No parent, teacher, adviser or other responsible educator would ever recommend, much less require, a student to take a course they had only a 20% chance of passing. But that is exactly the new policy that the California Community College Chancellor’s Office is implementing. This new policy is in response to Assembly Bill 1705, passed in 2022, which sought to prevent students from getting stuck in remedial classes, a genuine problem in the community colleges. Unfortunately, the new law overcorrected, and now requires that every student who needs calculus for their declared major be enrolled directly in calculus unless data “validates” that the student is “highly unlikely to succeed.” The community college chancellor’s office has set a failure rate of 85% as their operational definition of “highly unlikely to succeed.” (ESLEI 24-15) Thus, any STEM major who has at least a 15% chance of passing will be enrolled directly into calculus. For these students with better than a 15% chance of passing calculus, any “prior to calculus pathway” will be discontinued as a “placement and enrollment option beyond July 1, 2027” (12-10-24 Updated Guidance). Would you take a course you had an 85% chance of failing? Would you recommend it? The failure threshold of 85% defies common sense. But it also defies established education norms. Virtually all educators and administrators consider calculus failure rates in excess of 30% worrisome. Several expert faculty groups, including the CSU Mathematics Council, the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges and the Academic Senate…
