
DATE: Tuesday, October 14, 1997             TAG: 9710140276

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   98 lines

CLASSES FILL GAPS IN MATH, WRITING SKILLS STATISTICS SHOW THAT 1 IN 3 LOCAL PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS LACKS BASIC COLLEGE SKILLS. AT TCC, SOME ARE TAKING STEPS TO CATCH UP.

Different paths led Tammy Kilbane and Marilani Huling to remedial classes at Tidewater Community College.

Kilbane, a June graduate of Green Run High School, said she'd always struggled with math, despite her teachers' efforts, and figured she'd need extra help with it when she got to college.

``I'm just not great in math,'' she said. The 19-year-old was placed in a developmental algebra class at the community college, and she thinks it's helping her catch up.

``It's all come back to me,'' she said. ``It's not a problem.''

Huling remembers lots of literature in her English classes at Indian River High School and some writing, but little in the way of the fundamentals of composition.

She was surprised to be placed in a remedial English class at TCC this fall, but she now says there was a lot she needed to learn about pulling a writing assignment together. While she remembers high school instructors touching on some of the topics she's learning now, she didn't get the repetition she now does on topics like verb tense, punctuation and sentence structure.

``There's stuff I'm learning here that I never knew how to do,'' Huling said Monday afternoon, standing outside her English class at the Virginia Beach campus.

Statistics released by the state last week indicate Kilbane and Huling are not alone. Those numbers showed that about 30 percent of South Hampton Roads' public high school students had to take remedial classes as freshmen at state-supported two- and four-year colleges in 1995-96. Statewide, the rate was 24.1 percent. In many cases, students end up paying to take classes for which they will not get credit but are required to pass.

Among public schools locally, remediation rates ranged from 14.5 percent at Great Bridge High in Chesapeake to 52.5 percent at I.C. Norcom in Portsmouth. Walter Taylor, principal at Norcom, could not be reached for comment. Jerry Deviney, principal of Ocean Lakes High School, which had one of the higher rates in the region, pointed out that the 1995-96 freshman college class reviewed was Ocean Lakes' first to graduate. It was unusually small with only 25 students going on to state-supported colleges.

``I don't know what that tells you,'' Deviney said. ``I don't think that reflects anything right this minute. That's just too few kids.''

Bob Maynard, a TCC instructor who teaches remedial algebra and third-semester calculus, has seen enough students to know that their attitudes are key to shrinking the need for remediation.

He said students have the opportunity to learn the math they need in high school, but some don't take advantage of it.

``I have a lot of students who come in and have to take a basic review of arithmetic,'' he said.

Maynard said change must come from the students. They must mature in the way they approach their work, he said.

Chris Jennings, an assistant professor of English at TCC, said there's still plenty the high schools could be doing, however.

Jennings, who teaches developmental or remedial English as well as journalism, college composition and speech, said students need better preparation in basic composition skills.

``They also have problems with writing in standard English,'' she said.

Some students don't realize they're doing anything wrong until they end up in her class by way of a placement test and a writing sample, she said.

That was Rebecca Goad's experience. The 1995 graduate of First Colonial High School was surprised when she was placed in remedial English - particularly because she had taken a college writing class in high school.

Other than that class, Goad said most of her high school English focused on literature rather than grammar. Now she is frustrated to be paying for a class that won't earn her transferable credit.

``If they expect you to know (grammar) coming into college, that's what high school's supposed to be preparing you for - college,'' she said.

Some school officials say they expect remediation to go down as standards go up. Pam Kloeppel, senior coordinator of the Norfolk Public Schools Department of Guidance, said the change in graduation requirements for the city's Class of 2000 that eliminates the general diploma will elevate the expectations for all students.

``I believe children will do what they must do,'' said Kloeppel. ``I think that will make a great difference.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot

Rebecca Goad, a '95 graduate of Virginia Beach's First Colonial

High, was placed in remedial English even though she took a college

writing class in high school. Except for that class, she said, her

high school English focused on literature, not grammar. She studies

here with Anthony Wirtz.

Color Photos

D. KEVIN ELLIOTT photos/The Virginian-Pilot

In a remedial English class at TCC, Marilani Huling learns the

basics of grammar and composition.

Marilani Huling, left, Rebecca Goad and Anthony Wirtz study