spring 2012 in brief: to graduation and beyond: college & career readiness in duval county

8/2/2019 Spring 2012 In Brief: To Graduation and Beyond: College & career readiness in Duval County

1/12

CONTENTS

Executive Summary 1

What is College & Career Readiess? 2

Class o 2011 4

Studet Spotlight 6

Recommedatios 10

ISSUE 3 / SPRING 2012

BRIEFA POlICy bRIEf Of ThE JACkSONvIllE PUblIC EdUCATION fUNd

TO GRAdUATION ANd bEyONd:College & career readiness in Duval County

ExECUTIvE SUmmARyTechnological advances over the last few decades have revolutionized the way we live,

work and interact at an unprecedented pace. As a result, the landscape of our economy ha

also experienced a rapid shift in the demand for highly-skilled workers possessing at leas

some advanced or specialized education beyond high school. In Northeast Florida alone,

recent study by the Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. (JCCI) reported that seven out othe top ten fastest growing elds in the Jacksonville metropolitan area right now require

at least some postsecondary education of qualied applicants.1

In this issue, we take a closer look

at what it means to be college and

career ready, and what Duval County

Public Schools (DCPS) is doing to

promote postsecondary readiness for

all its students. We found a number of

compelling statistics and critical areas

reform needed to create a strategic and

supportive college access pipeline for alstudents in DCPS and beyond.

The good news is that postsecondary readiness rates o DCPS graduates have steadilyrisen over the past ew years, thanks in large part to higher curriculum standards andacceleration programs put in place to promote college readiness by DCPS. Howeverthere still remains a large number o students not making it to graduation, and too manygraduates not prepared or college success. At Florida State College o Jacksonvillealone, nearly 60% o enrolling DCPS graduates require some orm o academicremediation prior to beginning work toward their degree.2

We ound that students who all behind in their course credits during the rst year ohigh school are at an extremely elevated risk or not graduating on time, and that AricanAmerican students in the district are disproportionately scoring below state college

readiness benchmarks on the SAT.

At the community level, we ound that there is no unied set o denitions, expectationsor inormation shared across institutions about what it means to be college and careerready. There is also no comprehensive system or tracking student outcomes rom K-12through postsecondary using one commonly dened set o goals and standards.

Our recommendations include the use o a single, streamlined student progress monitorinsystem within the district to better identiy students at risk o alling behind early, dedicatedand staed college access resource centers at every high school, and a community-widecollege access coalition to get all entities currently working on this issue on the same pagein a coordinated eort to increase the education level o all students in Jacksonville.

Postsecondary readiness

rates have risen over the

past few years, however

too many graduates are not

prepared for college success.

How may Duval Couty Public Schools

studets graduate rom high school

ready or college ad the workorce? This

is a importat questio that lays the

oudatio or eorts to improve public

educatio i Jacksoville.

I this issue, the Jacksoville Public Educatio

Fud takes a i-depth look at what it

meas to be college ad career ready, ad

what Duval Couty Public Schools (DCPS) is

doig to promote postsecodary readiess

or all its studets. We oud that readiess

is measured i may ways, but a umber o

compellig statistics idetiy critical areas

o reorm eeded to create a strategic ad

supportive college access pipelie or all

studets i DCPS.


2/12

COllEGE & CAREERREAdINESS IN dUvAl COUNTyWhy IS ThE ISSUE Of COllEGE ANd CAREERREAdINESS ImPORTANT?

Growing global demand for skilled workers, but America isunderproducing college graduates

Increase in college-ready high school graduates wouldcontribute millions to the local economy

Deeper pool of skilled workers would attract better jobs andmore innovation

How ready our public high school graduates are to succeed incollege and the workorce is not just important or those studentsand their amilies. It is also vital to the overall well-being o oureconomy as a whole. Nationwide, the unemployment rate orstudents without a high school degree is twice as high as it is orgraduates with at least an associate degree, and almost three timeshigher than it is or workers with a bachelors degree. This is not atrend that is likely to reverse in the uture.3

