Throughout the Great Recession, laid-off workers have been trying to improve their re-employment prospects with college training.
But, once they enroll at their local community colleges, many are finding that that their math, reading and writing skills have atrophied so much they can't continue at the college level without remedial classes.
Credit Sagette Van Embden / Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Wendy Pedroso did well in math classes -- until her first algebra course. Twice as many students at Florida colleges took a remedial math course than took a remedial writing or reading course.
Wendy Pedroso has never liked math, but for most of elementary school and middle school she got B’s in the subject. It wasn’t until ninth grade at Miami Southwest Senior High School, when Pedroso took algebra, that she hit a wall. In particular, she struggled with understanding fractions.
“I kept getting stuck in the same place,” Pedroso, 20, recalled recently. She failed the class, and worried that she’d never get to go to college. Pedroso sought help from tutors, took algebra again over the summer and passed. She went on to graduate from high school in 2011.
English teacher Vallet Tucker teaches 10th grade honors students. She says she's not surprised that more than half the students who took Florida's college placement exam in the 2010-2011 school year failed at least one subject.
Shakira Lockett was a pretty good student in elementary, middle and high school. The Miami-Dade County native says she typically earned As and Bs in English classes.
Math was always something of a struggle for Lockett. Still, she got through her high school exit exam with a passing grade and went on to graduate from Coral Gables Senior High School in 2008.
She went straight to Miami Dade College. Then, something unexpected happened: She flunked the college placement exams in all three subjects – reading, writing and math.
Credit Sagette Van Embden / Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Shakira Lockett says in high school she typically earned As and Bs in her English classes. But at Miami Dade College, she had to take remedial courses in math, reading and writing.
The series on remedial education exposed what some in the public school system at the secondary and college level already knew: that many students are graduating from high school unprepared for college.
Remedial courses cost students and schools money. And the need for remedial courses makes it less likely students complete their studies -- and likely boost their earnings.
Florida has chosen a follower of Jeb Bush education theory from Indiana to be its next education commissioner.
Tony Bennett is serving out his term as Indiana's superintendent of public instruction after a re-election defeat. In Florida, he'll replace Gerard Robinson, who resigned months ago after only a year in office.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been riding a wave of popularity in the last few years. Members of the Republican Party have been clamoring for him to seek higher office as he travels around the country taking on some of the more extreme positions recently taken by members of his party.
Among his credentials, which are currently prompting all the focus, is his popularity with the Latino community and his credentials as a successful education policy innovator.
Gov. Rick Scott issued a challenge to colleges all over the state asking them to find a way to offer a bachelor's degree program that costs no more than $10,000 for all four years.
The average student loan debt for new graduates last year was more than $26 thousand.
A leading Florida educator compiled data showing most students end up owing less than $20 thousand for a degree that will give them greater earning power.
“People with college degrees make more money than people without college degrees in their lifetime,” Dr. Ed Moore says. “People with college degrees are more likely in this kind of economy to be employed.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suffered long-distance electoral defeats in Indiana and Idaho on Tuesday.
In Indiana, the state's top education official -- a Bush ally and top lieutenant in his education foundation -- was defeated by a Democratic challenger. And, in Idaho, voters repealed three controversial education laws that bore the Bush seal of approval.
