COEUR d'ALENE - After spending a decade working as a heavy equipment operator, Curt Hay decided it was time for a career change.

Seeking a skilled trade that would offer more consistent, reliable hours, a steady income and better working conditions, the 32-year-old Coeur d'Alene man enrolled in North Idaho College's machining technology two-year certificate program.

Hay was excited about the opportunity to start classes this fall, but admitted to being apprehensive about taking college math courses.

"It's been 14 years since I was in high school," Hay said.

That's why he jumped at the chance last summer to attend a pilot "math boot camp" offered by NIC's Adult Basic Education department. The concentrated math instruction program was made available at no charge to enrolled NIC students with low math scores on the COMPASS skills evaluation, a standardized test NIC and many colleges use as a placement test.

"I thought it would be stupid for me to turn down this free training to clear the cobwebs," Hay said.

And cobwebs there were.

Before attending the boot camp, Hay's math skills were assessed at a ninth-grade level. After taking the intensive math training for three hours per day, three days a week from July into August, Hay's skills were re-assessed.

"I went to being up-to-date on college-level math," Hay said.

All 10 students who completed the pilot boot camp last summer saw their skill levels and placement test scores go up, said Rex Fairfield, director of NIC's Adult Basic Education and GED program.

Many college hopefuls have stories similar to Hay's, Fairfield said. Students who've been away from the classroom for a long time often need to have their skills refreshed before tackling college-level coursework. These older students frequently suffer from what Fairfield calls "the phobia of math." They have the ability and use math every day, he said, but never fully grasped the concepts while in high school, so they don't think they can do it. But they can.

"It's amazing how fast the lights go on and they say, 'Now I remember that,'" Fairfield said.

A broad problem

It's not just older students who show up for college with less than stellar math skills; a significant number of recent high school graduates also score low on the COMPASS test.

The problem is not unique to NIC.

For some time, higher education institutions throughout the United States, especially community colleges, have been seeing a glut of students who want to go to college but lack the skills needed to take college-level classes. The National Center for Education Statistics reported in 2004 that nationwide, 42 percent of first-year community college students and 20 percent of freshmen at four-year universities were enrolled in at least one remedial course.

"Remediation: Higher Education's Bridge to Nowhere," a report published earlier this year by Complete College America, a privately funded initiative aimed at helping states raise their college completion rates, reports the national numbers have risen: 52 percent of those entering a community college need remedial education; 20 percent of four-year university freshmen are enrolled in below college-level courses.

Idaho is a member of the 31-state alliance that forms Complete College America. The remedial education report was completed using data provided by the states.

At Idaho's two-year colleges, Complete College America reports that 57 percent of incoming freshmen are enrolled in at least one remedial education class. Of those new Idaho community college students with below college-level skills, 55 percent are 17-19 years old; 68 percent are 20-24; and 61 percent are 25 and older.

Of the Idaho community college students who enroll in remedial education classes, 62 percent complete and pass the below college-level courses.

High cost

The price tag attached to remedial education is high for everyone involved: colleges, students and taxpayers.

Students with low COMPASS scores must often take remedial education classes like NIC's Math 015, a basic math class that teaches pre-college level math skills.

But a significant number of students who take Math 015 and other remedial courses aren't receiving passing grades at the end of the semester. After dedicating time, energy and financial aid dollars to the effort, they are still unable to move on to the higher level courses they need to earn the degrees and certificates they are working toward. Some simply drop out.

Last year, 929 NIC students registered for Math 015 during the 2011 fall and spring semesters. Of those students, 45 percent - 414 students - received a grade of D+ or lower.

"One of the reasons we've created the boot camp is to streamline the process so students don't waste federal Pell grants re-taking non-program appropriate math classes," Fairfield said.

Fairfield said the boot camp aims to keep those students in school so they can achieve their educational goals as quickly as possible.

"Our greatest success will be seeing more students who may have to take 015, but after boot camp, pass the (COMPASS) test and don't have to," Fairfield said.

The Complete College America report estimates that more than $3 billion was spent in 2011 on below college-level courses taken on higher education campuses in the U.S.

"It's an expensive problem, especially for community colleges," said Mark Browning, NIC's vice president for community relations.

Accessibility is one of the tenets of the U.S. community college system.

"We have an open enrollment policy that's in our DNA; we serve everyone that comes through the door. Then it's our responsibility to see that they're successful," Browning said.

The job of getting college students' skills up to college-level falls largely back on the community colleges, Browning said, because four-year universities are able to raise their entrance standards and weed out low academic performers.

"What are we going to do with the 28-year-old single mom who shows up at our door saying, 'I've got a family to feed. I want to go to college so I can take care of my kids'? Are we going to tell her no?" Browning said. "With a highly motivated student, we can get them to where we want them to be, and we do, many times."

Strong American Schools, another privately funded education initiative, reports in its 2008 publication, "Diploma to Nowhere," that the cost of remedial education is a critical issue for the American public.

"When students need college remediation, taxpayers are paying for the same education twice," the report states. "Indeed for the taxpayer, the underwriting of remedial education is a lot like buying a car, discovering the transmission is broken within weeks of pulling off the lot, and then having to pay for the repairs out of pocket."

Moving toward solutions

Idaho and other states are working toward implementing the new Common Core State Standards in reading, writing and math, an effort it is believed will reduce the need for remediation.

The Idaho Legislature in 2007 approved more rigorous high school graduation requirements, adding an additional year of math and science and the requirement that all students complete a college entrance exam during their junior year.

All high school juniors in Idaho are now required to take the Student Achievement Test (SAT) to gauge their college readiness. The testing began earlier this year, and it is being paid for by the state.

At NIC, in addition to the math boot camp, Mark Browning said college faculty and staff are exploring other ways to improve and streamline the remediation process. One of those paths, suggested by Complete College America, would offer some students co-requisite rather than pre-requisite remedial courses. Those students would enroll in the college-level course and at the same time, receive training to ensure success in that class.

The math boot camp is funded by a three-year, $65,000 federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant.

In addition to the boot camp's classroom training, instructors will assign homework using the Khan Academy, a nonprofit that offers free online courses, with math classes at many grade levels.

Rex Fairfield said NIC instructors like Khan Academy because "It approaches auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners."

Khan offers online problems to solve and instructional videos for learners to follow at their own pace, allowing them to work on concepts until they grasp them.

"It's not meant to take the place of face-to-face learning, but we use it to augment what's in the classroom," Fairfield said.

Another math boot camp is being planned for this fall at NIC.

Information: 665-5099