A recent Georgetown University study on workorce education andthe economy concluded that America has been underproducing

college-educated workers or decades with respect to the risingdemand or specialized skills and abilities and the global competitionor workers. As the study authors put it, the growing demand ortechnical sophistication has been coupled with a reduced need,oten as the result o automation, or unskilled labor. As an outcomeo these technological changes, there has been a persistent andongoing demand or more postsecondary education and training. 4

In Jacksonville, the impact o this change in the global economicmarketplace has been particularly acute. Over the past ve years,the largest employment sector o Northeast Floridas economyhas been the service industry (jobs such as restaurant workers,healthcare workers, and administrative support positions), thesector typically comprised o the lowest wage positions.5 These

types o jobs typically come with limited pay and benets, limitedroom or growth or most employees, and, in turn, severely limitthe amount o disposable income and job creation returned to theeconomy by its workers. Without a deeper pool o postsecondaryeducated candidates in the local workorce, Jacksonville willcontinue to struggle in attracting higher paying jobs to the areaand changing this trend.

A signicant increase in the number o postsecondary educatedworkers in the area would have positive ripple eects in the localeconomy or everyone. According to recent projections, about6,800 students dropped out rom the class o 2011 in NortheastFlorida (including Duval County students and surrounding

counties). I only 30% o those drop outs had graduated and gonon to earn a postsecondary degree, the projected impact to thelocal economy would have been:6

$37million in additional earnings over thosestudents lietimes $36million in additional annual spending $125million in additional home sales by the midpoint

o the students career $3million in additional annual vehicle sales

350newjobs created locally

Clearly, accelerating the transormation o Jacksonvilles labororce to one that oers a deeper pool o highly-skilled workersand innovators to attract higher-level jobs in a globally competitimarketplace is o critical importance. Beore we can make thathappen here, we need to have a better understanding o just whbeing college and career ready means and where our studentsstand today in relation to that goal.

WhAT dOES IT mEAN TO bE COllEGE ANd CAREER REAdy?

Understanding the path to graduation in Duval County Basic standardized test requirements for graduation and

college entrance

Benchmarks for postsecondary readiness

To understand the graduation and postsecondary readiness rateo DCPS in proper context, it is rst necessary to understandwhat is required o students to graduate in the district. The corecurriculum requirements that students must meet between 9th a12th grade in order to graduate with a standard diploma include

4 credits in English/Language Arts

4 credits in Mathematics (including Algebra I, Geometry,and Algebra II)

4 credits in Science (including Biology and eitherChemistry or Physics)

3 credits in Social Studies (including World History,American History, U.S. Government and Economics)

2 credits in Foreign Language 1 credit in Career Education or the Arts 1 credit in Physical Education 5 additional Elective credits

For students enrolled in accelerated or specialized progressionplans or with specically granted exceptions, there may be some

variations to these requirements.7 But or a general understandino the path to graduation or most students in DCPS, the 24-credcurriculum laid out above provides the core ramework orequirements that students must meet.

In addition to the coursework requirements, there are also basicstandardized test requirements that must be met or graduation awell. For students up through 2011, the basic testing requiremenor graduation has been passing the 10th grade FCAT or,alternatively, achieving a concordant score on theACT or SAT.8

For students aspiring to continue their education beyondhigh school, there are also additional postsecondary readiness

61%

39%

To become a globally competitive

marketplace we need to have a better

understanding of what being college

and career ready means and where our

students stand in relation to that goal today.


3/12

benchmarks to be met. Postsecondary readiness benchmarkstypically involve meeting higher achievement levels on the ACT,SAT or other accepted college placement test than the minimumthat would be required or high school graduation. Table 1shows the dierences in test score benchmarks between what isrequired to graduate versus what is required to also be consideredpostsecondary ready by Floridas state denition.

Now that we have a better idea about the path to graduation inDCPS and what it takes above and beyond that to be consideredpostsecondary ready, we want to take a closer look next at what DuvalCounty is doing to promote meeting these standards among its graduates.

WhAT IS dUvAl COUNTy dOING TO PROmOTE COllEGE ANdCAREER REAdINESS?

