Screening and Placing Basic Skills Students.

Abstract

Basic Skills Programs (BSPs) are the fastest growing college and university programs in the nation. Yet there are many unsettled questions regarding the ad ministration and organization of these programs. One of these questions is how to select students for BSPs. Once students have been identified as lacking the minimum competence?in reading or writing or mathematics?necessary to function on the college level, should they be required to enroll in BSP instruc tion or should they volunteer? Four multi-campus systems of higher education came to grips with this issue by establishing systemwide guidelines. The Department of Higher Education, State of New Jersey (3); the University System of Georgia (2:2); and the City University of New York (4:26) adopted the policy that students showing deficiencies were required to enroll in Basic Skills Program courses. Entering freshmen at Pennsylvania State University who tested below the acceptable minimum scores on the system's BSP test had three terms (the normal freshman year) to raise their scores to acceptable levels. Deficien cies could be corrected by voluntary enrollment in BSPs, self-study, or by seeking tutoring (4:26). A search of the literature shows that multi-campus systemwide guidelines on the selection of students for BSPs such as those of New Jersey, Georgia, Pennsylvania State University, and the City University of New York were the exception, not the rule. A survey of the practices of BSPs in the twenty-four colleges and universities of West Virginia, conducted by this writer, revealed a diversity in student selection policies, not only between institutions but also within institutions. Four of the twenty-four institutions had centralized programs?one division or department responsible for all three basic skill areas. There were a total of fifty-eight separate BSPs.