Many Phila. area students in college took some remedial courses

Almost half of the students from the Philadelphia area who entered state four-year and community colleges in 2007-08 took some remedial courses, evidence that having high school diplomas did not prepare them adequately, the state's education secretary said yesterday.

The cost to the students, state and schools to bring the students up to college level was more than $13.1 million.

For 32 of the 105 school districts, charter schools and vocational schools in the Philadelphia area, more than half of their students going to state schools or community colleges needed to take remedial courses, the report said.

Southeast Delco, which includes Academy Park High School, had the highest percentage among districts of graduates getting remediation, 87 percent. The William Penn district, which includes Penn Wood High, had 75 percent. Chester County's Tredyffrin/Easttown, which includes Conestoga High, had the lowest, 20 percent.

Statewide, one-third of the 62,247 students who entered college in the last school year needed remediation, the figures show, at a total cost of $26.5 million. Forty-eight percent of those costs were paid by the students; the rest, by the schools and the state.

At a news conference yesterday, Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak said the report showed the need for instituting statewide tests that would set high graduation standards for high school students, a Rendell administration goal.

"Our students are going out into a world that is unforgiving in economic terms," he said. "We want to make sure they can compete with other countries and other states."

Last year, the State Board of Education passed a proposal to set up 10 state tests, called Graduation Competency Assessments, that students would take immediately after taking the related subjects.

The students would have to pass six, or show proficiency by other means, such as passing the PSSAs - Pennsylvania's No Child Left Behind accountability test - or Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams. Districts could develop local tests as an alternative, but they would have to be equal in rigor to the state tests.

The plan called for the tests to be phased in starting in 2010, with the class of 2014 having to pass to graduate; those who failed would get remedial courses.

The idea was very unpopular with the legislature; many members said they were against the loss of local control. Many education activists said they feared the tests would lead students who failed them to drop out of school.

Both legislative bodies sponsored bills blocking the test. The Senate passed its version by a wide margin; the House had more than 100 cosponsors. In July, the legislature passed legislation putting a hold on implementing mandatory statewide testing for at least a year.

Zahorchak said the data he was releasing was part of an effort to have "a new conversation" with the legislature about the issue "as people learn about the realities of our system currently - as we start to lift the lid."

One opponent of the idea remains unconvinced.

"We agree that we need to do more to better prepare our graduates, said Lawrence Feinberg, a Haverford Township School District board member and part of a coalition of 80 area school districts that opposed the idea.

"We don't agree that spending more instruction time and money on testing is the way to do that. . . . Having adequate resources and better teachers is what will do the trick. We need to spend the money on programs we know will increase student performance in districts that need the most help."