Passage The Free College Debate
The Free College Debate
(1) A college degree has become an essential tool in an increasingly competitive job market. (2) Yet the price of higher education, at both private and public universities, continues to rise. (3) Helping students cover the cost of attending college is an important issue.
(4) Many people agree that a college education should be a financially realistic option for those who aspire to obtain a degree. (5) For example, in 2017, the New York State legislature passed a bill creating a program to cover the tuition costs for nearly one million students. (6) The state of Tennessee also has a program that offers all students scholarships and mentoring services if they attend one of the state’s community colleges. (7) Proponents generally believe that these programs are a step in the right direction for making college affordable for students who would have had to take out loans or who would have decided not to pursue higher education at all.
(8) On the other hand, some people oppose bills like the ones in New York and Tennessee because they believe “free” college programs are unsustainable. (9) In order to implement these types of programs, a state pays the college on behalf of the students using funds from the state’s budget, which primarily comes from state taxes. (10) As more students choose to attend college, more funds will be needed to cover the costs. (11) Additionally, many students do not finish college within four years because they switch majors or because they have to work. (12) Critics believe that these circumstances will inevitably lead to an increase in taxes, a decline in the quality of the education offered by the schools, or both. (13) They think narrower college-affordability efforts that target the students who need the most support, such as first-generation college students, may be more effective and viable solutions.
(14) Faculty and students at higher-education institutions can work to keep costs down. (15) In light of increased access to computers, mobile devices, and the Internet, there are more opportunities for students to take courses online, thus reducing the need for and cost of maintaining physical classrooms. (16) Additionally, colleges should account for experience by allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge in order to avoid having to pay to sit through classes on subjects they have already mastered. (17) Similarly, college-bound high school students need to be prepared for college-level work so that they do not have to spend money on remedial classes.
(18) The solutions to the problems associated with rising college costs are not simple. (19) Passing legislation that boosts college affordability will take time, input from experts with different ideas, and careful planning.
Question
Which sentence should replace sentence 3 to best state the topic of the passage?
- ASeveral states have implemented scholarship programs that allow students to attend public universities and community colleges at a very low tuition rate or for free.
- BDetermining the most effective way to make college affordable is a complex issue, and there are differing opinions about how to approach the problem.
- CHigher-education institutions should reduce the cost of a college education by finding ways to help students avoid paying for unnecessary classes and materials.
- DThe main concern related to the issue of college affordability is that helping students cover tuition could affect the quality of the education they receive.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks which sentence should replace sentence 3 to best state the topic of the passage.
A. Incorrect. Although this sentence mentions that “several states have implemented scholarship programs,” it does not clearly introduce the topic of the passage, which is differing opinions about and approaches to solving the problem of the cost of college.
B. CORRECT. This sentence best replaces sentence 3 because it clearly states the topic of “determining the most effective way to make college affordable.” It also provides an introduction to the “differing opinions” of proponents, who believe that states should provide low-cost or free tuition, and opponents, who believe that such state programs are “unsustainable” (sentence 8).
C. Incorrect. This sentence mentions the role of higher-education institutions in helping “reduce the cost of a college education” for students, which is an idea discussed in sentences 14 and 15 in the passage. Although the sentence provides details to support the topic of the passage by referring to “ways to help students avoid paying for unnecessary classes and materials,” it does not state the topic, which is differing opinions about and approaches to solving the problem of the cost of college.
D. Incorrect. Even though this sentence mentions “college affordability,” it is primarily focused on a problem that is related to, but different from, the issue discussed in the passage. The passage is concerned with “the price of higher education” (sentence 2), not how tuition rates “affect the quality of the education [students] receive.”
Question analysis
This revising question uses a passage about the rising cost of college and state programs that cover tuition, and asks which sentence should replace sentence 3 to state the passage's topic. Every choice is about college affordability, so students must tell a sentence that covers the whole passage from one that fits a single paragraph.
- NYS standards
- 7W2a introducing and organizing a topic
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing a sentence that states a passage's topic is core grade 7 writing work. The passage is formal and five paragraphs long, but each paragraph opens by signalling its part of the subject, so the demand is typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- The right answer is reworded minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 427 words; question and choices: about grade 14, 110 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar slip in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The replacement must cover a passage that argues both sides of free college and then turns to campus cost-cutting, so a sentence about any one part falls short. Students most often take the state scholarship programs for the topic, because those programs fill the two middle paragraphs. Summing up each paragraph in a few words before reading the choices shows that only a sentence about the debate over how to make college affordable fits them all.
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The topic shows only across all five paragraphs: supporters of state programs in sentences 4–7, critics in 8–13, campus cost-cutting in 14–17, and the closing warning that solutions are not simple. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
The right sentence says “complex issue” and “differing opinions,” words the passage never uses, while wrong ones echo its “scholarship,” “community colleges” and “helping students cover.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Note in a few words what each of the five paragraphs does, then choose the sentence that would prepare a reader for all of them rather than for one paragraph's details.
Traps
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
- Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Picks the state scholarship programs, which do fill paragraphs 2 and 3, but they are what the two sides argue about, not a topic that also covers paragraph 4.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Takes paragraph 4's cost-cutting ideas, such as not paying for classes already mastered, as the topic, though they are one approach among several and leave out the debate over state programs.
D Off the point (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Echoes the original sentence's “helping students cover” and sounds like a thesis, but it makes the passage about quality, which comes up once, among the critics' fears in sentence 12.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In its reason for rejecting choice C, the handbook reads “which is a idea discussed in sentences 14 and 15.” It now reads “an idea.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
The new sentence 3 should state the topic of the whole passage. The topic is what the passage is about overall. So the sentence must fit every paragraph, not just one part.
Sum up each paragraph
- Paragraph 1 (sentences 1–3): college matters, but it keeps costing more.
- Paragraph 2 (sentences 4–7): some people support state programs that pay for college.
- Paragraph 3 (sentences 8–13): critics say those programs can’t last.
- Paragraph 4 (sentences 14–17): colleges and students can cut costs.
- Paragraph 5 (sentences 18–19): the solutions “are not simple.”
Find the big idea
Put together, the passage is about one problem: how to make college affordable. Affordable means cheap enough to pay for. People disagree about the best way to do it. And the answers are not simple. The right sentence should say that.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. State programs fill paragraphs 2 and 3. But they are only what people argue about. A says nothing about the critics or about cutting costs.
- B is right. “A complex issue” and “differing opinions” cover the whole debate.
- C is wrong. Not paying for classes you don’t need is an idea from paragraph 4 only.
- D is wrong. The worry about quality comes up just once, in sentence 12.
Watch out: A is tempting because the state programs take up so much space. But a topic must cover all of the passage.
Choose the answer
B prepares the reader for both sides of the debate and for the cost-cutting ideas too. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. It names the state scholarship programs, which fill two paragraphs. But those programs are one thing people argue about, not the whole topic. A leaves out the critics and the ways to cut costs. B calls the issue “complex” and says opinions differ. That fits every paragraph.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “The Free College Debate” as printed (page 38)
