<p>I’d like to say a bit about what happens on the other side here, meaning what is possible for these kids at a college. I teach at an urban university, and we (used to) admit a fair amount of students ‘conditionally’–that is, they had under a 2.0 GPA or under a 20 ACT. In order to enroll, they were required to take a special critical thinking class (not a remedial class; it counted towards credit towards graduation). As you can suspect, a good number of these students were also enrolled in remedial math and/or English classes (more on this later).</p>
<p>Now, as a group, I’m sure I can say that this population of students is probably not going to succeed as well as a group with say, 22-24 ACT scores. I bet as a group they would be more likely to not return after their first year, or have lower GPAs, or have trouble graduating in 4-6 years. </p>
<p>On the other hand, for each individual student, I could not say, based on their test scores, whether I thought they would be the ones to succeed. Every year I taught the class (which had between 20-25 students), there was alway at least 2-3 who just blew me away because they were really good students; it seemed strange to me that they tested so low (not that I thought they should have a 30 or above, but clearly it seemed to me that they should have scored above 20).</p>
<p>As a teacher, sure, I was frustrated many times with these students as a group. But as a parent, I was also happy that we took a chance on these students. If they were one of mine, I sure would like to know that someone would give them a chance.</p>
<p>I know that many here on CC believe that their kids are more than just their test scores, and this applies to kids in the 16-20 range as it does to the 30-36 range.</p>
<p>That said, what worries me is that many of these students have to take remedial classes that don’t count toward graduation credit. And because higher education is not free, they have to pay to take these classes-classes that they wouldn’t have to pay for if their high school did the right job. So in some ways, the students themselves take on an additional financial burden. </p>
<p>Since as a whole these students are at risk even at the college level, I worry that many will take out loans to pay for some schooling, possibly drop out and be left with students loans and no degree to show for it.</p>