DCPS has raised curriculum standards beyond staterequirements

An increase in student participation and performance inacceleration programs

More career academies and technical programs

hIGh CURRICUlUm STANdARdS

One major step DCPS has taken to promote postsecondary readiness

among its graduates is to hold all students to higher curriculumstandards than the minimum required by state law. As a result, theDCPS graduation curriculum outlined on the previous page has,or the past several years, been more rigorous than what has beenrequired in many other counties. Course requirements such asBiology, Algebra II and Chemistry or Physics, which only recentlybecame mandatory or all students entering high school throughoutFlorida in 2011, were instituted as mandatory requirements in DuvalCounty as early as 2007.

DCPS also requires an additional Science credit and two ForeignLanguage credits above and beyond what are mandated by statelaw. From a coursework perspective, Duval Countys graduationrequirements are more aligned with the minimum admission

requirements o the State University System9 than with theminimum state high school requirements, indicating a concertedand laudable ocus on postsecondary readiness within the district.

ExPANSION Of ACCElERATION PROGRAmS

DCPS also oers a number o high school acceleration programsdesigned to allow students to begin taking college-levelcoursework in high school, many o which can count directlyas credits towards their degree in college. Every high school inDCPS oers at least one acceleration program option, including

Advanced International Certifcate o Education (AICE)programs atour schools, Early Collegeprograms at our schools, InternationalBaccalaureate (IB) diploma programs at six schools, andAdvanced

Placement (AP) Honors programs at ten schools.

A recent increased ocus on student participationin accelerated coursework at the state level overthe past ew years has led to a signicant jumpin the numbers o students taking some orm oaccelerated placement tests and courses in DCPSover the past ew years. From 2007 to 2011, thenumber o students passing AP, IB, or AICE examsdistrict-wide has risen by over 53%, rom just over5,000 students to nearly 7,800.10 It is important tonote, however, that some o this increase in the raw

numbers o students passing may also simply bedue to the act that more students are actually takinthese exams. According to state reports, while the raw numbers ostudents taking and passing AP exams specically has risen over thepast ew years, the actual rates o students passing the exams hasremained proportionately about the same, around 25%.11

Many o the courses in these programs are dual enrollmentcourses, which means students are earning credit towards highschool graduation and a college degree or career certicate at thsame time. The number o students enrolled in dual enrollmentcourses through FSCJ has grown by nearly 60% in the past twoyears (rom 1,573 students in 2009 to 3,829 in 2011) to becomethe largest dual enrollment program in the state.12

fOCUS ON WORkfORCE REAdINESS

Career and Technical Education programs (CTE), including careeracademies, are specialized programs o study and elective oeringsdesigned to provide students with practical, career orientedskills to prepare them or both the workorce and more rigorouspostsecondary education in their chosen eld o study.

The programs oered through the DCPS CTE and career academprograms are varied and cover, at least somewhere, each o the 1nationally recognized career clusters. Figure 1 shows the increasein CTE course enrollment as programs have been expanded overthe past ew years, with nearly 2,000 more students enrolled inCTE courses in 2012 than in 2009.

The top clusters or student enrollment in DCPS in 2011-2012were health science (982 students), inormation technology(936 students), business management and administration (920students) and hospitality and tourism (742 students).13

For some CTE and career academy students, ollowing throughon a specialized program o study can result in an industrycertication that can be taken directly into the workplace, or

Test (Subsecti)Mi. HS raduati(as FCAT at.)

Mi. PstsecdaryReadiess

Mi. State UiersitySystem Admissi

ACT (Reading) 18 18 19

ACT (English) --- 17 18

ACT (Math) 15 19 19

SAT (Critical Reading) 420 440 460

SAT (Math) 340 440 460

TABLE 1

TOTAl CAREER ANd TEChNICAl EdUCATIONENROllmENT IN dCPS, 2009-2012

4117

2009 2010 2011 20120

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

4902

64476115

FIG 1

Source: Duval County Public Schools


4/12

can give them a head start as they pursue urther postsecondarytraining in their eld. The number o students who earn industrialcertications by the time they graduate is relatively small butincreasing rom 113 industry certications earned by students inthe district in 2009 to 272 in 2011.14

hOW ARE ThESE EffORTS WORkING?

