A look at the new “tide” of remedial students

Last week’s New York Times article, CUNY Adjusts Amid Tide of Remedial Students, offered a close look at the challenges of developmental education in the community colleges that are part of the CUNY (City University of New York) system.

From the article: “About three-quarters of the 17,500 freshmen at the community colleges this year have needed remedial instruction in reading, writing or math, and nearly a quarter of the freshmen have required such instruction in all three subjects. In the past five years, a subset of students deemed “triple low remedial” — with the most severe deficits in all three subjects — has doubled, to 1,000.”

The article goes on to highlight some of the trends that have contributed to this need at CUNY, and in other colleges nationwide.

GSCC co-PI and LaGuardia Community College president, Dr. Gail O. Mellow, is quoted in the article. “I embrace developmental education because it pivots lives. If students get an associate’s degree, they can become nurses, making $85,000 a year. If they don’t make it through that developmental class, they’ll barely make minimum wage.”