College Degrees | 2004 Barlow Graduates: Report Says 66% Complete College Degrees

January 27, 2012 by rich
Filed under: graduate degree

Written by Jake Kara and Susan Wolf/Hersam Acorn Newspapers
Saturday, 21 January 2012 15:00

Joel Barlow High School’s 2004 former students ranked fifth out of the 7 high schools in its District Reference Group in the commission of students who received college degrees, a new investigate shows.

Sixty-six percent of these Barlow former students ended a two- or four-year grade by September 2010, compared to 41% of students statewide and an median 68% of students from District Reference Group A (DRG A), a organisation of abundant Fairfield County towns, according to a inform by the state Board of Regents for Higher Education. The inform was formed on National Student Clearinghouse information done existing is to initial time on a statewide basement by high school.

Joel Barlow High School is in Region 9 and serves Redding and Easton students. The category of 2004 had 200 high college graduates, of which, according to the State Strategic Profile, 88.3% expected to go to a four-year college and 3.1% to a two-year college.

Dr. Bernard Josefsberg, superintendent of Easton, Redding and Region 9 college districts, mentioned the inform will complete “what’s intended” ” a deliberation in the preparation community.

The inform raises more questions than answers, he said. For instance, What purpose did college factors vs. non-school factors play?

“I are unaware what the figures mean… The number doesn’t discuss it me what to do at Barlow,” he said, but “it prompts us to consider what else you could be doing.”

The investigate “does highlight an critical regard that this is not put as sufficient in the spotlight as it should be,” he said, in conditions of what happens after high school.

Dr. Thomas McMorran, Barlow’s head of school, mentioned what he likes about the inform is that it tracked students after high school.

“We take a lot of honour in our kids, and you similar to to know what happens to them longitudinally,” he said. “We are now getting information and drumming in to sources of information to follow our kids,” he updated later.

An major question, he indicated, is, “If we’re so focused on getting kids in to a great college, are you giving them all the skills to obtain them by college?”

Pointing to a national castaway rate of 30% from college beginner to sophomore year, Dr. McMorran said, “I don’t wish people to outlay $40,000 to pick up kids can’t mount on their own, so how can you help upperclassmen in high college take on more shortcoming so they can navigate life without their parents?”

Oftentimes it is not the academics or incapacity to do college turn work, but the insufficient of life skills that are a complaint for college students, he said.

Kids pick up to rise amicable skills by extracurricular actions and athletics, Dr. McMorran said. “We hope to go on to work with kids on incomparable life skills to obtain them by college.”

In DRG A, Ridgefield’s category of 2004 had the top college graduation rate at 73%, followed by Weston at 72%, Westport at 71% and Wilton at 69%. The two school’s classes next Redding’s 66% were Darien at 63% and New Canaan at 62%.

The information has its limitations. Actual graduation rates are may aloft than reported, given a few of the information is formed on information archives that students may opt out of having disclosed, and a few colleges did not experience in the National Student Clearinghouse at the time of the study. Also, because the investigate is usually formed on 2004 graduates, it serves usually as a image and doesn’t show a coherent trend.

Nuance is mislaid in the figures as a portion of “success.” Some students never intend to go to college. About 26% of 2004 high college former students didn’t enroll in college. College finishing rates from state technical high schools, more geared toward vocation practice than normal open schools, have descend college graduation rates, trimming from 2% to 20%. The figures bring down the state average.

Still, the investigate is normally conform to with a photo embellished by many metrics of the state with the largest income-based success gap. While high-performing DRG A schools all transport well, there is indication of problems in a few major cities.

The mismatch between abundant towns and large town schools was evident in this investigate as it is in many other metrics. Danbury schools were next the state average, with 37% of 2004 former students completing college inside of the six-year period. Twenty-eight percent of former students from Bridgeport’s Central High School, that had the top college success rate of the city’s high schools, went on to consequence a degree. Hartford’s open schools sundry from 14% to 30% of 2004 former students finishing a degree.

Relatively few graduated from two-year grade programs: 4% statewide and 1% in DRG A.

The greatest chunk, 45%, of DRG A students graduated from out-of-state in isolation schools. About 12% of DRG A students graduated from out-of-state open schools. For Barlow, that number was 37% for out-of-state in isolation schools and 9% for out-of-state open schools.

Ridgefield and the informal Redding/Easton neighborhood stood out in DRG A with a sufficient aloft rate of in-state former students than the rest of the DRG A schools. Twelve percent of Ridgefield and 13% of Barlow students received four-year degrees from typically reduction costly state colleges. Redding, with an extra 7% graduating from in-state in isolation schools, had the top rate of in-state graduates. Only 2% of Ridgefield students graduated from in-state in isolation schools.

In Redding, usually 1% of students graduated from a two-year, open in-state college with nothing from a in isolation school. There were no out-of-state two-year college graduates.

Statewide, the order between in- and out-of-state four-year degrees was reduction severe. Some 20% of Connecticut’s 35,671-student category of 2004 graduated out-of-state, with 15% in attendance in isolation colleges and 5% in attendance state colleges. Sixteen percent graduated in-state, with 3% in attendance in isolation schools and 13% in attendance state schools.