Roughly 40 percent of Colorado high school graduates in 2011 who enrolled in a state college or university needed remedial classes to become ready for college-level coursework, according to new data released by the Department of Higher Education Tuesday.
That’s down one percentage point from last year. But it’s a big jump from the percentages that were reported last year, because the state has changed the way it calculates the number of students who need remedial education. State officials say the new calculations provide a more accurate picture of how many students are graduating not ready for college-level work.
The state releases data on remediation rates not just in aggregate, but also for individual high schools. See how your school fared by using the database below. For more on the new calculations, read the EdNews story on the data release, the Department of Higher Education’s remediation report or visit the Department of Education’s data center.
Search tips
- The state only releases data on those high schools with at least 16 graduates attending a Colorado college or university, in order to protect student privacy. If you can’t find your school, or your search results return an asterisk (*), then the school did not meet the minimum benchmark for the number of graduates between 2009 and 2011.
- Click any district name to bring up all schools in that district.
- To compare schools or districts, hit “Ctrl” or “command” and click on as many names as you’d like to see.
Important notes about the data
- The Department of Higher Education introduced new method for calculating remediation rates this year intended to give a more accurate portrait of both how many students need remedial coursework and how many enrolled. This database includes three years of data, all calculated using the new method, released by the state for context. Read more about the new calculation method here, and you can read more about old calculations using the previous method here.
- Remediation rates are lagging indicators so the latest figures are for students entering college in fall 2011.
- Many students who graduate from Colorado high schools enroll in colleges or universities outside the state. In the graduating class of 2011, 57 percent enrolled in college immediately after graduating. Just over one-fifth of those students left the state to attend college; information about those students, who may be among the strongest graduates academically, is not reflected in this data set.
- If you have questions or believe information about your school is incorrect, please contact us at EdNews@ednewscolorado.org.
Source: All data from the Colorado Department of Higher Education.