If all goes according to a new plan, fewer college students in Colorado will require remediation when they get to college.

“Colorado’s Achievement Plan for Kids,” unveiled by Gov. Bill Ritter and a bipartisan group of legislators on March 19, would determine what knowledge and skills a college freshman needs and then develop a series of benchmarks and tests for each grade level, K-12, to attain them. The bill also aims to address the high school dropout rate in the state.

The bill requires both the State Board of Education, which governs K-12 matters, and the Department of Higher Education to jointly adopt a definition of readiness for college or the workplace. The definition would apply to all high school graduates in Colorado. The public school curriculum--and various testing measures--would be revised to prepare students to meet the new definition.

As many as a third of college freshmen in Colorado needed remedial classes last year, according to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. More than half the recent high school graduates attending two-year colleges needed them.

Forty nine percent of recent high school graduates entering Metro State in FY 2007 required remediation in at least one subject, compared to 20 percent at all four-year public institutions. Metro State had the fourth highest percentage of recent high-school graduates requiring remedial classes, but the highest overall number of students (883), because the College’s overall enrollment is higher. Colleges with higher remediation rates are Adams State College, Colorado State University at Pueblo and Mesa State College.

The bill, which reportedly has the backing of many state educational groups, is expected to face debate first in the Senate.

The current version of the bill is simpler than previous drafts, and would delegate most of the work of crafting the reforms to the Board of Education rather than to a new commission.

“I know the devil’s in the details,” Ritter said, “but we’ve tasked the right people to do this.”

The reforms would take effect in 2011, with the definition of college readiness determined by the end of 2009.

To read the plan in its entirety, go to http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1205918590754&pagename=GovRitter%2FGOVRLayout.