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SJRCC Press Release
January 2010
Educators ask: Are you College Ready?
For many freshmen, college is anticipated as a time to excel, where students eagerly prepare themselves for success, said St. Johns River Community College counselor Sally Myers. The last thing students want to hear during registration is that their collegiate journey will be delayed by a costly, remedial detour; however, approximately 60 - 70% of students entering community colleges statewide are not considered “college ready” in at least one of the three crucial subject areas – reading, writing and mathematics.
“It’s often an unexpected setback. About half of the students who need college preparatory classes considered themselves ready for college,” she said.
So how do colleges define “college ready?” SJRCC President Joe Pickens explained that passing the FCAT and earning a high school diploma does not necessarily mean that a student is ready for college-level courses.
Pickens and educators throughout Northeast Florida are striving to improve those statistics following the passing of Senate Bill 1908. The College and Career Readiness Initiative requires both secondary and postsecondary schools to combine efforts in providing better access to testing and remediation before students graduate from high school.
Pickens, who spearheaded the Bill while serving in the Legislature, has made college readiness a priority by meeting with educators throughout the state and in Washington, D.C. “It would be short-sighted of me to think that because I’m now the president of a college, what goes on in the high schools really doesn’t matter,” Pickens said. “What goes on in the high schools is of the utmost importance to the College.”
INCREASING AWARENESS
Pickens stressed that whether or not high school juniors participated in the free College Placement Test administered last year, they should be aware of their FCAT scores and what those scores indicate. “Students who score a 2, 3 or 4 on the math portion of the FCAT, or a 2 or 3 on the reading portion, will more than likely need remediation,” he said.
Students who have expressed an interest in college and who fall within those scores are encouraged to take advantage of free college prep courses before they graduate from high school. “Waiting to enroll in and pay for remedial courses at the college level is a costly and often unsuccessful start to college,” Pickens said. “Students who wait to take remedial courses in college are less likely to graduate.”
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
In December, more than 100 counselors and school administrators from nine counties attended a college and career readiness summit in order to bridge the gap between high schools and college. Hosted by SJRCC, the summit was a collaborative effort between the College, neighboring school districts and the North East Florida Educational Consortium.
Pickens reiterated that the purpose of the summit was not to place blame, but to recognize and fill the gap between the minimum requirements to graduate from high school and the requirements to begin college. Keynote speaker Dr. Gene Bottoms, Senior Vice President for the Southern Regional Education Board, presented various strategies and solutions to those issues.
During the summit, educators agreed that providing early testing and remedial courses to high school juniors and seniors should not remain the only solution. Among the new strategies favored by NEFEC Executive Director Jim Surrency and Bottoms included a seamless initiative to begin at the pre-k level. Pickens agreed, “A more permanent solution would be to make more systemic changes in the curriculum at the elementary, middle and high school levels rather than trying to put out a fire in the twelfth grade.”
PARTNERSHIP
Tom Townsend, Putnam County School District Superintendent, said he was glad educators are continuing to build on a necessary partnership. “The summit helped to bring educators together to discuss the system’s weaknesses and to speak the same language,” he said. “It’s no one’s fault, but it is our responsibility.”
Clay County Director of Secondary Education Michael Wingate said Bottoms’ presentation was an excellent tool. “We are looking at trends for the future and things we need to restructure our schools around. There are some issues that have been there for a long time and perhaps we didn’t want to face, but now we’re looking at facing these issues and restructuring the schools,” Wingate said.
“While preparing students to be college ready may not be a quick fix, it is a change in the mind set of not just educational leaders but of our teachers in the communities. The best things we are walking away with is dialogue about where we want our schools to go.”
CPT TESTING
Putnam County school district counselor Renee Hough, who spearheaded the testing last year, said she was pleased with the cooperation between the schools and the College in its efforts to proctor the test and that the results could help students realize there is still time to become college ready. “It let them see that a rigorous schedule could help them become ready for that next step,” Hough said. “We have very smart, very bright students who need that little bit of a challenge. They still have time to redeem themselves, to get in there and take that extra math or read a little more.”
Meredith Strickland, the senior director for curriculum and instructional services for the St. Johns County School District, said they are being proactive in finding out the strengths and weaknesses of students. “The students who tested poorly on the test are not poor students,” she said. “We are being proactive in addressing those findings early so they will be prime candidates for success their freshman year in college.”
BANKING ON EDUCATION
Bottoms’ presentation also reiterated the importance of postsecondary education. A graph from the Florida Education and Training Placement Information Program demonstrates how the earning potential of college graduates with two years of technical training can exceed that of graduates with bachelor’s degrees.
Return to SJRCC home page.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Susan Kessler
SJRCC Director of Public Relations and Publications
5001 St. Johns Avenue
Palatka, FL 32177
(386) 312-4020
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