Remediation and Basic Writing

What skills does a student need to be "ready for college-level work"?  How should colleges deal with students who are not ready for college level work?  Should such students be excluded from college?  Should they be sent to community college first?  Should they be given a time limit for "getting up to speed"?  Should they be allowed to take other courses while they're making up "deficiencies" in reading/writing? 

Skills a student needs to be ready for college-level work includes the ability to read academic text with basic fluency, to be able to communicate effectively both orally and in writing, and basic "studenthood" skills, including how to navigate the college system, how to get help if needed, knowledge of resources both inside and outside the classroom.

It's not necessarily the fault of students or even their high schools that they are under-prepared for college-level work. Faced with this reality, colleges and universities need to and have responded by offering basic skills courses. There's been a trend at community colleges to accelerate basic skills students through these remedial courses so that they can get to college-level courses as quickly as possible. This may mean some students have to stay at the community colleges for 3-4 years before transferring. 

I believe that the goal and mission of community colleges is to serve their community of adult learners, regardless of their skills when they arrive at the college level. The issue really stems from a lack of funding at the K-12 levels; we've become so focused on making sure students pass standardized tests without truly ensuring they graduate into college with the skills necessary to be critical thinkers and writers. As long as the budget situation remains unstable and funding decreases to public education, colleges and universities will continue to be faced with a need to continue offering basic skills courses. 

At the colleges I teach, students can take courses across the disciplines and there are few prerequisites required, such as completing English 1A before a student can take Political Science 1, a course I teach. As a result, I end up teaching some skills in the course. I don't mind doing that at all, but I know other faculty are frustrated and annoyed by students they feel "don't know how to write". I don't think we should hold students back from taking general education courses while they are trying to get up to speed with their skills because they would miss out on opportunities to explore major and career fields while developing the studenthood skills I mentioned above.

I do recognize that this situation of remediation is an issue, but faced with this reality, we need to continue to support students and serve our communities in any way possible, including remedial course offerings.