Early indicators of on-time graduation

Signicant disparities among demographic subgroups

Average postsecondary readiness scores are belowrequirements at top state universities

There are at least two important ways that this question needs tobe considered. First, how is the district doing in getting studentsto graduation on time and meeting postsecondary readinessstandards? And, second, what is happening with those studentsater they leave high school?

For the rst question we ollowed a cohort o DCPS studentsover our years to see what lessons we could learn about who isgraduating college and career ready. For the second question,we pulled together inormation rom a variety o postsecondary

outcome tracking sources to try to get a more completeunderstanding o college-going success rates or students aterthey graduate rom DCPS.

ClASS Of 2011We began with a cohort o9,509 students entering 9thgrade across duval county in theall o 200715 and ollowed themacross the next our years tolearn more about their progresstowards graduation and theirpostsecondary readiness statusby the time they were projectedto graduate on time rom highschool. The entering cohort o9th graders was predominantlyArican-American and White,evenly divided between malesand emales, 37% ree orreduced-price lunch eligible,and only a little over 4% Englishlanguage learners. Nearly 90%o incoming 9th graders in thiscohort were on the Academic

(or standard) progression plan,with less than 3% o studentseach in any other specializedor accelerated progressionoptions.

ON-TImE GRAdUATIONThe rst thing we looked at

was whether there were anyidentiable pattern differences

between those students who

graduated on time and those who did not. In the columns ofTable2, we can see how the demographic breakdowns of the differentoutcome groups in the spring of 2011 compare with the originalcomposition of the total sample.

Females, white students, and students not receiving ree orreduced-price lunch (FRL) all comprise a higher portion o the Ontime Graduates group than they did in the entering sample. MaleArican-American students, and students receiving ree or reduceprice lunch are all overrepresented in the Remaining in Districtgroup relative to their proportions in the whole group. Looking

down the last column, we see similarly that Arican-Americanstudents and students receiving ree or reduced-price lunch arealso overrepresented in the Conrmed Dropout or PermanentWithdrawal group.

We also looked at a number o academic and behavioral progresbenchmarks across each group to see i they might provideadditional insight about what indicators may be associated withincreased risk or not graduating on time. One clear indicator thastood out is the number o total credits earned by the end o astudents rst year in high school.

In Duval Countys 24-credit base curriculum, an entering 9th gradeshould theoretically complete six credits by the end o their rst ye

to be mathematically on-track or nishing in our years. We oundthat those students who did successully graduate within our years

All relationships between variable and outcome status were statistically signicant.

EnTERInG 9THGRADE COHORT

On-TIMEGRADUATES

REMAInInG InDISTRICT

COnFIRMED DROPOUTPERM. WITHDRAWAL

Geder

Female 50.1% 54.8% 39.2% 49.9%

Male 49.9% 45.2% 60.8% 50.1%

EthicityAsian 3.9% 5.3% 2.3% 2.1%

African-American 45.3% 40.3% 59.8% 58.7%

Hispanic 6.1% 5.6% 5.9% 4.9%

White 41.1% 44.9% 28.1% 31.9%

Multiracial/N.A./Other 3.7% 3.8% 3.9% 2.5%

Free/Reduced Luch Status

Receives free/reduced price lunch 37.2% 28.7% 52.5% 51.4%

TABLE 2

STUDEnTS In GROUP... WERE... MORE LIKELY TO...

Male 1.36 x NOT graduate on-time than female students

African-American 1.74 x NOT graduate on-time than non-African-American students

White 1.18 x GRADUATE on-time than non-White students

Receiving free/reduced pricelunch (FRL)

2.0 x NOT graduate on-time than non-FRL students

English language learners (ELL) 1.67 x NOT graduate on-time than non-ELL students

1st year off-track (


5/12

o entering high school actually averaged nearly eight credits intheir rst year, putting themselves well ahead o the pace. O thegroups that either remained in the district at the end o our years ordropped out somewhere along the way, many ell behind the paceon their credits within their rst year and never caught up.

To think about it another way, in Table 3, we looked at the relativerisk o not graduating or students in each group versus studentsnot in that group. I an indicator made no dierence in thelikelihood o a student graduating on time or not, the relative risk

would be 1 (indicating that, all else being equal, a student in thatgroup is just as likely to graduate on time as any other student).

