College bound and . . . coming up short

Sieverts' students don't even bother trying to spell words correctly — they're addicted to computer spell-checkers.

Paying twice

The state and its colleges are spending about $5.3 million a year on "developmental education" to bring students up to speed.

Statewide, roughly 13 percent of first-time college freshmen have to take at least one remedial class before being allowed to move on to college-level coursework. At Dixie State College, that number hovers at 30 percent, the state's highest.

All incoming Dixie students take placement exams, and those who fall short must take remedial classes.

"It's unethical to let someone walk into a college class without testing them to see if they can benefit from that class," said Susan Ertel, head of Dixie's developmental studies department. "We make them do it. "

Salt Lake Community College ushers about 19 percent of their first-time freshmen through at least one developmental education course each year.

"To put a student into a class that she or he is not prepared for is not doing anyone any favors — not the students who are unprepared, not the students in the class who have to wait until the teacher explains something five times, and not the teacher either," said Douglas New, division chairman for developmental education at SLCC.

In effect the state is paying twice for the same education, said Rich Kendell, Utah commissioner of higher education.

"You should come out of high school literate in mathematics and English, and we would not have to spend $5 million again on courses you should have taken in high school," Kendell said. "It's basically a fallback strategy."

Students pay, too, Kendell said, by spending extra years and extra tuition dollars just getting started. Most remedial education courses cost the same tuition as regular classes but do not count toward a degree.

Shelling out money and time in remedial education could deter some students from finishing their degrees, Ertel said. A four-year degree could take more than six years to finish, and many students just don't have the time to stick it out, she said.

"It adds a burden of time, finances, and for some students it's psychological. They get angry at themselves and beat themselves up for not being prepared," she said. "In some ways it's probably not their fault that they were not pushed through high school."

Members of the K-16 alliance want to push a little harder.

Raising the bar