School-to-Career Blog 010808

The views expressed here are Chris' and are not necessarily the same as the Wake County Public School System.

State fails at getting students to college: Only 44 percent of California high schoolers go on to higher education

link to the news article: insideBayArea.com, January 8, 2008.

Article Highlights

California is 48th among the states in the percentage of high-school students going directly to college, according to the latest rankings from a national organization on higher education.

Proposed state legislation, Senate Bill 890, would try to reverse the trend by raising awareness about college opportunities as early as the sixth grade.

Co-authored by Pasadena Democrats Sen. Jack Scott and Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, the bill would require participating districts to provide college information and related events, such as college-career days, to students who sign pledge cards.

Students would pledge to take college-preparatory or career-technical courses, finish high school, file for financial aid and enroll in college.

"The idea is to reach students before they reach high school so they understand what it takes to reach college," said Blake Ulveling, spokesman for the Campaign for College Opportunity, a bipartisan coalition supporting higher-education measures.

According to the center, less than 44 percent of California's high school graduates attend college within a year, compared with rates as high as nearly 70 percent in top-ranked states such as New York.

He said college-preparation efforts should focus on high schools, many of which "are wrestling with building a college-going culture."

Chris' thoughts -

They are asking all middle school students to sign a pledge that they will apply to college.

Why?

Do they have a lot of empty seats in the colleges that they are trying to fill? Filling those seats would certainly fatten the college's wallet, but is that what is best for the student?

Have they consulted with the business community to see if they even value college education? What if entry-level jobs did not require a college education? Would we still be pushing for all kids to go to college?

Wake up America, the times have changed!

In North Carolina, 29.2 percent of all projected annual jobs openings require one year or more of college to get hired. Why are we trying to get all of our children to go to college so they can then compete for 29.2 percent of the jobs?

We do need to ensure that all of our students are college-ready. Not because we expect all of them to enter college right out of high school, but because many more companies are sending their employees to school to get trained or retrained. Having your employer pay for your college education seems like a smart thing to me.

The average college graduation rate in California (percent of freshmen who graduate in six years) is 60% (www.collegeresults.org/). The state is trying to encourage more students to attend colleges where the students have a 6 out of 10 chance of graduating. Before they look at adding more students to the college system, they should take a look at what they are doing to retain the students that they already have. Or come up with a better way to predict college success.

Well, at least that's what I'm thinking!

Chris Droessler

Chris writes for the following Blogs:

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