama Public Colleges: 2012-2013 High School Graduates enrolled Fall Term 2013 at more than one public colleges in Alabama (These students were only counted once, in the “Enrolled in Alabama Public Colleges” column, below. They are separated here because ACHE had them separated.)

Enrolled in Alabama Public Colleges: 2012-2013 High School Graduates enrolled Fall Term 2013 in one public colleges in Alabama

Math Only: Number of students who graduated in 2013 who were enrolled only in a remedial math course during the Fall Term 2013

Proportion Math Only: Proportion of students enrolled only in a remedial math course during Fall Term 2013 of all students enrolled in remediation (“Total Remediation”, below)

English Only: Number of students who graduated in 2013 who were enrolled only in a remedial English course during the Fall Term 2013

Proportion English Only: Proportion of students enrolled only in a remedial English course during Fall Term 2013 of all students enrolled in remediation (“Total Remediation”, below)

Both: Number of students who graduated in 2013 enrolled in both a remedial math course and a remedial English course during the Fall Term 2013

Proportion Both: Proportion of students enrolled in both a remedial math course and a remedial English course during Fall Term 2013 of all students enrolled in remediation (“Total Remediation”, below)

Total Remediation: Number of students who graduated in 2013 enrolled in any remedial course during the Fall Term 2013

% College Attendees in Remediation: Percent of students who graduated in 2013 and were enrolled in an Alabama public college and were enrolled in a remedial course in either math, English or both during the Fall Term 2013

Finding the Remediation Rate for Your High School and School District

Here’s where it gets interesting. And a bit difficult to view and manage. The embedded documents below only allow you a brief look at the data and they are difficult to manipulate.

Your best bet is to work within Google Docs. Use the “Get the Data” link for each spreadsheet below, then download it to your computer. The arrows at the top of each column allow you to sort to your heart’s content.

There are three spreadsheets here for you to manipulate and search for this information.

Table 1 is a list of every high school, broken down by 2- and 4-year attendee remediation rates.

Table 2 is a list of every high school’s total remediation rate, not broken down by which type, 2- or 4-year, college they attend.

Table 3 is a list of all Alabama school districts showing the district’s total remediation rate.

Table 1 – Alabama High Schools – 2- and 4-year College Attendee Remediation Rate Breakdown – Get the data

Table 2 – Alabama’s High School Remediation Rates (not broken down by 2- or 4-year college enrollees) – Get the data

Table 3 – Remediation Rates by Alabama School District – Get the data

CORRECTION 05/26/14: Dothan City’s totals were not calculated correctly. There were two sets of numbers instead of one. The numbers have been corrected to reflect total numbers for the district. Apologies for the error.

Once again, it’s late as I write this. No room for interpretation tonight. Download the spreadsheets, find the remediation rates for your schools and your district.

Ask your school officials what is being done specifically to improve college readiness. Ask your school officials what their goals are, number-wise, through the years.

Share this information with your board members. Share this information with your local media. Ask them to help you ask the tough questions.

Post your questions here or on the Facebook page.

UPDATE – 8:44 a.m. May 13, 2014 (forgot to add this last night, sorry)
NOTE: In order to adhere to data guidelines from the State Department of Education regarding cell sizes (when the total is less than ten, the data is considered “identifiable” and thus not included), the following high schools were removed from this report: Chickasaw City High School, Continuous Learning Center, Cullman Child Development Center, Lawrence County Developmental, Montgomery Technical Education Center, and Paint Rock Valley High School. Therefore, a total of 23 graduates from these six high schools were not include in the report from ACHE.