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Jim, The following paragraph from your remarks should be given to EVERY administrator, counselor, financial aid department personnel, and educational "bean counter" in the country! Thank you! On Mon, 26 Jan 1998, James C Valkenburg wrote: > Allowing underprepared students into inappropriate classes is > unethical on the part of the administration because it disavows any > responsibility for ensuring a quality education for all students enrolled > in classes. Taking the money from underprepared students to shore up > sagging budgets because of low enrollment, and then knowingly allowing > students to take courses they cannot pass, is the basest form of "business > ethics." However, we also need to do something so that students cease to feel there is a stigma attached to taking the same course more than once! Many of our students, particularly ESL students, feel they have failed if they do not "pass" to the next level, and these students will sometimes register for the next level anyway, just to avoid having to admit that they did not in 3 months acquire all the skills they needed. Then these students are doubly frustrated because they have set themselves up to fail, often with the permission of the system. What we need, I think, is some kind of open-entry/open-exit type of developmental course, rather than set semesters. This, of course, will never fly because the "bean counters" would no longer have the "data" they require to "prove" that developmental students can't succeed in college courses! Sometimes I think our education system is set up strictly to produce "data" (retention, success or failure rates, demographics, etc.) rather than to actually "educate" anyone! Peggy Keller English Instructional Technician Assistance Centers for Education Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute 525 Buena Vista SE Albuquerque, NM 87106