Before community college students can go forward, most have to go back and relearn math and English skills they were supposed to be taught in high school.

Eighty-four percent of incoming students at Nashua Community College couldn’t pass the math placement exam over the past two years, according to data provided by the college. They have to take a remedial math course.

Remedial courses, also called developmental courses, cost students and colleges money and time, but the credits don’t count toward graduation.

“They’re paying $1,500 to $2,000 for material they should have had before they come to us,” said Brian Pellinen, vice president of academic affairs for Nashua Community College.

Dig deeper into the numbers and there are some eye-opening statistics about the math skills of high school graduates.

Of the 84 percent of incoming students at NCC who had to take remedial math classes, most – 60 percent – had to take a higher-level remedial course reviewing basic algebra concepts, but 10 percent tested into the lower-level remedial math course, relearning arithmetic such as fractions, decimals, multiplication, division and basic geometry.

Fourteen percent of students tested below the cutoff score for any remedial math courses at the college. Those students are referred to the Adult Learning Center in Nashua, said Pellinen.

Some students need more than one remedial course, before they can begin taking college-level math courses.

Among students tested in English, 65 percent can’t pass the placement exam.

Not all students who take the placement exams end up enrolling. Pellinen said approximately 30 percent of graduates took a remedial math course; 4 percent of graduates took a remedial English course.

Currently, 25 percent, or 560 of Nashua Community College’s 2,214 students, are enrolled in at least one remedial course.

The bottom line, Pellinen said, is the need to take remedial courses makes the path to a degree even longer.

“If you start off track, it’s really hard to stay on track. And if you don’t have basic math and reading skills, your chance of success in college goes way, way down,” he said.

A nationwide problem

The problem is not isolated to Nashua, as colleges around the nation have been dealing with unprepared students showing up on their campuses.

Statewide, 44 percent of new students at community colleges last year had to take remedial math, according to Shannon Reid, a spokesperson for the New Hampshire Community College System.

There’s a steep price tag when high school graduates aren’t prepared to take college-level courses, according to a study released earlier this month.

New Hampshire loses $16 million a year providing remedial education, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington, D.C., research and advocacy organization. The study analyzed the financial impact on individual states, and the nation as a whole.

The $16 million figure for New Hampshire includes $9.2 million in direct educational costs during the 2007-08 school year. The rest of the figure assumes $6.9 million in lost lifetime wages for students enrolled in the courses because they are more likely to drop out of college and earn less.

The high rate of remedial courses needed for incoming community college students, particularly in math, is well-known.

In Nashua, the school district this year developed a new course for seniors to help them review their math skills. Called “college ready math,” the course was designed to address the remediation issue, said Kellie Gabriel, head of the math department at Nashua High School South.

The course is essentially a refresher of the math that students should have learned in earlier courses, she said.

One of the issues for students is that it’s possible to take all of required math courses early in high school, and go as long as two years without taking another math course.

Gabriel said interest in the course has been high, but there has been a learning curve for the teachers, as well. Students are coming in all over the spectrum, which creates a challenge for the teachers trying to get them all where they need to be by the end of the course.

“Many of the kids have basic algebra skills, but we’ve also had kids who had issues with dividing fractions,” she said.

Students are given the placement exam used by the community colleges at the beginning of the course, midway through and at the end, to determine how much progress has been made.

Taking ownership

Nashua Superintendent Mark Conrad said the district needs to take responsibility for making sure graduates are ready not just for college-level work, but also to have the skills they’ll need for pursuing careers in trades such as automotive repair. Conrad wants to explore requiring students to take the placement exam after their junior year and require them to take the refresher course if they can’t pass it.

Taking the college-ready math course is optional for students, though some are encouraged to take it, he said.

Raymond Blank, head of the math department at Merrimack High School, said part of the problem is that while students may be taking three years of math, low-level courses aren’t designed to prepare them for college-level work.

“They would probably have a difficult time with any college placement exam,” he said.

Gabriel said the high schools need to turn their attention to students coming up from the middle schools. The goal is to identify students coming up from eighth grade who struggle with math and have them take a quarter-long course before taking pre-algebra.

Community colleges in New Hampshire, like most community colleges, use the ACCUPLACER exam, developed by the College Board. Pellinen said he works with individual high schools, showing them the number of graduates from their programs that fail to pass the test. He declined to provide the numbers broken down for each local high school.

He said there has been improvement in the test scores, but more years of data will be needed to see if it’s a trend.

Pellinen said college officials are coming up with ways to deal with the issue on their end, such as having tutors work more directly with individual students. The college is also offering classes to high school juniors and seniors to give them a head start before getting to college, he said.

Not all colleges offer remedial courses. Rivier College in Nashua doesn’t offer remedial courses, nor does the University of New Hampshire.

“Our admissions officers spend a lot of time in high schools discussing what is expected academically of incoming first-year students,” UNH spokesperson Lori Wright wrote in an e-mail. “There is no institutional program for academic preparedness, although individual faculty members may work one-on-one with students to address specific needs.”

Based on statewide assessment results, it’s no surprise students are struggling with math after graduating.

On the New England Common Assessment Program administered in October, 36 percent of high school juniors were able to demonstrate proficiency in math.

Only 3 percent could score in the highest category, proficient with distinction.

Michael Brindley can be reached at 594-6426 or mbrindley@nashuatelegraph.com.