Opposition to Mandatory “Early Start”: Advocating for Educational Access and Equity

1. Opposition to Mandatory “Early Start”:Advocating for Educational Access and Equity Kimberly R. King, Suzanne McEvoy, & Steve Teixeira California State University, Los Angeles October 2010

2. Acknowledgements • UCLA Civil Rights Project • California Faculty Association • Academic Professionals of California • Special thanks to APC Mobilizing Cmte • Students of the CSU

3. What is Remediation? • “Remedial” coursework in college is designed to develop college-level skills in math and English • Many educators prefer the term “developmental education” • Incoming CSU students are determined to need remediation by scores on the English Placement Test (EPT) and the Entry Level Mathematics exam (ELM)

4. What is Remediation? “a remedy intended to restore opportunity to those who otherwise may be relegated to meager wages, poor working conditions, and other consequences of socioeconomic marginalization.” - Bahr (2008), Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan

5. The Merit Myth: Cut Enrollment of “Undeserving” Students • Solution to Budget Problems – Cut “undeserving” students REALITY: “Remedial” Students Are Not to Blame • They are the majority (58% in 2009) of all CSU first-years who meet all eligibility requirements • At some CSUs, they are 75-93% of first years • Their average H.S. GPAs are above 3.0, and they are in top third of their high school class • Government Priorities are to Blame - CA Public Ed k-12 spending/student ~ 47th in Nation

6. Need for Remediation not Equally Distributed Higher Remediation Need for: • Students of color at all CSUs • but # of White remedial students is large • CSU campuses serving: • more low-income students (i.e., Pell recipients) • more African American & Mexican American students • more “exceptional admits”

7. Regularly Admitted 1st-Time Freshmen in 2009 Needing Remediation in Math and/or English, Mean of all 23 Campuses Student Ethnicity % Needing Remediation • African American 83.2% • Mexican American 73.6% • Asian American 59.9% • European American 39.0% • All Freshmen58.0%

8. CSUs with Highest & Lowest Remediation 2007 * High Remediation Need Low Remediation Need San Luis Obispo (14) San Diego (42) Humboldt (44) Long Beach (54) Sonoma (53) • Dominguez Hills (91) • Los Angeles (89) • San Bernardino (75) • Bakersfield (75) • East Bay (75) * 2007 is most recent year CSU presents the total percentage of students who need remediation

9. Freshmen Ethnic Makeup 2009 HIGH REMEDIATION NEED AF MEX ASIAN EURO 25% 43% 1% 3% 7 49 11.2 4 9 48 3.4 15 0.6 8 9.4 64 4 27 6.4 36 3 17 2.7 55 • Dominguez Hills • Los Angeles • San Bernardino Low Remediation Need • San Luis Obispo • San Diego • Humboldt

10. Remedial Students likely Attended High Needs High Schools Feeder High Schools for High Remediation CSUs: • More poverty • More African American + Latino students • More English Language learners • Fewer fully credentialed teachers • Lower API rank (Academic Performance Index)  High-Needs k-12 schools face inadequate funding and greater challenges !

11. High Stakes – E.O. 665 • Students must gain proficiency in math & Eng within their first year • Can be disenrolled if they don’t • Students who leave to attend CC have low rate of return to CSU

12. E.0. 1048 (June 2010) • Established Mandatory Early Start Program (MESP) • Students “not proficient” are required to begin remediation prior to enrolling as freshmen at a CSU • If they don’t, they will not be permitted to enroll in the Fall • Exceptions for “extraordinary circumstances”

13. Mandatory Early Start Implementation • Campuses will develop MESP plans “in consultation with faculty in English and mathematics.” Due to Exec Vice Chancellor by 11/19/2010 • Campuses will begin implementing plans on or before 2012, with full implementation on or before summer 2014. Possible MESP options include: • Community College Course • CSU State Supported or Extended Ed. Summer Courses • Special Programs, such as Summer Bridge • Online coursework

14. What’s wrong with MESP? • How can it hurt students? • How can it hurt faculty? • How can it hurt the university?

15. What’s Wrong with MESP? • Unfair to Students • “Mandatory” - Forces some students to participate in extra requirement, though they are fully qualified for CSU admission • Isn’t this a new Admissions Requirement??? • Penalizes students who have already been cheated by education system • Civil Rights issue - has more impact on students of color and poorest students

16. What’s Wrong with MESP? • Seems to be part of enrollment reduction for budget concerns, or to increase grad rates by pushing out higher needs students • Higher cost if extended education summer school • Loss of summer employment salary • Will likely eliminate faculty and perhaps staff jobs • Not based on sound pedagogy or research • CSU already has successful remediation programs – 80% remediate by the end of their first year

17. De facto Academic Segregation “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” Anatole France (from The Red Lily, 1894) Novelist and Nobel Prize Laureate

18. Passed Resolution at CFA Fall Assembly 2009 (from Peace & Justice) Formed Access & Equity Group with CFA, APC, English Council Members Panel Presentation at CFA Joint CAA & LC Meeting Testified at the past 5 BOT meetings Academic Senate Resolutions opposing ESP (Statewide, CSULA, SLO, other?) Held Campus Meetings at several CSUs (LA, SM, LB, DH) Produced video, put on Youtube.com Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI4sYwB23Pk Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG0Ha52gwhI Article in Faculty Magazine by Kim Geron & Elizabeth Hoffman Radio Interview on w/Pat Morrison on KPCC 5/23/2010 (Kimberly King and Alison Jones from Chancellor’s Office) English Council Resolution passed in April 2010 UCLA Civil Rights Project Research “Remediation as a Civil Rights Issue n the CSU” (King, McElvoy, & Teixeira, 2010) to be released publicly soon Access & Equity Group formed – listserv has overy 230 members! Access & Equity Group produced Fact Sheet and Guidelines for Campus Plans

19. What can you do?

20. Understand the Problem Mandatory ESP • Punishes our students for California’s maintenance of race and class inequality in K-12 schools • Puts extreme burden on CSUs serving poorest and most ethnic minority students • Potentially eliminates faculty jobs and downgrades the quality of education • Tries to balance the budget & “increase grad rates” by decreasing access to the state’s poorest and brownest young people

21. What can you do? • Join Access & Equity Listserv • Email Blanca Castaneda (CFA Staff) at • bcastaneda@calfac.org • Share and receive info on Listserv • Participate in monthly Access & Equity conference calls • Get Mandatory Early Start factsheet and guidelines out to as many faculty, staff, & students as possible

22. Get Info on Campus Planning Teams • What is the status of your campus early start planning team; has it been set up; who is on it? • Can you or another CAA activist join this team? • Get A & E fact sheet and guidelines to planning teams and administrators

23. Hold a Campus Meeting Can you organize an Access & Equity Group meeting of CFA activists and APC activists (and students if appropriate) to discuss the early start program and the implications for your campus? • Who? (especially English, Math, and civil rights/equity orientated faculty, APC staff, students) • Plan to get guidelines to teams and administrators, other faculty, staff, students

24. Collect Public Data Get Informed about the entering freshmen on your campus - what’s the number and percentage needing remediation, and their ethnicity and gender?   This information is available online for systemwide and campuses at:  http://www.asd.calstate.edu/remediation/09/index.shtml

25. Collect Unpublished Data Ask your institutional researcher if you can get the data on the disenrollment of freshmen from Fall 2009 who didn't successfully pass their remedial classes, by ethnicity and gender of the students? - Why won’t the CSU release this data?

26. What’s going on at your campus?