One step backward

But state ed panel deserves some credit for new standards

Published July 12, 2007 at midnight

Text size

More Editorials

We regret that the Colorado Commission on Higher Education gave in to the complaints of school districts that they couldn't, just couldn't possibly, prepare their students to meet the commission's standards for college admission scheduled to take effect with the class graduating from high school in 2010.

The commission agreed Tuesday to somewhat water down the admission requirements for four-year public colleges and universities, lowering the foreign-language requirement to one year from two, and allowing students to count non-college-prep courses such as "business math" toward the requirement of four years of math at least as advanced as beginning algebra. Too bad.

But at least the commission rejected pleas to push back the effective date of the requirements to 2012 or even later - and you can bet that if they'd caved in on the date this time, they'd have faced exactly the same decision again in another couple of years, likely with the same outcome.

After all, these requirements were adopted by the commission in 2003. If there are districts that have made no progress toward meeting them in four years, why think more time would allow them to succeed?

We do understand the problem that small and rural schools face. Math and science teachers qualified to offer rigorous courses are in short supply, as are foreign-language teachers. But that does not justify arguing that the requirements should be weakened until everybody can meet them without difficulty.

Students who do not have a strong high school background in math will find it virtually impossible to major in math or science in college - which is, by the way, part of the reason why math and science teachers are so hard to find, and why the United States graduates so few engineers compared with some of its global competitors.

Indeed, some of the arguments are so strained it is difficult to believe they are made in good faith.

• Students who would be affected by the 2010 requirements will be starting 10th grade in the fall - some of them won't have time to complete the requirements.

Whose fault is that? Why haven't the schools been telling them what courses they need since they were in sixth grade?

• If students can take an easier math course, they won't feel so much pressure to drop other subjects, such as music, in their senior year.

Unless students put off taking required courses until they're seniors, they should have met all of the commission's requirements except fourth-year math and fourth-year English by the end of 11th grade. And if they're serious about going to college, putting off harder courses is a really bad idea.

We accept, reluctantly, the necessity of a waiver plan for students whose high schools do not offer the courses the commission demands. But we hope it won't be the kind of "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" waiver that is so easy to get that it is obvious to everyone that the requirements aren't requirements at all, just window dressing to make parents feel good about the education their children are getting.

If a district really, really can't prepare its high school graduates to succeed in college, that needs to change.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News