Course Enrollment

Time to Take Charge!

July 29, 2011

Parents and students need to stop blindly going through K-12 education without doing the necessary research to identify the most appropriate colleges and careers. Whether or not students attend good high schools with well-informed counselors, the information is only a mouse click away:

The U.S. Department of Education’s College Affordability and Transparency Center serves as a valuable resource to compare tuition costs and the net prices of college
The U.S. Department of Education College Navigator provides detailed information on all U.S. colleges and universities (including admissions, costs, graduation rates, and student demographics)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Handbook provides information on hundreds of types of jobs and the job markets in each State
The Federal Student Aid website provides links to a broad range of websites to assist students in preparing for their education

Get connected and get informed!

When taking the right classes and having the highest GPA is not enough

July 29, 2011

Kymberly Wimberly, a teen mother and black student at Arkansas’ McGhee High School, had the highest overall GPA, after taking a rigorous course schedule, and was named her class valedictorian. In her complaint, Kymberly asserts that the school district denied her right to be the school’s lone valedictorian, as they had historically denied access to the type of classes that would qualify black students for such an honor. In a school that is 45 percent African-American, Kymberly recalls being the only African-American student in her AP literature class and only one of two in AP Calculus. However, a Washington Post article asserts that the school’s principal, Darrell Thompson, decided to name a white student with a lower GPA as the co-valedictorian. Superintendent of schools, Thomas Gathen, denies that the decision was racial motivated, however, the lawyer for Ms. Wimberly, alleges:

“[The] defendant’s actions were part of a pattern and practice of school administrators and personnel treating the African-American students less favorably than the Caucasian ones…Until Wimberly, the last African-American valedictorian in the McGeeHee school district was in 1989.”

The complaint also alleges:

“ ‘African-American students were not encouraged to take Honors or Advanced Placement classes,’ the complaint says. ‘Caucasian students had to almost opt out (of advanced classes).’”

Pay attention to your high school schedule!

July 29, 2011

A recent Birmingham News article, “Third of college-bound graduates in Alabama need remedial classes,” notes that over 50 percent of graduating seniors from 223 or Alabama’s 357 high schools needed to take remedial college classes in math or English. These results are consistent with Alabama’s 2010 ACT results, which indicated that the following percentage of Alabama’s high school seniors failed to demonstrate college readiness:

34 percent failed to demonstrate college readiness in English
69 percent failed to demonstrate college readiness in Math
53 percent failed to demonstrate college readiness in Reading
77 percent failed to demonstrate college readiness in Science

Parents must realize that they have an important role in ensuring that their children are taking the appropriate high school classes. Nationally, there are huge differences in the college readiness of students based on their high school course taking.

Only 7 percent of students who take less than the their high school core classes in math are college ready
Only 13 percent of students who take their high school core classes in math are college ready, and
55 percent of students who take math classes beyond their high school core classes in math are college ready

A longstanding popular myth among high school students and their parents is the importance of focusing on GPAs as opposed to focusing on course taking—i.e., taking easier classes to get high grades as opposed to risking lower grades in more rigorous classes. Clearly, it is a case of, “Pay me know or pay me later.” Failure to enroll in rigorous high school classes can cost students thousands of dollars in tuition for remedial college classes, limit a student’s college options, significantly reduce a student’s access to college scholarship opportunities, result in lower SAT and ACT scores, and substantially reduce the likelihood of a student graduating from college.

Pay attention to your high school schedule!

First-grade math foundation key to later success

July 27, 2011

In U.S. Department of Education research, the level of math and science that a student completes in high school is the clearest predictor of a student’s success in college. 2010 ACT results indicate that all college-bound high school seniors had their lowest scores in math and science. A recent University of Missouri study notes, “beginning first-graders that understand numbers, the quantities those numbers represent, and low-level arithmetic will have better success in learning mathematics through the end of fifth-grade, and other studies suggest throughout the rest of their lives.”

Lead researcher, professor David Geary, also notes, “This study reinforces the idea that math knowledge is incremental, and without a good foundation, a student won’t do well because the math gets more complex.” The paper, “Cognitive Predictors of Achievement Growth in Mathematics: A Five Year Longitudinal Study,” will be published in the journal Developmental Psychology.

Parents should be particularly concerned with the 2009 NAEP Results (National Assessment of Education Progress), which indicate that most U.S. 4^th– and 8^th-graders are not proficient in math.

4^th-grade performance by racial group:

50 percent of White students are below proficiency
79 percent of Hispanic students are below proficiency
85 percent of Black students are below proficiency

8^th-grade performance by racial group:

57 percent of White students are below proficiency
83 percent of Hispanic students are below proficiency
88 percent of Black students are below proficiency

Download 2009 NAEP Math Results

Forget “AYP.” You should be concerned with “ACP!”

