He and his colleagues will review essays high school students have written, and tell them if their essays are "college ready. They also will review papers from junior high school students, and tell them how they are doing in several key areas.
by Joe Nathan
Paul Carney of Minnesota State Community and Technical College has a
remarkable free offer for Minnesota high schools and their students.
He and his colleagues will review essays high school students have
written, and tell them if their essays are "college ready. They also
will review papers from junior high school students, and tell them how
they are doing in several key areas.
He and his colleagues will review essays high school students have written, and tell them if their essays are "college ready. They also will review papers from junior high school students, and tell them how they are doing in several key areas.
Why is this an important, timely offer? Because despite earning good grades in high school classes, thousands of Minnesota high school students are arriving at our state's colleges and universities not able to write at the level colleges expect. Between 2001 and 2003, Carney and his colleagues looked at hundreds of papers written by college students who were taking remedial writing courses. He found that almost 1/3 of these students had earned an "A or "B in their last English class.
As Carney has written, "Students who take remedial courses are less likely to finish college, and the more remedial courses they take, the less likely they are to attain a degree. More than half of all students enrolled in one remedial course will not persist to earn a degree.
Carney is much more interested in communicating with students, families and high school teachers, than in pointing fingers or assigning blame for this situation. He has a long list of reasons for the situation. Some are cultural: the increasing use of email, texting and other forms of written communication that are not the kind of careful, thoughtful writing that colleges (and many businesses) are looking for.
PAUL CARNEY
Some of the problems come from large class sizes that many high school teachers have. As a former high school teacher, I remember how much time it took to review and grade student essays. Depending on the length of essay or paper assigned, I spent 10-30 minutes per paper. If I have four or five classes of 30-40 students, that would be 120-200 papers, each taking 15-30 minutes to grade. That's several days to more than a week of time, just for one paper. Many high school teachers don't assign more than one or two papers a term, for this reason.
Rather than just complain about under-prepared students, Carney created the Ready or Not Writing program (readyornotwriting.org) for high school students. He also developed the Step Up program for eighth graders (www.centerforcollegereadiness.org/stepwriteup/) Both programs are free, because of support from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. College professors review high school students' essays, and high school teachers review eighth graders' essays, and give them and their teachers written feedback. Carney now is looking for several high schools that will work with him over the next few years to submit a number of essays, and see what the impact is when youngsters enter college.
Carney would rather create than complain. He's an admirable guy. I hope many high schools respond. You can reach him at
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Joe Nathan, a former public school teacher and administrator, directs the Center for School Change, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota
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