Of the 17,557 students who graduated in 2016 and entered an Oklahoma public college or university that fall, 7,119 enrolled in at least one remedial course.
The number increased 1.5 percent from the previous year, according to the report to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
"It's a little disappointing. Of course, we want the remediation rate to go down," said Tony Hutchison, the regents' vice chancellor for strategic planning, analysis and workforce and economic development.
Students who score less than 19 in a subject on the ACT often have to take a noncredit, remedial course in college before they can take the credit-bearing course in that subject. That extra step costs them time and money.
The new report shows more than one-third (34.7 percent) of the 2016 college freshmen needed remediation in math, the subject identified as the biggest barrier to college completion for students.
"Our long-term problem in math is we don't have as many certified math teachers," Hutchison said.
At high schools where emergency certified teachers are filling in for teachers with a mathematics education degree, "students may not be getting the foundation they need," he said.
Do the math
Oklahoma's Mathematics Success Initiative includes higher education officials working with K-12 schools to improve mathematics preparation before students enter college.
A new 12th-grade math course is being offered at some schools for the first time this year, Hutchison said.
Students who already have the three math courses needed for high school graduation often skip taking math their senior year. It sets them up for a struggle when they get to college and haven't been in a math class for 15 months. The new 12th-grade math course is designed to overcome that hurdle.
"That's the first line of defense," Hutchison said.
The second is the summer bridge program offered at colleges to help students catch up before they enter their freshman year.
And third, Oklahoma is replacing traditional noncredit remedial courses in college with co-requisite education, which puts students in the credit-bearing course and gives them additional support in a math lab.
Those students do as well as their peers who were prepared for college math courses, said Michael Oehrtman, mathematics professor at Oklahoma State University and a member of the state's Mathematics Success Group.
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