Gibbs
Oakland, CA-
1/29/01

The 22-campus system of the California State University has started a policy of aggressively ridding itself of freshmen who are unprepared. These are students who need remedial English and Mathematics courses.

The CSU Board received a report last week that said that there were 2009 students who were not allowed to continue on to their sophomore year because they did not know the basics of English and Mathematics.

There are four CSUs in the Bay Area: Hayward, San Francisco, Sonoma, and San Jose. These schools expelled a total of 199 students because they were not proficient in English and math. Yet, these freshmen were in the top one-third in their high school classes--a requirement to get into CSU from high school.

The expulsion rate is up from last year (1998). In 1998, there was a 5.1% expulsion rate, and in 1999 there was a 6.4% expulsion rate for academic unfitness. The CSU Board has said that the school wastes too much money teaching remedial courses; basic skills were supposed to have been learned in high school.

In the coming year, the school system will become even more aggressive, say some officials. []