July 27, 2011

The Associated Press article, “Tougher Standards Mean More Schools ‘Failing’ indicates that many schools are not making “AYP” (Annual Yearly Progress) as measured by No Child Left Behind. Subsequently, many students find themselves attending schools that are considered “academically unacceptable” by the U.S. Department of Education. The article reports that the number of academically unacceptable schools is increasing substantially in many states:

135 schools in Louisiana
720 schools in New Mexico
7 out of 10 schools in North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District
6 out of 7 schools in North Carolina’s Wake County School District
4 out of 10 schools in Georgia

As opposed to increasing student achievement to the levels set by the No Child Left Behind legislation, states like Montana and South Dakota have decided to simply ignore the standards, viewing them as unrealistic.

While state departments of education and local school districts debate what are realistic and unrealistic levels of student achievement for their schools to pursue, many students and parents are fully aware that their schools are not good schools and that students are not being adequately prepared for college and careers. In fact, while schools are concerned with achieving “AYP” (Adequate Yearly Progress), parents and students should be more concerned with whether their schools are achieving “ACP” (Adequate College Preparation). Parents and students must pursue all available opportunities to ensure that students are learning what they need to know to be prepared for college and careers. Five easy steps to take are:

If you attend a low-performing school, then ensure that you are in the most rigorous classes available in your school.
Identify tutorial support at your church, the Boys and Girls Club, YMCA, local fraternities and sororities, students in higher grades, and after school programs.
Get as many test preparation books as you can, particularly for SAT/ACT subject-areas, i.e., math, science, reading, English, and writing, and for any high school graduation tests required in your state.
Identify summer or after school enrichment programs in reading, math, and science. One such program would be the CDF Freedom Schools.
Develop a study group and surround yourself with other high-performing students, particularly students who are fortunate to attend high-performing schools.

Middle College Program

July 26, 2011

Prince George’s County Schools (MD) is offering ninth-graders an opportunity to earn both a high school diploma and a college degree (AA) through their “Middle College” program. Only 100 of the 980 ninth-graders who applied will be able to enter the program where they become full-time students at Prince George’s Community College while they are enrolled in high school. A number of school districts are offering such programs, however, there is usually a qualifying criteria, like grades, test scores, placement tests, or teacher recommendations. Students who want to explore such opportunities need to ensure that they are academically successful during elementary and middle school so that they make the cut. It also would help to avoid discipline infractions and to have great teacher recommendations.

ACT validity questioned

July 25, 2011

A recent article in study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research questions the value of ACT scores in science and reading as being a valid predictor of college readiness. However, the study found the English and math scores as highly predictive of college success. Unfortunately, many college admissions officers admit to relying primarily on the ACT composite score in their admission decisions.

Students submitting their ACT scores to colleges should highlight their English and math scores, particularly if they are higher than their overall composite score. Students should also keep in mind that an increasing number of colleges are placing more weight on a student’s high school grades in college preparatory courses above a student’s SAT or ACT scores.

Advice for incoming college students

July 24, 2011

The article in Inside Higher Ed offers sound advice for incoming college students:

Register and schedule ASAP to best ensure that you get the classes that you want.
Share your schedule with your employer to ensure a smooth school/work relationship.
If your placement tests places you into developmental or remedial classes, ask for a retest and work hard to get a better score. It could save you thousands of dollars in tuition!
Identify your books, go online and try to find them used. Another way to save thousands of dollars.
If you are attending a community college, meet with the counselor to identify exactly the courses that you need to transfer later to a four-year college.

AP classrooms reveal a racial divide

July 22, 2011

The article in the Tennessean reveals the inequity in AP course enrollment being experienced in school districts through the country. In Wilson County, TN, not one black high school student took an advanced-level math, science or foreign-level class during the 2009-10 school year. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights’ data shows that this is a national crisis with some high schools not offering enough classes, others not encouraging students to enroll into such classes, others discouraging students from enrolling into such classes, and others simply not offering the necessary support for students to succeed in such classes.

An analysis of the data shows that high schools in high poverty areas offer few AP and advance classes for students to choose from. Important findings in the report:

7,300 U.S. High Schools do not offer Calculus
Girls are underrepresented in physics
Boys are underrepresented in Algebra 2

Go to The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights to disaggregated student data for your state’s high school enrollment, graduation rates, and advanced course enrollment. Research by the U.S. Department of Education, the CollegeBoard, and the ACT indicate that enrollment and success in such high school classes is a clear predictor of future success in a student’s college-level classes.