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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1979)
By upgrading admission standards State board panel eyes getting tough on getting in By IAN THOMPSON Of the Emerald Whether or not admission re quirements to Oregon’s state uni versities and colleges should be changed is the subject of a current study by a State Board of Higher Education ad hoc committee. The study is intended to deter mine the academic success of a 20 percent sample of resident students who graduated from high school in 1976 and went directly to college. The committee is comparing students' high school perfor mance as indicated by grade point averages, class ranking, and courses against similar perfor mance in college. The study will help fill a large information gap by examining how students are performing academ ically in Oregon, University High School Relations Director Richard Pizzo says. The state board last fall initiated the study, agreeing that Oregon's modestly selective admission standards need upgrading. "The board started the study out of concern for the lack of prep aration by too many students in basic courses to do collegaiate work in composition, math and reading skills," Pizzo says. The state board is also con cerned with declining student pro ficiency in such basic college courses as math and English. "They are of the broad notion that in prescribing high school cur riculum, students would also be betterprepared for college," Pizzo says. Currently, admission require ments for state universities and colleges require that a resident high school graduate hold a grade point average of at least 2.5. A student may also be admitted if GPA and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores combine to indicate at least a 2.0 college GPA. Those two measures, and tuition, of course, are the only requirements for entry. A state board move to change admission requirements would, if passed, require students to take four years of English, three years of math — including algebra, geometry and advanced algebra — two years of science and three years of social science. Many state board members, as well as college and university ad ministrators and faculty members, approve of the require ments. But still there are ques JEB’S “//you can find us” SPECIAL — A Good Dog or Best Burger — Giant Homemade Fries — Large Soft Drink $2.00 (Good for the asking ’til we hang our sign.) Jeb’s Good Dogs (next to Pegasus books) tions. University Admissions Director James Buch says he doesn’t know if such requirements might confine the high schools, and points out that even if such re quirements were levied, the con tent of courses would vary among high schools. Buch points out that students applying to the University score about seven to 10 points higher on the SAT test than the nationwide average of college applicants. However, he notes the validity of those test scores in college prep aration can also be questioned. University departments have no way of precisely figuring how well their students are performing college-level work except through a major study. Glenn Beelman, assistant to the head of the math department, says that on the av erage, performance of non-math majors in mathematics courses has declined. Beeman says that decline may come from a change in the student body that results in fewer science majors. “These students probably didn’t realize in high school they would be needing math for such majors when they go to college,” Beeman says. Beeman adds that there are other factors, however. "In general, the math depart ment favors some math require ment,’’ says Beelman, “but if they continue to send us students that aren't prepared well, we'll do our best to prepare them for their fields.” The English department also favors a high school English pre requisite. Professors say they too have noticed a decline in perfor mance of non-English majors, but there is no reliable way of estimat ing student performance there either. According to administrators, tightening admission require ments may lessen student enroll jl2A.cK^nzie\\ l Cojfee CoJl World’s finest coffees j Mexican and Swiss Chocolate ’ Rare and Exotic Teas Steamed Bagels Mayflower Buildi ng 782 East 11th 342-2071 merit in state universities and col leges in the future. To lessen the impact, any new requirements would be phased in over a four year period. The new requirements would, in many educators’ opinions, im prove the quality of future stu dents and encourage high schools to give more emphasis to college prep courses. 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