Early Start Program

By Ally Bordas
For the Daily Titan
Published: February 08, 2011

In early 2010, the CSU Board of Trustees voted that all 23 CSU campuses must create and implement new programs in remedial English and math. CSU campuses were given until Nov. 19, 2010, to come up with an individual strategy in accordance to the needs of their universities.

These mandatory early start plans will go into full effect by summer 2012 with complete implementation by summer 2014 after the Chancellor’s Office reviews each CSU program, according to the Access and Equity Group.

Ed Trotter, Cal State Fullerton’s acting associate vice president for CSUF undergraduate programs; Javier Ramirez, M.F.A, student retention services to CSUF; Kimberly King, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Cal State University Los Angeles; and Steve Teixeira, Academic Professionals of California for the CSU, came together for a discussion on Friday, Dec. 3, to discuss the details of the Mandatory Early Start Program.

The forum was called “Advocating for Educational Access, Quality and Equity Session,” and the main focus was to educate all attendees on the positives and negatives of the Mandatory Early Start Program, MESP.

The office signed an Executive Order that establishes “a program for CSU admitted freshmen who have not demonstrated proficiency in mathematics and/or English as established by the CSU faculty.” The order states, “as of summer 2012, incoming freshman who have not demonstrated proficiency in English and/or mathematics will be required to begin remediation prior to the term for which they have been admitted.”

According to a PowerPoint presentation put together from reports written by the California Faculty Association, UCLA Civil Rights Project and Academic Professionals of California, Cal State University Dominguez Hills needs 91 percent remediation, CSULA needs 89 percent remediation and Cal State University San Bernardino needs 75 percent remediation. CSUF falls between the highest and lowest remediation percentages.

Trotter said that the CSU aims to aid all incoming students. “There are a lot of issues here. But I know the people who started this (program) wanted to help people of color,” said Trotter.

“We tend to ethnitize everything, when in fact whites are amongst the second largest group that are in dire need of remediation,” said Teixeira.

To decide whether or not a student is remedial, “the CSU will take a look at test scores on the Early Assessment Program taken at the end of 11th grade in a California public high school, or the Entry Level Mathematics Exam and/or the English Placement Test taken during their senior year of high school,” Order 1078 states.

“Remedial students did not fail to prepare for CSU. Remedial students are the majority. Remediation can be seen as a social justice remedy because if remedial eduction was not available in the CSU then many fewer students would have access to a college education in California,” said King.

Teixeira feels that the MESP just raises the level for the students that have always had an unequal everything.

“It is a very cumbersome process right now. But it is the Trustees’ policy and it was passed by the Board of Trustees, so no matter what it will start in the summer 2012,” Trotter said.

Dr. King stated that according to the Chancellor’s Executive Order 1048, if students do not participate in the remedial summer program prior to their expected start date, they cannot attend a CSU.

“If (students) have not started to address a deficiency in either mathematics and/or English, they will not be permitted to enroll at the CSU campus of their admission unless they have applied for an exception, and the requirement has been waived due to extraordinary circumstances,” Order 1078 states.

In the Programmatic Requirements section of Order 1078, it says that the remediation requirement does not require that students demonstrate a proficiency at the end of the summer, “only that remediation has begun.”

Joe Lopez, president and CEO of Associated Students Inc., asked the panel, “Are there any people within the CSU, other than those present, that are advocating for students?”

Order 1078 also addresses the issues of financial aid for remedial students.

“Matriculated students who are required to enroll in remediation during the summer immediately after high school and immediately preceding the fall term shall be classified as early entrants,” the Order states.

Early entrant students can qualify for financial aid if they meet six specific CSU conditions and they try to qualify for a Pell Grant.

Teixeira is afraid that “MESP will become too much of a dollar opportunity as far as extended education is concerned.”

“A lot of us don’t have a problem with this, except for the fact that it’s mandatory and it seems like it’s just another admissions requirement that penalizes students who have already been cheated by the educational system,” King said.

Trotter did not deny the fact that parents and students alike will have concerns. “I cannot believe that when this hits it will survive. But people above me have control over this mandate.”

The panel, at the end of the discussion, directed their concerns toward the government: “If President Bush and President Obama bailed out the banks, insurance companies and automobile companies, why not have a real bailout for public education?”

King said there are many things everyone can do in regards to MESP. “First, understand the problem and get informed. Hold campus meetings for people who care about this, collect public data, that way we can push our leaders to commit to quality public education.”

Chancellor Charles B. Reed of the CSU signed Order 1078 on June 11, 2010. The CSU is currently reviewing MESP plans submitted by all 23 CSUs and is planning on beginning campus implementation in February 2011.