Dear Commons Community,

The New York Post had a short article yesterday describing the remedial needs of NYC high school graduates who attended CUNY community colleges. The article quotes CUNY’s own David Bloomfield. As reported:

“An astonishing 78.3 percent of CUNY community college students who graduated from city high schools in 2014 enrolled in remedial courses this past school year, up from 77.6 percent the year before. Students who failed CUNY admissions tests in math, English or writing had to take the extra courses in their freshman year to catch up.

“Education experts said the city must better prepare kids for college.

“Clearly, grads continue not to be college-ready,” Brooklyn College professor David Bloomfield said.

“In theory that’s what all this new testing and curriculum is supposed to ensure, but the promises of the Common Core have not been realized. It will be a long road.”

About a third of city high-school graduates go on to attend CUNY schools.”

Fifteen years of zealous testing policies have not improved learning for most students in NYC schools.  Credit recovery programs push up high school graduation rates but do little to teach basic skills.  A sad situation.

Tony