My youngest is officially a college student, and stupid crap guidance couselors say..

[rebel100]

In a bit of a whirlwind my youngest (15) became a dual enrolled college student yesterday. I had to take off work early to run her down for placement testing, it took longer than expected but she placed exactly where we thought she would. Very high in reading, strong competency in writing, and a little short in math. With scores in hand we rushed to the guidance office with only a few minutes before closing.

We handed over the scores and expressed a desire to get her registered (they are two days into registration and classes fill up fast). The "counselor" took her form, highlighted the scores, and pushed the paper back at us with a big encouraging grin and said that she had done so well on the first two parts...but then the grin turned to a frowny face as she explained that she was sorry but a re-test would be required in thirsty days to see if she could get the math scores up. She wasn't going to let us register. What??? Of course, since I generally know the guidelines better than they do, I set about explaining that she could enroll in anything not requiring a math pre-req. She turned to a colleague who verified my argument and we managed to get registered (and the staff did a great job of getting it done before they closed). But I left wondering how many kids had walked away from that desk with a new failure on their mind due to bad information. Very frustrating system.

If this wasn't essentially "free" I would have the kid test out at COSC or TESC.

Then after our 4 hour registration testing odyssey last night this little jewel pops up on my yahoo feed Are remedial courses actually hurting community college students? - The Washington Post An interesting tidbit from that article: "A richly detailed new book on strategies for community college improvement — “Redesigning America’s Community Colleges” — argues that the admissions system should get students into for-credit courses as soon as possible. Instead, the book says, the system (placement exams) “has an opposite purpose: to identify some group of students who will be kept out of a college-level program of study, or whose entry will at least be delayed.”

Study the options. My kid will likely never take the math placement again. Why subject her to that when she could probably pass the CLEP College Math now, and knowing that with say another year with ALEKS she should pass the CLEP Algebra without a second thought. The system is geared to the lowest common denominator and the administration is using it as a cash cow. I'm further struck by the differences to the approach to mathematics. Harvard Extension for example only requires a single "quantitative reasoning" course. Several options to fill that requirement exist that I feel are arguably easier than any CC algebra course. HES is not unusual, many schools, even among the elites, have similar lax math requirements. I don't suspect the graduates from these schools are having a very tough time utilizing their degrees and making the most of their education.

At any rate, she is all signed up, hopefully no more drama till spring registration and with a little luck there won't be much trouble then....though there is always something it seems!