Report: "Two-Thirds Of Kentucky High School Graduates Aren't Ready For College Or Careers". Well, DUH!
Two-thirds of Kentucky high school graduates aren't ready for college or careers, ratings show
By Antoinette Konz
Even as state-wide test results showed more Kentucky schools falling behind, there’s more bad news — only a third of last spring's high school graduates were prepared for college or careers.
According to a new report released Thursday by the Kentucky Department of Education, 34 percent of the 40,528 students who graduated from public high schools across the state in 2010 were ready for college or jobs. Only six of the state's 174 school districts, including Jefferson County Public Schools, had at least one school where at least half of its graduates were college or career ready.
The readiness results are based on the number of students meeting benchmarks on the ACT college-entrance exams set by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and the number of graduates receiving certificates stating they are ready for careers.
Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday called the results “abysmal” and said the state's schools must do more to get students ready for postsecondary education and the workplace. The state wants 66 percent of Kentucky students to be college ready by 2014.
“Our focus needs to be on having our kids graduate from high school either college ready or career ready, not just graduate,” Holliday said. “Simply getting them to graduate is not enough. We have to do more.”
The numbers were no better in Jefferson County, where only 31 percent of the district's 5,433 graduates were college or career ready. The state wants the district to raise college-readiness to 64 percent by 2014.
This is the first year the state has released college and career readiness results, which Holliday said sets a base in preparation for a new state accountability system that will be in place starting with the 2011-12 school year.
The new system, required by Senate Bill 1, which passed in 2009, is bringing major changes in the way public school students in Kentucky are to be tested, as well as how those results are reported.
“Senate Bill 1 requires schools to reduce the percentage of students not ready for college or career by 50 percent by 2014,” Holliday said. “This year's results provide a good baseline, so schools know where they are at and what they need to do.”
Bob King, president of the council on postsecondary education, said Thursday that while the college-readiness numbers are troubling, they are not a surprise.
“Almost half of the students being admitted to our colleges and universities are coming in underprepared and need remediation in one or more courses,” he said.
Jefferson County officials said they have concerns about whether the numbers are accurate.
For instance, the state figures failed to show any industry certifications even though they were occurring at some schools, said Bob Rodosky, executive director of accountability, research and planning for JCPS. “I think there is a whole bunch of data missing in this report, and I'm checking with the state to see what happened.”
Two magnet schools –— duPont Manual and the Brown School –— posted the highest percentages of students deemed ready for college or careers in the state. At Manual, 81 percent of students were ready, while 67 percent were ready at Brown.
But the district also has three schools that posted the lowest percentages in the state. At Shawnee, Valley and Western high schools, only 4 percent of students were deemed ready for college and a career.
“The bottom line is that this is baseline data,” Rodosky said. “This shows us where we are at now and where we need to go. We just need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”
David Mike, principal at Western High, said he was surprised to see that only 4 percent of last year's graduating seniors were ready.
“I thought it would be higher,” he said. “Obviously, that's a troubling number.”
Mike said the school has begun programs designed to help students perform better on the ACT.
“We started offering an ACT prep class as an elective last year and we are going to encourage … kids to take that,” he said. “We've also bumped up our effort in vocabulary and reading, because those are the two things that drive every test. If the kids can't read or understand the questions, they aren't going to do well.”
King said he believes the implementation of Senate Bill 1 will “change the college and career readiness numbers dramatically, for the better.”
Senate Bill 1 requires education officials to create a new state-wide student testing program for elementary, middle and high school students for 2012. It also seeks to better prepare Kentucky students for postsecondary education and the workplace.
Under the plan, high school students would take end of course assessments in lieu of the Kentucky Core Content Test, which is currently given in five subject areas. Students would still be required to take the PLAN test, which predicts how well students will do on the ACT, in the 10th grade and the ACT college-entrance exam in the 11th grade.
King also said that all of Kentucky's public university presidents, the community college system and a representative of the state's private colleges agreed earlier this month to extend more community services to help students become college ready.
“It’s going to be a joint effort to turn things around,” he said. “And we are all on the same page.”
Jackie Owens, whose granddaughter attends Western, said she believes the school is making an effort to improve across the board.
“The one thing I want for my granddaughter is for her to be ready for college when she leaves Western,” Owens said. “And so far, I feel she is being challenged and that she will be ready.”
In Bullitt County, 27 percent of the district's 810 graduates were college or career ready, with readiness ranging from a high of 42 percent at Bullitt East High School to a low of 21 percent at Bullitt Central High School.
Bullitt county school leaders say they are trying to tackle the challenge of getting more students considered “college ready” as a whole district.
“High schools are the ones whose names are out there with the ACT but the ACT is really a 12-year journey,” said David Marshall, director of secondary schools for the district.
The district is purchasing a new online program that allows high school students to take practice ACT exams at school or at home and get feedback on what they need to do to improve, Marshall said.
Bullitt East High used the program for the first time last year and the state reported that 42 percent of the school's students were college ready, much higher than the other two high schools in the district.
In Oldham County, 57 percent of the district's 774 graduates were college or career ready, with readiness ranging from a high of 66 percent at North Oldham High School and a low of 48 percent at Oldham County High School.
The district needs to increase its percentage to 79 percent by 2014.
Superintendent Paul Upchurch said all three high schools offer ACT prep classes and encourage students to take advanced classes.
“There's a lot of research out there that supports the idea that taking those advanced classes not only gets students ready for college but also increases their chance of graduating from college,” he said.
Upchurch also said that while it's important for districts to support students in preparing for tests like the ACT, the focus should not just be on tests.