Clearly, being behind the pace in in credits by the end o the rstyear o high school was ar and away the indicator that put studentsat the most elevated risk o not graduating on time. Students inthis sample who had completed ewer than six credits by the endo their rst year were nearly our times as likely to not graduateon time or at all than those who successully completed at least sixcredits. This nding is also consistent with national research whichhas similarly identied staying on pace or ahead o pace in coursecredits during the rst year o high school as one o the mostsignicant predictors o on-time graduation available.16

In addition, Arican-American students, students qualiying or ree or

reduced-price lunch (FRL) and English language learners (ELL) wereall between one to two times more likely to not graduate on time thanon-Arican American, non-FRL, or non-ELL students, respectively.

POSTSECONdARy REAdINESS

O those students who did graduate on time, we also looked atwhether patterns o meeting college readiness benchmarks varieamong dierent subgroups o graduates.

In Figure 2, we see a plot o SAT perormance scores among 20DCPS on-time graduates by race. The solid red reerence linesshown indicate the minimum college-ready SAT score thresholdset by the state o Florida to indicate whether a student requiresremediation at the postsecondary level.17 The results or whitestudents (red marks) were airly evenly dispersed across thespectrum o possible scores. However there appears to be adisproportionate concentration o Arican-American studentscores (blue marks) in the lower let region o the gure, belowand around the college-readiness threshold cutos.

We ound similar, though less pronounced, patterns whenlooking at students scores by ree and reduced price lunchstatus, with students receiving ree or reduced price lunch

tending to score lower than those who did not.

Because the state minimum college-readiness thresholds orhigh school graduates are not necessarily aligned with theminimum acceptance standards or all colleges and universitiewe also added in the dotted reerence lines indicating theaverage SAT scores o the 25th percentile o last year s incomireshmen class or each o the top ive universities that DCPSgraduates tend to enroll in each year.18

When looking at student perormance with reerence tothese lines, we see with much starker emphasis how quicklythe expected standards move up or the more competitiveuniversities, and how much arther away acceptance at those

700

600

500

400

300

200

SATmAThmATICS

SAT CRITICAl REAdING

800700600500400300200

FIG 2

Uf (mATh)

fSU (mATh)

UNf (mATh)

PS REAdy (mATh)

fSCJ (mATh)fAmU (mATh)

Uf(REAdING)

fSU(REAdING)

UNf(REAdING)

PSREAdy(REAdING)

fAmU(REAdING)

fSCJ(REAdING)

STUdENT EThNICITy

Arican-American

Asian

Hispanic

Other, Multicultura

White

We see with stark emphasis how quickly the

expected standards move up for the more

competitive universities, and how much

further away acceptance to those schools is for

students scoring just at or around the state-

determined minimum readiness threshold.

ClASS Of 2011 SAT PERfORmANCE vS. STATE bENChmARkS (REd lINES)ANd 25Th PERCENTIlE Of ENTERING fREShmAN ClASS AT fIvE INSTITUTIONS (dOTTEd lINES)

Source: Duval County Public SchoJacksonville Public Education Fun


6/12

SPOTlIGhTON:EbONyJOhNSON

EbONy JOhNSONfROm PREPARATION TO COllEGE REAdINESSAs a rising junior at Raines High School, Ebony Johnson wasdetermined to go to college, but she was oten unsure how toprepare. Johnson attended Saturday school, looking to gainadditional skills, but it turned out to be mostly remediation.She began to pick up dictionaries and read them, hoping theincrease in her vocabulary would help.

She signed up to take the SAT and ACT. Yet where some studentstake hours o practice tests and study sessions or the collegeentrance exams, Johnson had little preparation beyond readingthe booklet that came with the registration packets. And whenit came to applying to college and signing up or nancial aid,Johnson was at a loss. No one in her amily had ever attended auniversity, so their guidance wasnt part o the equation.

I just didnt know what I should be doing, she said. I notor the Hicks Prep Club and the Jacksonville Commitment,Johnson might not be on track to graduate this spring withhonors rom University o North Florida with a bachelorsdegree in sociology and criminal justice.

