Adding Community Colleges to the Discussion

We spend a lot of time talking to educators of elementary and secondary students, but this morning I had the opportunity to address the 2008 Community College National Legislative Summit, and hear from the leaders of community colleges from across the United States. It was a packed house, with over 1,000 attendees.

I spoke about our work here at ED in '08 and the challenges facing our schools, challenges that impact the millions of students who enroll in colleges each year, about half of whom attend community colleges.

The United States has fallen far behind the rest of the world in terms of our college graduation rate, and college affordability is only part of the solution. The real culprit is poor preparation. Many college freshmen have to take remedial classes to learn what they should have learned in high school. Nearly one-third of college freshman enroll in at least one remedial course, a figure that rises to 42 percent in the nation's community colleges, which educate a rapidly growing number of America's undergraduates.

Now, when students have to enroll remedial courses in college, that's a greater time and expense than what they were expecting to take on, and only 30 percent of students who have to take remedial reading in college ever earn a degree or certificate. Students who enroll in college deserve to be prepared to take on the challenge, and colleges should be able to expect those students to have the skills they will need to be successful.

According to U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education, the rigor of a student's high school curriculum counts more than anything else in predicting whether college freshman will persist and earn a bachelor's degree. In my remarks this morning, I tried to emphasize these things, and encourage these college educators to take action in calling for the kind of K-12 reforms we need to see in order to raise student achievement across the board, at every level. Those that I spoke to following the event were enthusiastic about the challenge we face, and I appreciate their powerful support in our mutual mission.