This is a state where more than 70 percent of community college students and 40 percent of university students start school unready for college-level math, reading or writing.

For years the only solution for a student whose entrance scores fell short of the mark was to enroll in remedial or developmental classes, where they paid college tuition prices to re-take high school-level coursework — all without earning any college credit or getting any closer to graduation. All too often, frustrated students simply dropped out of school.

That was then. By fall 2011, every public university in Tennessee will have eliminated remedial education classes. Remedial coursework will be offered only at the community college level, leaving colleges to overhaul their curriculum and technology so students can learn the material quickly.

Most colleges and universities were working on these reforms for the better part of the past decade. The new law moved up the timeline, but Rich Rhoda, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, said state schools should complete the overhaul on deadline.

“I’m very confident this will occur,” said Rhoda, noting that schools are carrying out the reforms in the midst of steep budget cuts and faculty buyouts.

“When students need remedial and developmental work, that lengthens the time it takes them to move through the pipeline. They get discouraged and they don’t complete their degree,” he said. Tennessee ranks 46th in the nation in college graduates.

Three years ago, Dreaona Kennedy dropped out of college to care for her critically ill son.

She returned to school this summer — with a healthy son and an 11-week-old baby waiting for her at home — in need of some brush-up classes to get her back up to speed in college-level math, English and reading.

The last time she was a college student that might have meant a year’s worth of remedial classwork before she could begin earning credit toward her degree and a career in respiratory therapy.

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