Johnson was selected to be part o the rst class o scholarsselected by the Jacksonville Commitment, a partnershipamong Duval County Public Schools, the City o Jacksonvilleand the citys our colleges and universities that undsscholarships and college counselors or students in need.As part o the rst class o Commitment Scholars, Johnson hadmoved on to UNF beore the advisors went into the schools.Such counsel would have made a big dierence.

Instead o reading a dictionary, Johnson could have beendirected to SAT prep classes, advised on the best classes totake to get into college and paired with a mentor who couldtake her on campus visits or coach her on her applicationessays all best practices recommended by the NationalCollege Access Network (NCAN) or programs that work toimprove postsecondary success or students.

The lynchpin in Johnsons success was the Hicks Prep Club, acollege preparation program or students whose amilies take

part in public housing. Hicks Prep helped her ll out nancialaid orms and college applications, a complex task or whichshe had no other guidance. And when she was younger, thepromise o a college scholarship kept Johnson on track.According to NCAN, developing college aspirations beorehigh school begins has a strong eect on whether a studentwill attend college.

Knowing I would have a way to pay or college kept me

going, she said. I kids are taught early on that they havepossibilities, it makes a dierence. A bright student whois now researching the college readiness o JacksonvilleCommitment scholars with a proessor, Johnson believesher academic preparation was uneven. In addition to moreguidance on college access, Johnson believes rmly thatensuring that all schools provide equal access to high qualityinstruction would make the biggest dierence in collegereadiness among the students she now mentors.

Academically, the lasting impact o her high school AdvancedPlacement English teacher prepared Johnson to get As on hercollege essays. Mr. Bailey still grades my papers, in my mindat least, she said. He would always tell us, You are going towrite or me as i I was a college proessor. I we had to writeit 30 times, he would make you do that. Despite scoring a 4out o 5 on AP English Composition, Johnson struggled to buildstudy skills and she elt her knowledge o history was lacking.I elt like I had to try harder, she said. There were skills otherpeople had that I didnt have.

Best practice recommendations rom NCAN show thatprograms must ollow high school students to mentor, monitorand support them while they are enrolled in college. ForJohnson, that support took the orm o a computer purchasedor her by Hicks Prep a college necessity that wouldotherwise have been out o reach.

Knowing I would have a way to pay

for college kept me going, she said. If

kids are taught early on that they have

possibilities, it makes a difference.


7/12

schools is or students scoring just at or aroundthe state-determined minimum readiness

threshold.

bEyONd GRAdUATION

Sources of information are fractured andthere are no agreed upon standards forpostsecondary success

More DCPS students are enrolling in college

after graduation

Two-thirds of DCPS graduates attendingcollege go to FSCJ or UNF

From the district data we now have a better senseo some o the important issues that need to beaddressed in getting students to graduate highschool on-time and college ready. Connectingthat with actual postsecondary outcomes inthe years to ollow is much more complicated.Inormation about postsecondary enrollmentor employment status o students ater highschool is oten incomplete or monitored bymultiple dierent agencies in dierent ways andor dierent purposes. As a result, there is no commonly agreed-upon standard as to what the denitive measures o postsecondarysuccess are, nor is there any single source o inormation that canaddress all the issues alone.

Over the next ew sections, we look at measures o postsecondaryoutcomes or DCPS students rom a number o dierent sources tobegin piecing together a more comprehensive understanding owhat actually happens to DCPS students ater they graduate.

fETPIP dATA : COmPARING OUTCOmES STATEWIdE

Data provided by the Florida Education & Training Placement InormationProgram (FETPIP) is one o the most commonly used sources o inormationor evaluating student postsecondary education and employmentoutcomes within the state. FETPIP data is useul or comparing resultsand trends between dierent districts in Florida, as well as or comparingresults or specic schools to district and statewide averages. Two important

limitations to keep in mind when using FETPIP data are, rst, that it doesnot include students at certain private, proprietary, or otherwise non-participating institutions or students not employed through a reportingagency that participates in FETPIP; and second, that there is a two-year lagin the most recently available FETPIP data so it may not refect the impact more recent policy or program changes.

