Who goes to college

One of the outcomes of universities accepting students based on factors other than academic achievement, is the offering of remedial math classes where students learn algebra that was supposed to be taken in ninth grade. These learning deficiencies are not limited to math. College professors are reporting that their students are no longer capable of reading or writing the kinds of complex texts that used to be routine assignments. Although there are surely multiple reasons, it’s likely this has something to do with the way we’ve been trying to teach reading comprehension, beginning in elementary school. Harvard might be America’s most elite university — but now it’s offering remedial math classes. The school’s math department is providing a new scaled-back math class for freshmen who are apparently arriving on campus lacking “foundational skills” in high school math basics like geometry and algebra.