The Star's Tuesday Editorial

Admissions officers at Kansas universities this year will admit students almost certain to fail their freshman year courses.

The reason: Low admissions standards dictated by the Kansas legislature more than a decade ago.

A 1996 law requires that Kansas students be admitted to any state-supported college or university if they possess an ACT score of 21 or higher, a class rank in the top third of the graduating class, or a grade point average of 2.0 in the state’s pre-college curriculum.

The generous admissions policy is seen as removing barriers to higher education. And indeed it is important that young people have options for pursuing education beyond high school.

But the low bar means that schools such as the University of Kansas and Kansas State University must admit students who are unprepared for college work.

“We are required to admit students to KU whom we know will likely fail,” officials at the Lawrence campus said bluntly in a 2008 report to the Kansas Board of Regents.

In fact one of every five KU freshmen leaves school before completing the first semester. K-State’s retention rate is even lower.

In 2007, nearly a fourth of the freshmen enrolled in KU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences were placed on academic probation after the first semester.

Part of the problem is that low admission standards allow unmotivated high school students to coast through their senior year. Many students fulfill the minimum requirements in their junior year.

“They are not prepared for the rigors of college when they arrive,” KU officials said in their 2008 report.

Fortunately, the Kansas legislature has relinquished the job of deciding admissions standards to university officials and the Board of Regents.

Prompted by calls from Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson and KU’s new chancellor, Bernadette Gray-Little, a Regents task force is studying admissions requirements.
It’s important to find a balance.

No one wants to close off Kansas universities to students with academic progress who, for one reason or another, have lackluster test scores or grades.

But right now, as Regents Vice Chairman Gary Sherrer puts it, the statewide admissions policy grants students the “right to fail.”

Standards must be upgraded so that they become a tool to help students succeed.