Stunning Texas study: College prep courses may be ‘setting students up for failure’

College prep courses may actually hinder students’ preparation for higher education – the opposite of what they promise, a recent study concludes.

“While English and math college prep courses have seen a boom in enrollment, (Texas university) researchers found students in those courses were 5% less likely to earn a college degree or certification within six years of high school graduation than students who were not considered college ready,” writes Click2Houston.com. “They were also 18% less likely to get a degree or certification than their dual credit peers.”

As a result, course attendees may be receiving “a false signal of preparedness” while their counterparts outperform them, according to the article.

“We could be potentially setting students up for failure because we’re saying, ‘OK, you’re college ready,’” explained the study’s lead researcher, Jacob Kirksey. “But you actually get into college and you’re immediately taking developmental coursework. And maybe you’ve racked up, you know, loans as a result of that process.”

Kirksey, also a Texas Tech University professor, urged the state to re-evaluate the ways it ties school funding to preparing students for college and careers.

“College, career and military readiness should not be treated as a black and white checkbox for students and districts,” he argued, noting some pathways such as dual credit and high school credentials surpassed college prep classes in effectiveness.

“We think by making that distinction … districts will have all the incentives they need to, again, be celebrating these better pathways.”

‘You can’t blame the players for playing the game’

As the Lone Star State has pushed districts to get increasingly higher numbers of students ready for life after high school, college prep courses have grown in popularity, journalists noted.

“In the 2022-23 school year, state education officials raised the benchmark for schools to qualify for an A grade in the category of college and career readiness: Schools needed to get 88% of graduates ready for life after high school, up from 60% in prior years.”

Gabriela Sánchez-Soto, a researcher with the Houston Education Research Consortium, noted districts could offer college prep courses with relative ease, avoiding any comprehensive revamp of current curriculum options.

“You can’t blame the players for playing the game,” he said. “But we need to always assess how well whatever thing we’re asking students to do is actually accomplishing … If a requirement is not fulfilling its promise, we need to do something about it.”