New data from the Alabama Commission on Higher Education shows that roughly a third of Mobile County high school graduates who enrolled in public colleges in 2014 needed remedial math or English classes before they could take courses that actually count toward a degree.
More than 20,000 Alabama public high school graduates enrolled in two- or four-year public colleges in 2014, and more than 1,400 of them came from Mobile County Public Schools, the state’s largest school system. Of those students, about 33 percent required remedial coursework, a rate that held steady from the year before rather than improving.
Mobile County Superintendent Martha Peek said the unchanged rate is a concern, since the district’s goal is to see the number shrink year over year. The Alabama Department of Education’s Plan 2020 reform initiative has set a long-term statewide remediation target of 23 percent, a benchmark officials expect will take years to reach.
“We’ve just got to fine-tune what we’re doing in education to find the basis for support,” Peek said. “Our college programs can only be as strong as our K-12 programs.”
The data varied widely by individual high school. B.C. Rain High School improved significantly, dropping more than 16 percentage points to a 53.2 percent remediation rate among its college-bound graduates. On the other end, Williamson High School saw a 27-percentage-point increase, with 72 percent of its 43 college-enrolled graduates needing remedial coursework, the highest rate among the district’s 12 high schools. Overall, five Mobile County high schools improved their remediation numbers while six saw them worsen.
By comparison, Baldwin County reported a considerably lower remediation rate of about 19 percent, though Baldwin County school officials were not immediately available to discuss the numbers.
Peek said district administrators use the annual remediation data to look for patterns within specific subjects and grade levels, and that improving outcomes starts well before a student’s senior year. “We’ve recognized for a long time there are gaps in learning that we have to find bridges for,” she said, pointing to transitions from elementary to middle school and from middle to high school as key points where students can fall behind.
District leaders say freshman and sophomore years are now a particular focus, since that period often determines whether a student stays on track for college and career readiness. Peek said the district is working on more consistent grading practices, better-aligned teacher assessments, and stronger attendance support, since regular attendance remains a prerequisite for any academic gains. “We don’t want college and career readiness to be a buzzword,” Peek said. “We want it to be a reality.”