18 May 2012
Published: Monday, May 07, 2012, 6:38 AM
By Lynn Moore |
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Lynn Moore | MLive.comOakridge High School seniors wore T-shirts with the word "accepted" on them to show off their plans to attend college, trade school or the military following graduation during a schoolwide celebration to honor them. Preparing students to be ready for college is a challenge in Muskegon County where an average of 13 percent of students are considered by the ACT to be "college ready."
MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI -- Standing in front of the Oakridge High School student body, senior Megan Chase advised the underclassemen they should have already been preparing for college.
On her way to study pre-medicine at Grand Valley State University, Chase knows – and statistics prove her right – that being college ready means more than deciding to go.
“In the long run, a lot of us have no idea what we have to do to get there,” Chase said. “I myself was clueless.”
Chase, growing up in a county where just 29 percent of adults have a bachelor’s degree, will be the first in her family to attend college. She and her peers represent a new chapter in Muskegon County’s workforce history – a group who will need education beyond high school if they want to make a comfortable living, educators say.
But many aren’t prepared, according to an analysis of Michigan college readiness data by Bridge Magazine and Public Sector Consultants. The data shows that an average of 13 percent of Muskegon County public high school students are considered “college ready” based on their ACT scores.
College readiness ranges from 0 percent at Muskegon Heights High School to a high of 28 percent at North Muskegon High School.
Of those who end up going to college, an average of 9 percent end up in college remedial courses.
Mona Shores Superintendent Dave Peden said his district is working with Muskegon Community College to improve the college readiness of his district’s graduates.
With a reputation as one of the area’s higher achieving districts, Peden said people assume “our kids are whiz-bangs.”
“But we struggle like everybody else,” Peden said.
Students who have to take remediation in college – courses that don’t count toward graduation – “you’re burning up college tuition money,” Peden said. As a result, some run out of money and drop out, he said.
Muskegon Community College President Dale Nesbary said the college has been reaching out to high schools to help better prepare students for the rigors of college. For example, MCC math instructors next month will host K-12 math teachers for a workshop designed to help them “understand more clearly what … students need to know once they are in college,” Nesbary said.
Roughly 70 percent of students at MCC need to take a remediation class, most of them in math, Nesbary said.
Muskegon County has a number of initiatives to try to improve students’ college readiness. Next year, four juniors from each public high school will enter an Early College pilot program in conjunction with MCC that will allow them to, after five years, graduate with both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree.
Muskegon Area Intermediate School District Superintendent Dave Sipka said he hopes that will help better prepare students for college-level courses and encourage them to continue with college.
Michigan’s move to the national core curriculum in 2014 should help better prepare students for college, Sipka said. Rather than the “regurgitation of facts” that has been a mainstay of American education, the curriculum will focus more on “deep-thinking skills” and problem solving, Sipka said.
Lynn Moore | MLive.comOakridge students accepted into post-graduation training were honored at a schoolwide assembly.
Nesbary thinks Michigan’s move to more rigorous high school graduation requirements, including Algebra I, will “in the long run” better prepare students for college.
“Students will be doing work that’s more akin to what’s required in college and, more importantly, what’s required in the workplace,” Nesbary said.
The MAISD has reached out to colleges to determine “gaps” in student learning that makes them unready for college, Sipka said. It also in July will begin employing Marissa Higgs, coordinator of the Muskegon Opportunity program to increase college access, who will work with families to plan for college, both academically and financially.
“We need to get kids thinking about college and certification programs much earlier than we have in the past,” Sipka said. “We need to make sure when they enter high school, they are seriously thinking about what they’re going to be doing after high school.”
Kelsey Stewart, a college adviser who works with students at Oakridge and Holton high schools, said she sees many students who don’t take their studies seriously enough in their early high school years. She visits middle school students to try to prepare them for life after high school.
“I think sometimes students are unaware they need to do certain things to be prepared for college,” said Stewart, who is a member of the Michigan State University College Advising Corps.
The corps places recent college graduates in low-income high schools to work with students and parents to help ease the path into post-secondary education. The corps also has placed college advisers at Muskegon and Orchard View high schools.
“Most of the lack of preparation is due to students not being aware of the importance of their grades,” Stewart said. “There’s only so much you can do for a student who’s just starting to think about college when they’re a senior.”
Schools like Oakridge are pushing ACT preparation classes, and programs like the College Advising Corps are taking students on college visits.
“You want to go visit colleges because it will get you pumped up,” said Oakridge Senior Samantha Fox, who will attend MCC in the fall. “That will give you a little drive to finish high school.”
Oakridge High School Principal Jason Kennedy last year began an effort to create a “college-going” culture at his school. He began providing white T-shirts with the single word “accepted” on the front to each senior who came in with an acceptance letter from a college, trade school or military branch.
Seniors wear the shirts to school each Friday, when staff wear apparel from colleges they attended. Each time a senior wears the “accepted” T-shirt, they are entered into a raffle for a college scholarship.
The idea is to instill pride and to model the idea of continued learning to underclassmen.
About 80 Oakridge seniors wore their T-shirts to a schoolwide assembly Wednesday to recognize their commitment to learning. At the assembly, Stewart told the students that a college degree cuts in half the chances of being unemployed and boosts average salaries from $26,000 to $51,000.
In short, she said, college “creates a life of options rather than a life of limitations.”
Chase, chosen to address the student body, said “don’t procrastinate and start planning out your future today.”
“Take a piece of paper and write down where you would like to be in five years and 10 years, and write down the steps you will need to do to get there,” she said. “Everyone needs to work for the things that they want, because all this college stuff isn’t just going to get handed to you on a silver platter.”
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Article Source: MLive.com
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