Sobering stats on college readiness in Baltimore
As I report in today's Sun, Andres Alonso has ended each Baltimore school board meeting for the past few months with a presentation of student data on various topics, from suspensions to truancy to test scores. The presentation at the end of last night's meeting, on college readiness, was the most sobering yet.
A word of warning: The numbers would have looked somewhat better if Morgan State University had submitted information to the National Student Clearinghouse, which compiled the data. There also would have been a bump if they included students who deferred their college acceptances. But the figures are still frighteningly low.
The presentation, posted on the school system's BoardDocs site, reveals the following:
-- Among Baltimore students who graduated high school in the spring of 2006 (and remember, only about 60 percent graduate), just 44 percent enrolled in a two- or four-year college that fall. That compares with a national college enrollment rate of 66 percent.
-- In Baltimore, the college enrollment rate has declined slightly since 2001, from 49 percent to the 44 percent in 2006. Nationally, it's increased slightly during that period, from 64 percent to 66.
-- Only 14 percent of students in Baltimore's Class of 2001 had earned a college degree within five years.
-- Among students who attended the prestigious citywide magnet schools (Poly, City, Western, Dunbar, School for the Arts), 33 percent earned a college degree in five years.
-- At the city's career and technology high schools (Mervo, Carver, Edmondson), six percent of students in the class of 2001 had a degree five years later. And at the neighborhood high schools, the percentage with a college degree was just four percent. (Keep in mind that the class of 2001 graduated before a major reform, breaking big neighborhood high schools into small ones, took effect.)
High school teachers: Do these figures accurately represent what's happening with your seniors, or do they overstate the problem? And what should Alonso and his team do to better prepare students for college?
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
I believe we are in a state of emergency. People are talking about finding a solution, but most educators and administrators are only concern about their own career. The school system needs to start hiring people who have a passion for the work.
Posted by: Dennie Millwe | October 24, 2007 9:40 AM
The problem is complex. It is not as simple as, "hiring people who have a passion for the work". While some of the passion is drained by conditions that are completely beyond comprehension, most of the educators I work with do have a passion for their work. To characterize educators and administrators as only being concerned about their own career reveals a gross, and unfair, generalization. As a society, we treat our teachers like crap and blame them for all the ills. Yet we acknowledge that they have the most important, most difficult job in the world. We need to do a better job of supporting the people who dedicate their lives to nurturing and teaching our young people.
As for the question about college readiness - Unfortunately, at the high school level we see students come to us performing below grade level. We have students that are reading on a 3-4th grade level in 9th grade. Students in Algebra who haven't mastered multiplication and division. We need to be able to offer them the remediation they need to get them up to grade level before putting them in classes that they have little chance of passing. We also need to offer enrichment for those are at grade level and can go beyond. Since the move toward smaller high schools our students have lost the ability to take electives - they're still referred to as electives, but they have no choice as to what to take because of the limited selection. We have students who have lost their desire to learn because they are being forced into more and more Math and English. I, as a highly motivated student, would have DIED if I'd had to take the classes our students have to take.
There are many more aspects to the problem. Some are societal, some are academic. We need to really analyze what's going on before we can come up with any real solution.
Posted by: Avalon | October 24, 2007 11:03 AM
Having a passion for your work and being a martyr to it are not the same thing. I could dedicate hundreds of hours a week and my students would still not be where they needed to be. The middle schools are an absolute mess. We create the problem that the previous poster mentioned because it ends up being totally about classroom management rather than teaching and curriculum. Those students who come to us reading on 2nd grade levels are overshadowed by the discipline problems and general mayhem. The teacher turnover is tremendous (I guess all the projectile objects drain their "passion") and new teachers are basically left on their own to sink or swim. We don't have any step between "detention" and "suspension," so students either run the halls or run the streets.
I'm not sure exactly who is to blame for this (Everyone blames it on everyone else), but apparently if a student fails once in elementary or middle, they can't fail again. I have students who have missed more than 100 days of school get promoted on several occasions (only to show up, run the halls and brag to everyone about it).
Face it, this could be a book. But the point is, even the top of the line students in Baltimore will have difficulty meeting the level needed for college and not because they aren't smart or motivated, but because that small group of student that do not care and do not have parents that care are taking up all the teacher's time.
Posted by: Steph | October 24, 2007 8:38 PM