University Daily Kansan / Thursday, April 28, 1988
11B
Qualified admissions at peer schools no unqualified success
By Jill Jess
Kansan staff writer
Although supporters of qualified admissions say that their proposal would end troubles with high dropout rates and remedial courses, statistics from KU's peer institutions show that it may not be the answer.
Qualified admissions would end Kansas 73-year-old policy of accepting all Kansas high school graduates into Board of Regents universities.
All five peer institutions of the University of Kansas either have qualified admissions or are in the process of implementing such a program, and statistics indicate that dropout rates at those schools are similar to those at KU. Also, all of those schools offer more high-school-level classes than KU.
The peer universities are Iowa, Colorado,
North Carolina, Oklahoma and Oregon.
State Rep. Denise Apt, R-Iola, a key supporter of qualified admissions, said that the dropout rate, coupled with costs of remedial programs at Regents schools, was the reason that open admissions needed to end.
But Robert Lineberry, dean of liberal arts
and sciences, said that costs for remedial classes were relatively low. Although he had no specific figures, he said that remedial courses were offered at the University of Kansas less than $10,000.
Math 002 is the only remedial course being taught at KU this semester.
A qualified admissions program would not change the need for remedial courses either, Lineberry said.
"It wouldn't have any effect one way or the other," Lineberry said. "We would still have some students who would have a deficiency in math, which is where really our only high school-level course is."
Although cost figures were not available at most of the peer schools, Oregon had another solution to costs of remedial courses.
The Oregon Legislature will not appropriate money for remedial classes; therefore, students must pay extra tuition if they enroll in these programs.
Oregon offers remedial classes in math and writing.
In addition to the in-state $1,055 tuition a year, math classes cost $168 and English
The University of Oregon also has a higher
average dropout rate among freshmen than KU. Herb Chereck, registrar at Oregon, said that 28 percent of the freshman class did not return the next year.
An average of 20 percent of KU freshmen do not enroll in a third semester, according to Deborah Teeter, KU director of institutional planning and research.
Chereck said that qualified admissions didn't have anything to do with dropout rates.
"If you can come up with the answer to the reason people drop out of college, you could package it and sell it," Chereck said. "Every college in the nation would want it."
However, Elson Floyd, associate dean for academic services at the University of North Carolina, said that a qualified admissions program had an effect on the low dropout rate at UNC. An average of 8.6 percent among freshman do not return the next year.
Although UNC has remedial classes in English, math and chemistry, enrollment in the courses is relatively low, according to Michaelicha, associate dean of the general colleges.
About 200 freshmen are enrolled in the English course, about 35 in chemistry and about 90 in the math class, Jicha said.
The University of Oklahoma is in the process of changing from open admissions. Because of this, the remedial course schedule is in limbo.
Sue Schellabarger, coordinator of academic advising for the university college at Oklahoma, said that an intermediate algebra class would be offered for no credit but that was the only planned remedial class. However, she said that she was sure that an English class would be offered on a remedial level.
At Oklahoma, 26 percent of the 1986 freshman class did not enrol in the fall of 1987, said Milford Messer, the university registrar. However, the school was then under open admissions.
James Lindberg, associate dean for academic programs in the college of liberal arts at the University of Iowa, said that the only time he saw a reduction in remedial class enrollment was when the classes became non-credit.
"We have seen a reduction in enrollment in remedial classes when we made them not count towards graduation," Lindberg said.
Iowa offers three math classes, Algebra I,
Algebra II and geometry, and three rhetoric
classes in English composition and speech.
Iowa has the dropout rate as KU, said Jean Lawrence, assistant to the registrar at IAU.
At the University of Colorado, 13.3 percent of freshman entering in fall of 1986 did not return for a third semester, said Lou McClelland, CU director of research and testing.
The Board of Regents had recommended a curriculum that would require entering freshman to have had four years of English; three years each of math, science and social studies; and two years of a foreign language.
This qualified admissions program bill died in the state House of Representatives this session. Apt has said that she intends to reimroduce the bill if she is reelected for next election.
Gov. Mike Hayden agrees with Apt about the need for qualified admissions.
"You only have to look at the high dropout rate to know that young people are not prepared for college." Hayden said recently. He qualified admissions to past in the future.
"Reforms in Kansas education do not make it easier for students," Hayden said. "But I think it will happen."
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