Bleak College Graduation Rate Is Found
Officials, Concerned by Figure, Look at Retention Programs
By V. Dion Haynes, Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006; B04

LINK

Only 9 percent of D.C. public school freshmen will complete college within five years of graduating from high school, a figure far below the national average, according to a report to be released today.

The report, commissioned by D.C. city and school officials, asserts that nine out of 10 of the freshmen will be confined to low-paying jobs because they never began college or gave up before obtaining a degree. It blames the problem largely on the school system for failing to prepare students but also on colleges for being unable to accommodate students' deficiencies.

Although the school system has had anecdotal evidence about how its students fare after graduation, this is the first time it has data to show how low the college retention rate is.

Labeling the situation a critical concern, D.C. leaders are developing programs, including ninth-grade academies and expanded dropout prevention efforts. They say they hope to double the number of college graduates. "This is an important piece of work for all of us," said Robert C. Rice, special assistant to Superintendent Clifford B. Janey.

"Our big focus over the last few years has been to strengthen academic programs from pre-K to grade 12," Rice said. The report will spur officials to ask deeper questions, such as, "Are we doing what we need to do in the fifth and sixth grade to prepare them for higher education?" Rice said.

The report, called "Double the Numbers for College Success: A Call to Action for the District of Columbia," is based on a five-year analysis beginning in 2001 that followed one group of students from ninth grade and a second group of high school graduates from their first year of college. There were 4,300 students in the ninth-grade group and 1,340 in the college group.

Nationwide, according to the study, 68 percent of students graduate from high school in five years; 48 percent enroll in college within 18 months of graduating from high school; and 23 percent receive degrees within five years of entering college.

But in the District, 43 percent graduate from high school in five years; 29 percent enroll in college within 18 months of graduating from high school; and 9 percent receive a degree within five years of enrolling.

The situation is far worse for students from certain segments of the group: One-third of the students from Wards 7 and 8 graduated from high school, and one in 20 received a college degree. Moreover, males were half as likely to graduate from college as females.

The data "confirmed what we already knew and will help us target what we will do in the future," said Juanita B. Wade, executive director of the D.C. Education Compact, a school improvement organization.

Officials from the Education Compact and a group called D.C. College Access Program are working with the system and the State Education Office on a long-term plan to address the problem. In the meantime, they said, they intend to boost the college graduation rate by using efforts and plans in place: ninth-grade academies, dropout prevention programs, more Advanced Placement and other college-preparatory courses and more counseling on college and financial aid options.

Moreover, city and school officials said they plan to press the 10 colleges and universities that enroll the majority of D.C. public school graduates to introduce more support services. The University of the District of Columbia enrolled 30 percent of the students in the research study but graduated only 9 percent of them in five years. Trinity University enrolled 3.6 percent and graduated 51 percent.

Trinity "has a comprehensive approach," said D.C. State Education Officer Deborah A. Gist.

"They assign advisers who are in your face. They put students in support groups. They have an open-door policy with professors," she said.

City and school officials acknowledged that they do not have a good handle on those high school graduates who bypass college for work, job training programs and or the military. They intend to study the issue.

washingtonpost.com
Summit Assesses D.C. Schools
Academics Tops Off-Site Agenda
By Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 6, 2004; Page B03

LINK

Top D.C. government and education leaders, including the mayor and the school superintendent, met yesterday with parents, teachers and activists at the start of a two-day education summit designed to help set an academic course for the city's ailing public schools.

The summit, closed to the media, opened at Airlie Center in Warrenton. The D.C. Education Compact, a group of public and private groups working for school system reform, arranged the gathering. In addition to Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), Superintendent Clifford B. Janey and members of the D.C. Council and Board of Education, the group invited teachers, administrators and representatives of various foundations, including the Fannie Mae Foundation.

"What I hope to come out of it is a shared agenda of all the different principals and stakeholders in our city," Williams said a day before the summit opened. "I'm just going to be pushing to see that we have the accountability in the system, that the schools are doing the very best job they can to improve customer service to parents."

The summit was conceived earlier this year, when the school system was being led by an interim superintendent.

After Janey took the job, officials decided that the event would serve as an opportunity for members of the different constituencies pushing for school reform to discuss their ideas with the new schools chief.

"Nobody that walks into this town really knows where to go," said Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, a nonprofit group working to modernize school buildings, and one of the officials attending the summit. "We can't afford to have him spend a lot of time trying to figure out who's who and what's what, and we think it will benefit him to take advantage of our experience."

At least one invited guest -- council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) -- stayed away, saying he objected to the site of the meeting and feared there was not enough substance to the agenda.

Graham said he did not see any reason to hold a conference about the District outside the city, particularly at a "former plantation."

"I wish they would take the money for the overnight lodging and use it for books," he said.

A spokesman for the Education Compact, which is covering the expenses, could not say how much the conference will cost.

Graham also said that although it is always beneficial for stakeholders to get together to talk, he was concerned that there would not be enough discussion about why past school reform efforts have failed and that people might be just spinning their wheels.

"The substantive question I have . . . is what is being done to analyze prior studies about the system and why recommendations were never implemented," he said. "They did say they would try to do something like that, but it seemed very much to me like another meeting, except one that would last for many hours."

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

2005 College-Bound Seniors

Bill Gates' Foundation reports on the fact that this lack of readiness for college is a national problem:
Gates Foundation Study
Posted on October 19, 2006

Few College Students Are Prepared to Earn Degrees, Study Finds

A new report from the Bridgespan Group and has found that most students in the United States are eager to enter college, but few are prepared to earn degrees.

Commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Reclaiming the American Dream (33 pages, PDF) recommends that American high schools make rigorous, college-ready academics the norm in every school and encourage excellence in more challenging classes. The report also finds that the most important thing parents can do for students is to help them visit a college campus.

According to the report, a student who graduates high school having met even a lenient definition of preparedness has an 85 percent chance of entering college and a 50 percent chance of earning a degree. Students who do not achieve this level of preparedness have only a 14 percent chance of completing college.

"Education is our most critical tool for increasing economic opportunity and social mobility," said Susan Colby, Bridgespan Group partner and co-author. "Through this paper, we sought to identify the barriers that keep students from earning degrees, and to make recommendations that will help the appropriate actors set priorities and make choices on how to best prepare students for college. All students deserve the opportunity not just to finish high school, but to achieve their aspirations."

“Most Students Eager to Enter College, Few Are Prepared to Earn Degrees.” Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Press Release 10/16/06.

Reclaiming the American Dream