ISI College Remediation Program
http://www.isinj.com/remediate

E-Newsletter: October 1999

This is a sample issue of ISI's College Remediation Electronic Newsletter. Our goal in producing this newsletter is to keep you informed about what's happening in the world of distance education in general and in the realm of college remediation in specific. We will keep you on top of policy initiatives, interesting news stories, government projects, course developments, new releases, special offers, and pilot programs. You have received this because you have visited ISI's Website and have registered for it. If you would like not to receive future E-newsletters, visit www.isinj.com/remediate/newsletter/subscribe.html to unsubscribe.

CONTENTS
Item 1: Report Says Remedial Ed Threatened by Conjecture and Criticism
Item 2: Looking Back on a 1991 Remediation Report to Congress
Item 3: Annual Report from Texas: Effectiveness of Remediation
Item 4: ISI Makes Special Offer to Schools
Item 5: The Discovery Tech Project at CUNY
Item 6: Speech by Oklahoma's Secretary of Education: Goals for 2002

Item 1: Report Says Remedial Ed Threatened by Conjecture and Criticism
A new report from the The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) says that college remedial education is being threatened by “conjecture and criticism” that portrays remediation as inappropriate or costly. The report refutes these criticisms and the widely-held notion that all remedial students are poorly prepared recent high school graduates, instead citing remedial education as a “core function” of colleges. Remedial education has been at the center of a firestorm of criticism and blame-placing in the last year, with critics describing remediation as too expensive, inappropriate for college-level work, and “double billing” for skills that should have been learned in high school.  The national debate has been fueled in part by the decision of the Trustees of the City University of New York (CUNY) to phase out most remedial education in the system’s four-year colleges. Click to read the press release.

Item 2: Remediation Report to Congress, Secy. of Education, Secy. of Labor
The National Center for Research in Vocational Education at the University of California at Berkeley prepared a report to Congress, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Labor, entitled "Readin', Writin', and 'Rithmetic One More Time: The Role of Remediation in Vocational Education and Job Training." The document was created in 1991, and it serves as a compelling "time piece" for the initiatives that have been put forward this decade. Take a look at http://www.isinj.com/remediate/news2.html

Item 3: Annual Report from Texas: Effectiveness of Remediation
The Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP) was created by the 70th Texas Legislature in 1987 as an early assessment and academic support program for all students entering Texas public institutions of higher education. Students are required to take the TASP Test to determine if they have the reading, writing, and mathematics skills, as defined by higher education faculty, to be successful in college. Students found to have academic skill deficiencies in these areas must participate continuously in remediation programs until skill mastery is demonstrated by passing the appropriate sections of the TASP Test. Students must pass all three sections of the TASP Test before they can take upper-level courses beyond 60 semester credit hours and before they can graduate from an associate or baccalaureate degree program or particular certificate programs. The "Annual Report on the Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP) and the Effectiveness of Remediation" makes for an interesting read. Head towards http://www.isinj.com/remediate/news3.html to do so.

Item 4: ISI Makes Special Offer to Schools
To encourage schools to try its Web-based remediation service, Instructional Systems Inc. is offering a Remediation Starter Kit. The  The starter kit costs $7,500 for 10 students, and includes: access to all four ISI remedial courses for one year, training and support for your students and faculty, a "Getting Started" live online session with ISI Training Consultant, access to online training forums, online and telephone support, and a customized web site designed for your college. For more information, go to http://www.isinj.com/remediate/special.hmtl

Item 5: The Discovery Tech Project at CUNY
Discovery Tech is proposed as a model for collaboration between colleges, schools, employers, and communities in the national effort to improve the transition from school to high tech work. It directly addresses the low graduation rate from two year college technology programs and the low rate of transfer to four year programs by identifying potential students while still in high school and by developing for them a curriculum spanning 11th through 14th grade which is academically sound, yet experientially based and work related through a combination of laboratory exercises and on-site apprenticeships. To read more about this innovative program, point your browser towards http://www.isinj.com/remediate/news4.html

Item 6: Speech by Oklahoma's Secretary of Education: Goals for 2002
From a speech by 2 Dr. Floyd Coppedge, Oklahoma's Secretary of Education: "Academic achievement scores of Oklahoma’s elementary and high school students have been increasing. In 1990, Oklahoma passed legislation, HB1017, to improve funding and reform the educational system. As noted above, funding increased rapidly in the ensuing years. The major curriculum reform has been the implementation of a core curriculum, Priority Academic Student Skills. State legislation also required the implementation of a criterion-referenced assessment system to be implemented in grades 5, 8, and 11. This system of testing is known as the Oklahoma Core Curriculum Tests. These tests do not provide results that allow comparison to other states and the nation." To read more of this, head here: http://www.isinj.com/remediate/news5.html