A record number 30 percent of this year's UNM freshman class is unprepared for college level courses, according to University officials.
Representatives from UNM's Math and English departments met with their high school counterparts on campus Wednesday to take a long, hard look at why nearly a third of all freshmen had to enroll in remedial math, reading or writing classes this fall.
"This has been a growing problem over the last 10 years, but with enrollment at an all-time high, we are getting more students who just aren't prepared for the demands college places on them," said Doug Earick, coordinator of UNM's K-12 outreach program. "Something like this should have been done before, but the urgency's never been there. The University needs to do something with high schools to prepare these kids for the reality they face when they get here."
Earick and Wanda Martin, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, organized the meeting and invited principals and teachers from 37 public schools from as far away as Los Alamos.
Martin said math and English teachers were the only educators invited because these subjects are what freshmen are struggling with, and these courses play a major role in every other subject.
The remedial classes, taught through UNM's Introductory Studies program, are taught at UNM by TVI teachers through a 12-year-old agreement between the schools.
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With a record 3,004 freshmen entering UNM this fall, enrollment in the program has grown to 905, up from 766 last year, according to official TVI numbers.
Grace Brown, principal of Cibola High School, said the dismal success rate of UNM freshmen in recent years is "pretty appalling," and the meeting was a good idea.
"I hope it is the first step in building a real line of communication between the University and the state's high schools," Brown said. "Together we can solve just about any problem. I just hope all the ideas talked about today are seen through."
Martin said the University has tracked student performance over the last two years, and she shared that information with the high school teachers to identify specific problems freshmen are having.
That research includes a "killer course list" that names the 40 introductory UNM classes students fail the most.
One of those courses is Math 120, a pre-college level course that has more than 1,400 students in it this semester.
"Forty-five to 50 percent of those students are going to fail that course this semester," Martin said. "The students' inability to do simple algebraic problem solving is hindering them in a lot of other subjects."
Suggested solutions for preparing high school students for college included more in-depth University Web sites outlining course and department requirements and smaller class sizes to provide the teacher more time with each student.
"UNM has the mission challenging the highest achieving students, but it also has the mission of meeting the needs of every student who seeks a college degree, not all of whom are qualified," said Scott Sanders, chairman of UNM's English department.
"Today was the first step in improving the communication between everyone involved in helping these students reach their goals."