“I want to be careful that we don't get caught up the business of just preparing them to take tests,” Upchurch said.
By Antoinette Konz
Even as state-wide test results showed more Kentucky schools falling behind, there’s more bad news — only a third of last spring's high school graduates were prepared for college or careers.
According to a new report released Thursday by the Kentucky Department of Education, 34 percent of the 40,528 students who graduated from public high schools across the state in 2010 were ready for college or jobs. Only six of the state's 174 school districts, including Jefferson County Public Schools, had at least one school where at least half of its graduates were college or career ready.
The readiness results are based on the number of students meeting benchmarks on the ACT college-entrance exams set by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and the number of graduates receiving certificates stating they are ready for careers.
Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday called the results “abysmal” and said the state's schools must do more to get students ready for postsecondary education and the workplace. The state wants 66 percent of Kentucky students to be college ready by 2014.
“Our focus needs to be on having our kids graduate from high school either college ready or career ready, not just graduate,” Holliday said. “Simply getting them to graduate is not enough. We have to do more.”
The numbers were no better in Jefferson County, where only 31 percent of the district's 5,433 graduates were college or career ready. The state wants the district to raise college-readiness to 64 percent by 2014.
This is the first year the state has released college and career readiness results, which Holliday said sets a base in preparation for a new state accountability system that will be in place starting with the 2011-12 school year.
The new system, required by Senate Bill 1, which passed in 2009, is bringing major changes in the way public school students in Kentucky are to be tested, as well as how those results are reported.
“Senate Bill 1 requires schools to reduce the percentage of students not ready for college or career by 50 percent by 2014,” Holliday said. “This year's results provide a good baseline, so schools know where they are at and what they need to do.”
Bob King, president of the council on postsecondary education, said Thursday that while the college-readiness numbers are troubling, they are not a surprise.
“Almost half of the students being admitted to our colleges and universities are coming in underprepared and need remediation in one or more courses,” he said.
Jefferson County officials said they have concerns about whether the numbers are accurate.
For instance, the state figures failed to show any industry certifications even though they were occurring at some schools, said Bob Rodosky, executive director of accountability, research and planning for JCPS. “I think there is a whole bunch of data missing in this report, and I'm checking with the state to see what happened.”
Two magnet schools –— duPont Manual and the Brown School –— posted the highest percentages of students deemed ready for college or careers in the state. At Manual, 81 percent of students were ready, while 67 percent were ready at Brown.
But the district also has three schools that posted the lowest percentages in the state. At Shawnee, Valley and Western high schools, only 4 percent of students were deemed ready for college and a career.
“The bottom line is that this is baseline data,” Rodosky said. “This shows us where we are at now and where we need to go. We just need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”
David Mike, principal at Western High, said he was surprised to see that only 4 percent of last year's graduating seniors were ready.
“I thought it would be higher,” he said. “Obviously, that's a troubling number.”
Mike said the school has begun programs designed to help students perform better on the ACT.
“We started offering an ACT prep class as an elective last year and we are going to encourage … kids to take that,” he said. “We've also bumped up our effort in vocabulary and reading, because those are the two things that drive every test. If the kids can't read or understand the questions, they aren't going to do well.”
King said he believes the implementation of Senate Bill 1 will “change the college and career readiness numbers dramatically, for the better.”
Senate Bill 1 requires education officials to create a new state-wide student testing program for elementary, middle and high school students for 2012. It also seeks to better prepare Kentucky students for postsecondary education and the workplace.
Under the plan, high school students would take end of course assessments in lieu of the Kentucky Core Content Test, which is currently given in five subject areas. Students would still be required to take the PLAN test, which predicts how well students will do on the ACT, in the 10th grade and the ACT college-entrance exam in the 11th grade.
King also said that all of Kentucky's public university presidents, the community college system and a representative of the state's private colleges agreed earlier this month to extend more community services to help students become college ready.
“It’s going to be a joint effort to turn things around,” he said. “And we are all on the same page.”
Jackie Owens, whose granddaughter attends Western, said she believes the school is making an effort to improve across the board.
“The one thing I want for my granddaughter is for her to be ready for college when she leaves Western,” Owens said. “And so far, I feel she is being challenged and that she will be ready.”
In Bullitt County, 27 percent of the district's 810 graduates were college or career ready, with readiness ranging from a high of 42 percent at Bullitt East High School to a low of 21 percent at Bullitt Central High School.
Bullitt county school leaders say they are trying to tackle the challenge of getting more students considered “college ready” as a whole district.
“High schools are the ones whose names are out there with the ACT but the ACT is really a 12-year journey,” said David Marshall, director of secondary schools for the district.
The district is purchasing a new online program that allows high school students to take practice ACT exams at school or at home and get feedback on what they need to do to improve, Marshall said.
Bullitt East High used the program for the first time last year and the state reported that 42 percent of the school's students were college ready, much higher than the other two high schools in the district.
In Oldham County, 57 percent of the district's 774 graduates were college or career ready, with readiness ranging from a high of 66 percent at North Oldham High School and a low of 48 percent at Oldham County High School.
The district needs to increase its percentage to 79 percent by 2014.
Superintendent Paul Upchurch said all three high schools offer ACT prep classes and encourage students to take advanced classes.
“There's a lot of research out there that supports the idea that taking those advanced classes not only gets students ready for college but also increases their chance of graduating from college,” he said.
Upchurch also said that while it's important for districts to support students in preparing for tests like the ACT, the focus should not just be on tests.
“I want to be careful that we don't get caught up the business of just preparing them to take tests,” Upchurch said.
Labels: Education, Kentucky politics
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 7:47 AM
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