… colleges are regularly admitting students who aren’t ready for college-level work. In 2012, for instance,of the 250,000 who took the ACT (the main alternative to the SAT), only 52 percent scored as college-ready in reading, only a quarter as ready in reading, English, math and science. Yet many started school anyway.
Results? Well, the University of California reported a couple of years ago that fully half of its freshmen needed remedial work in either English or math.
You can blame the high schools that graduate 18-year-olds without teaching them what they need — but colleges that admit them are hardly innocent.
Remedial students are doubly hurt. They do not receive college credit for remedial courses, and they are more likely to drop out without ever earning a degree.
Related: Ohio to stop state funding for college remedial courses (Cost of College)