More than 41,000 students enrolled in remedial courses at the
state’s comprehensive and regional universities and two-year
colleges 2002-2003, according to a remediation report the Oklahoma
State Regents for Higher Education are scheduled to review
today.

In fall 2002, nearly 33% of the state’s freshmen enrolled
in remedial mathematics courses, the report states.

Math is by far the most common remedial course taken by
students, said Cheryl Jorgenson, assistant provost and director of
institutional research and reporting. At OU, nearly 93 percent of
students who are enrolled in remedial courses this semester are
enrolled in a remedial math course.

A remedial course at OU is denoted by a zero as the first digit
in the course number. Remedial courses at OU do not count for
college credit.

In spring 2003, approximately 484 OU students completed remedial
courses, according to institutional research and reporting. So far
this semester, 401 students are currently enrolled in remedial
courses, according to the Online Enrollment System.

Nancy Mergler, OU senior vice-president and provost, said
remediation is improving, but there are still issues regarding the
number of students who require remediation in math.

“I think we have had fewer and fewer OU students who
require remedial courses, but there are still too many who come
here inadequately prepared to take college-level math,”
Mergler said.

Patrick Cross, academic adviser for the math department and
course coordinator for developmental math courses, said students
should take math during their senior year of high school.

“When [students] are finished with their minimum
requirements in high school, they say, ‘Oh, great, I
don’t have to take math again,’” Cross said.
“Then they come here, and they’re not prepared, so they
have to take them all over again.”

Mary Ann Buckley, health and sports sciences and physical
therapy junior, said she thinks high-school math teachers are the
problem.

“Math is a hard subject to teach, and if you get a bad
teacher, then you’re not going to do well in high school and
college,” Buckley said. “If you get a bad teacher, then
it’s easier to get behind.”

Logan Downing, University College freshman, said he had to take
a remedial math course because his ACT score was not high enough to
place him in a non-remedial math course.

“I should have learned that stuff in high school,”
Downing said. He said although he took three years of math in high
school, including a class in his senior year, he was only able to
place into Intermediate Algebra.

Remedial courses can be costly. According to the Online
Enrollment System, OU remedial courses require a
$20-per-credit-hour remedial-course fee. In 2002-2003 , state
higher-education institutions generated $2.5 million from
remedial-course fees, according to the remediation report.

Mergler said the fee is high because only the remedial-course
fee funds paid by the students funds these courses.

“We don’t take any of the state allocation to pay
for offering the remedial classes. That would not be fair to the
taxpayers,” Mergler said. “We focus that money on
offering college-level course work.”
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