By Leonardo Cervantes
The California Legislature is considering a bill to end pre-transfer level remedial education.
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges and ELAC Senate opposed the bill to end English and Math unanimously, resulting in students forfeiting their right to take a pre-transfer level English or Math course for the purpose of academic preparation.
AB 705 requires colleges to increase the probability that students will be able to complete transfer-level Math and English within a year.
Jeffrey Hernandez, current Academic Senate President, said, ”Students have a right to take courses that may help them. I benefited from a pre-transfer English course when I was a student at ELAC.
“I know that these courses can help students. I don’t think that we should be requiring students to take a higher level of math if that’s not what our interested partners say is necessary for that degree or certificate.” Jeffrey Hernandez, current academic senate president, said
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has urged stakeholders to address COVID-19 related learning disruptions by providing students with access to a community college education by offering adequate English and Math courses to serve the needs of all students.
It’s no secret that the pandemic has altered many students’ academic learning.
The pandemic caused students to adjust on the fly and some were able to transition to online learning fairly quickly while others are still struggling for a multitude of reasons like not having a stable wifi connection or limited space to get work done.
President Angela Echeverri said. “For Fall 2021, 47% of students successfully completed their Math 125 class, while online or hybrid classes only 41% of students successfully completed their class.”
“When we create the program requirements for a non-transfer degree or certificate that’s supposed to help students get a job ,we work with the industry.”
“We find out from them what’s needed, the state counseling office shouldn’t need to overwrite that,”Hernandez said.
The percentage of first-time students successfully completing transfer-level English and math courses within one year has increased over time.
From Fall 2017 to Fall 2020, there has been about a 17-point increase for students passing a transfer-level English course and a 12 point increase for completion of a transfer-level math course within a student’s first year of enrollment.
First-time students’ completion rates for transfer-level English and math courses have increased across all ethnic groups. However, equity gaps remain and are growing.
One-year completion rates for Black and Hispanic students groups are increasing at a slower rate when compared to other student groups.
“As of 2020, 64% of Filipinos and 50% of white students completed transfer-level English courses while Hispanics only completed 43% and Blacks students completed 31% of these courses.”
“The numbers on transfer-level math courses are even more staggering as Asians completed 45% of such courses and white students completed 30% of their courses. Hispanic students only completed 18% of transfer-level math courses and Black students only completed 13%,” Echeverri, said.
Within the Hispanic subgroup, South American students have higher success rates in transfer-level English courses than Central American and Mexican student groups.
Within the Hispanic subgroup, success rates in transfer-level math courses for South American Students have increased over time, while rates have decreased for Central American and Mexican student subgroups.
All Asian Subgroups have experienced increased success rates in transfer-level math courses.