Barnstable Students Performing Better than Average in State Colleges

A major problem facing our educational system nationwide is the decreasing literacy of high school graduates. Many teenagers who have "graduated" high school simply cannot read, write or do arithmetic. Education's three "r's" are simply not being learned by a growing number of students.

Many people have suggested the following reasons as causes for this problem:

• Insufficient funding (highly unlikely considering the MASSIVE amount of money THROWN @ schools today)
• Underqualifed teachers (possible, but unlikely a major cause)
• Class sizes are too large (a favorite excuse, but shrinking class size does not necessarily equal better grades)
• Lack of student discipline (the fact that today's kids rarely listen to adults certainly plays a role)
• Lack of accountability in school district overview - simply put, parents/citizens aren't holding School Committees responsible for declining performance with increased funding (parental involvement is one of the most underrated factors in education)
• Not enough time being spent on basics (In my opinion, we spend too much time with art class, music class, Spanish, social studies, multicultural club, computer class, "health" class and other secondary classes in elementary & middle schools when many of these children can't read, write or do math, and they have no knowledge of American History.)
• "Passing" students who should be held back (We are not doing any favors to our children when we pass them because we don't want to "hurt their self-esteem", etc..., even though they failed the class. If they don't know it, they don't know it and they aren't going to learn it when they move on to more advanced material. This then handcuffs teachers who have to reteach what they learned last year or "dumb down" the class in an attempt to catch those students up, while the rest of the class learns little or nothing.)
• Too many cooks? (With federal regulations, state regulations, local regulations, regulations at individual schools, PTA, Teacher's Unions, etc..., it seems that everyone wants to determine school policies. Maybe having TOO much government oversight is a BAD thing.)
• Complacency & No Competition (In theory, Public Education allows for a utopia of learning for our children. Everyone has access and it is free. Because the vast majority of schools are public, the vast majority of the best teachers teach in them. Maybe that idea is not such a good idea. With no real competition to gage performance against, people simply assume that schools are doing the best job possible, and if they need a little more money in the budget, "it's for the children". The extra few dollars per person is not that much to bear (unless it's an override), and many people simply do not notice the massive amounts of money being spent on public education. In theory, communism is the perfect government utopia - but we know it doesn't work. Why can't we admit that the utopia of public education may not work either.)
• Costs going unnoticed (Did you know that Massachusetts State Law MANDATES that local school districts spend at least $10,000 per student per YEAR? Do we really need to spend THAT much money? Do we really need $50, $60, or $100 MILLION dollar schools? If someone told you to hand over $10,000 per child for their education, there is no way you would pay that much for the education without shopping around first. Why do we let our town simply pay itself $10,000 per KID? Because we don't pay it as a personal bill - we have the federal government chip in a little, the state gives us a little aid and less lottery money... and the rest is part of our property tax bill. But parents don't have to hand over that $10,000 per child, they have others pay for it... and a dollar apiece for 1000 people is a lot easier to swallow that $1000 for one person.)

ANYWAY, enough with my rant, and back to the main topic - High School students needing remedial work when entering college. I saw an article in the Boston Globe about this topic, and it led me to more research on the state website. I have included links to my major sources of info below.

According to a study just released by the state, 37% of high schoolers who graduated in 2005 and entered a public college (State College, State University or Community College) the following September were taking at least one remedial course in reading, writing or arithmetic. That is NOT good, because many of the normal, regular entry-level courses in these institutions are basically remedial courses - reintroduction to things students should have already learned - simple math and grammar classes.

However, Barnstable High (and Sturgis) students are outperforming the state average at 33% and 32%, respectively. To contrast, 100% of students at Springfield High, that's right 100%, enrolled in remedial classes. I glad that all Barnstable students are doing better than average, and while some bloggers in town have been overcritical of our schools, they are doing all right, but there is always room for improvement.

The study also included some other interesting information about other key statistics relating to the transition from high school to college. Barnstable students outperformed the state averages in SAT scores. While less students from Barnstable than the state average attended public schools, they were more likely to stay for a second year. Sturgis students had the same first year of college GPA as the state average (2.8) and Barnstable High students were just below at a 2.7. However, both Sturgis and Barnstable High Students took about three more credits than the state average. So, their relatively average GPAs came with more classwork.

While this is relatively good news about the educations received in our town, the fact is that the education in the entire country is breaking or is already broken. The education that students receive today pales in comparison to what was received 10, 20, 30, 40 or more years ago. What are the problems and what are we going to do to fix it?


Boston Globe - "Many Mass. graduates unprepared in college"
Massachusetts School-to-College Report: Class of 2005 Summary Data.pdf
Barnstable High - School-to-College Report: Class of 2005.pdf
Sturgis Charter Public School - School-to-College Report: Class of 2005.pdf

(ALL STATISTICS FOR CLASS OF 2005 HIGH SCHOOLERS ENROLLING IN A PUBLIC COLLEGE IN MASSACHUSETTS)

Barnstable Average SAT Scores:
Math: 547
Verbal: 554
Combined: 1101

Sturgis Average SAT Scores:
Math: 546
Verbal: 574
Combined: 1120

State Average SAT Scores:
Math: 536
Verbal: 526
Combined: 1061

Overall % of Students enrolled in remedial college classes Fall 2005
Barnstable: 33%
Sturgis: 32%
State: 37%
Springfield High School: 100%

% of Students who enrolled for Second year of state college in Fall 2006
Barnstable: 85%
Sturgis: 88%
State: 81%

Average First Year College GPA
Barnstable: 2.7
Sturgis: 2.8
State: 2.8

Average First Year Credits
Barnstable: 29
Sturgis: 29.2
State: 26.5