Students playing catch-up as they hit college

An article by Holly Hacker in the Dallas Morning News addresses how well local high schools prepare local kids for local colleges.

Each year, tens of thousands of Texas students land in this academic purgatory – no longer in high school but not ready for college. About 40 percent of recent high school graduates in the state's public universities and colleges need at least one remedial class.

In the Dallas County Community College District, which includes Brookhaven, about 70 percent of recent high school graduates need remedial help in at least one subject – reading, writing or math. In more affluent Collin County , about 40 percent of graduates enrolled in the local community college need remediation.

"The school districts that send the area's highest proportions of graduates who need extra help include Dallas , Irving , Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Cedar Hill and Lancaster . "

Yet those high school graduates have passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. And most must take a college-prep curriculum.