Lawrence Journal-World 12-13-13

Page 3

LAWRENCE&STATE

LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD LJWorld.com/local Friday, December 13, 2013 3A

Report finds students who haven’t met standards struggling in higher ed

KU gets $1M gift for recital hall work

Getting down to business

By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com

TOPEKA — Students who enter public colleges in Kansas through exceptions to the minimum admission standards fare worse than other students, according to a report released Wednesday. “Data show students admitted as exceptions have lower retention, graduation and course completion rates than do regular admits,� the report by the Kansas Board of Regents said. “This is not surprising, given that many, though not all, exceptions have gaps in their educational preparation,� it said. The report, mandated in 2012 by legislators who voiced concerns about remedial courses at public universities, will be presented next week to the regents during the board’s monthly meeting. To gain entrance to a regents school, freshmen from Kansas must score at least a 21 on the ACT, graduate in the top one-third of their high school class, or complete a precollege curriculum with at least a 2.0 GPA. But schools are allowed to admit up to 10 percent of the university’s total freshmen admissions who don’t meet this criteria. This fall, 1,041 students, or 5 percent, of the 20,278 new freshmen and transfer students were admitted as exceptions to the minimum requirements. The report looked at

By Ben Unglesbee

bunglesbee@ljworld.com

Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo

CONSTRUCTION BEGAN THURSDAY PREPARING LAND ON THE KANSAS UNIVERSITY CAMPUS directly east of Robinson Gymnasium and north of Watkins Memorial Hospital for replacement tennis courts in the first stage of development for the new KU School of Business. Once the new tennis courts are complete, the older tennis courts, currently located across the street from Allen Fieldhouse and just south of Robinson Gym, will be removed to clear ground for the new school. The building will be a six-story, 166,000-square-foot structure. The project is expected to be completed for the 2015-16 academic year, KU’s sesquicentennial.

KU to develop new K-12 test measuring academic achievement and placement By Peter Hancock

“

who aren’t ready for college,� said Marianne Perie, co-director of KU’s Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation, which was selected this week to develop the new — Marianne Perie, co-director of KU’s Center for Educational tests. “They have to take Testing and Evaluation remedial courses and don’t get any credit for ficials have for the new states, including Kansas. the course, but they still tests, which are meant to “The way the whole pay for them before they go along with the Com- movement started was can start getting colmon Core state standards there have been way too lege credit. The whole for English and math that many kids across the Please see TEST, page 4A have been adopted by 45 country that go to college

The way the whole movement started was there have been way too many kids Kansas University of- across the country that go to college who ficials are planning to develop a new test for K-12 aren’t ready for college.� phancock@ljworld.com

students in Kansas that will not only measure how well students are meeting new academic standards, but could also be used by state colleges and universities to place incoming freshmen into appropriate classes. At least that’s one of Please see STANDARDS, page 4A the goals that state of-

The Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation has donated $1 million to help renovate Kansas University’s Swarthout Recital Hall, the university announced Thursday. The gift brings to $2.3 million the amount of total private funds raised for Swarthout through the KU Endowment. The renovation budget is $2.5 million. The recital hall, named after Donald Swarthout, dean of KU’s Fine Arts p r o g r a m Walzel from 1923 to 1950, seats 350 people and is located in Murphy Hall on the Lawrence campus. With more than 300 performances staged there every year, Swarthout is the most used concert venue in Kansas, said KU School of Music Dean Robert Walzel. The hall hosts student recitals, performances by faculty and guests, and it also acts as a teaching space. More than one million people have attended concerts in Swarthout during its lifetime, according to estimates by the music school. Swarthout hasn’t seen any updates since it, along with Murphy, were completed in Please see HALL, page 4A

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