15 remedial courses at NMC yield low completion rates

The Northern Marianas College has disclosed that many students under the institution’s remedial courses do not successfully finish their requirements.

In a presentation to the Board of Regents, Jackie Che, director of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, said that, of the many remedial programs offered at the college, 15 yield very low completion rates of just between 60 percent and 70 percent.

“By looking at the data, at NMC there are 15 courses that fall below the 70 percent rate,” said Che.

Course completion rate refers to the percentage of students who continue attending remedial classes until completing the requirement.

Che cited NMC’s five-year course completion rates from school year 2008-2009 onwards.

Che described the results as lower than previous years and indicate that many students under the remedial programs are not succeeding as a result of their withdrawal from the class or not passing the requirement.

College documents indicate that in the five-year period, the course completion rate for “Beginning English”, for instance, was at 61 percent. This is based on data from fall 2008 through spring 2012. For “Reading & Vocabulary Development II”, the completion rate in five years is at 65 percent.

Other remedial courses that yielded almost similar completion rates include “Writing Grammar Study II,” “Reading & Vocabulary Development III,” “Writing Grammar Study III,” “English Composition I,” “Elementary Japanese I,” “Folklore & Mythology,” “Marine Biology,” “Fundamentals of Mathematics: Basic Mathematics,” “Pre-Algebra,” “Beginning Algebra,” and “Intro to Music.”

NMC president Dr. Sharon Y. Hart, during Friday’s board meeting, said that most students who fall in developmental courses such as Math and English end up unsuccessful in their taken courses.

“In the past, if your course falls under the 70 percent rate…that’s in the ‘red-flag’ and students are not succeeding. And if you will examine the data, you can see that most students fall under developmental courses such as Math and English have 70 percent completion rates [only],” Hart said.

She emphasized the importance of working closely with the Public School System to find ways on how to help high school students prepare for college.

The data presented to the board, Hart said, only shows the impact of remedial education in the success of every college students. If only 60 to 70 percent of students are passing the remedial courses, then there’s a need to initiate developmental works, she added.

“When I look at the data, I am very concerned. We may think we improve in some areas, but we need to do a better job with PSS [to address this issue],” Hart said, adding that preparation for college must begin even at the junior high level.

For board regent Juan T. Lizama, the next question is how to convey the message and what actions need to be taken.

“The irony is that these courses are remedial in nature…and yet students are not doing well,” said Lizama.

Students placed under remedial education are mostly those who fail NMC’s placement tests. These are students who are deemed unprepared for college courses. Students pay tuition and can use financial aid for remedial courses, but they do not receive college credit.