The benet o looking at FETPIP data is that it is still the bestpublically available source or comparing postsecondary studentoutcomes between schools or districts within the state.

In Figure 3, we see some FETPIP outcomes or Duval Countysclass o 2009 compared to the same graduates rom the ve othelargest districts in Florida. By this data, Duval County perormedevenly with Hillsborough and Orange counties with about 66% ograduates rom the class o 2009 currently ound continuing somlevel o postsecondary education, and about 4-6% below the rateor Miami, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

ClASS Of 2009 STUdENT OUTCOmE COmPARISONS

66%

dUvAl mIAmI bROWARd hIllSbOROUGh

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

FIG 3

ORANGE PAlm bEACh

80%

45%

73%

39%

73%

39%

66%

44%

66%

43%

71%

42%

Total Found Continuingtheir Education

Found Employed

NSC ENROllmENT TRENdS fOR dCPS GRAdUATES, 2004-2011

53%

2004

40%

45%

50%

55%

60%

65%

70%

75%

FIG 4

80%

57%

% Enrolled in Fall immediatelyater graduation

% Enrolled any time duringyear ollowing graduation

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

59%

66%

Source: FETPIP

Source: National Student Clearinghouse


8/12

NSC dATA: TRACkING STUdENTS NATIONWIdE

The National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) is a non-protorganization established to serve as a central collection andreporting agency or the student enrollment, progress andgraduation status records o its participating member institutions,including over 3,300 public and private higher educationinstitutions throughout the country.

In addition to being more current than FETPIP data, NSC data is muchmore specic in tracking breakdowns o students college enrollmentand success indicators, including: where students are enrolled, howmany students persist in their studies each year ater entering college;exactly when along the way students enrolled, dropped out, returned

or graduated with a degree; and how these rates compare betweeneach graduating class over the past several years.

In Figure 4, we see that the percentage o DCPS graduatesenrolled in college immediately by the all o their rst year aterhigh school (blue line) has increased some, though not verymuch, over the past several years. We see a more pronouncedgrowth in the percentage o graduates enrolled anytime duringthe year ollowing high school (red line), suggesting perhapsan increase in the number o students who didnt realize howimportant having some type o postsecondary education was totheir job prospects until ater they graduated and spent sometime in the job market or the rst time.

In Figure 5, we see the top 10 postsecondary institutions at whichDCPS graduates between 2004 and 2011 enrolled in ollowingtheir graduation. Between Florida State College at Jacksonville(49%) and University o North Florida (17%), about two-thirds oDCPS graduates who go on to college enroll in these two localinstitutions. Knowing this allows us to take a closer look at howcollege-ready DCPS graduates are by the standards o thoseuniversities where they are most likely to enroll.

fSCJ dATA : COSTS Of REmEdIATION

Because FSCJ and UNF are by ar the top two institutions in termo the numbers o students rom DCPS enrolling ater high schoowe took a closer look at how successully prepared they were ormeeting the specic expectations at each. However, these twoschools are dierent in many ways, so criteria or what it means tobe ready to succeed at each school can be very dierent.

REAdINESS Of dCPS GRAdUATES ENTERING fSCJ IN 2009 FIG

58.9%

41.1%

Required Remediation

College-Ready

There is no commonly agreed-upon

standard as to what the defnitive measures

of postsecondary success are, nor is there

any single source of information that can

address all the issues alone.

TOP 10 ENROllmENT INSTITUTIONS fOR dCPS GRAdUATES, 2004-2011

0%

Tallahassee Community College

Santa Fe College

Jacksonville University

University of Central Florida

Florida A&M University

Florida State University

University of Florida

University of North Florida

FIG 5

Florida State College at Jacksonville

Bethune-Cookman University

10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

49.2%

17.3%

6.2%

6.2%

4.8%

3.8%

1.8%

1.6%

1.5%

1.2%

Source: National Student Clearinghouse

Source: Florida State College at Jacks


9/12

At FSCJ, we were interested in college readiness as measuredby the percent o students rom DCPS who required any orm oremediation prior to being able to begin coursework towardstheir degree. The overall remediation rates can be somewhatmisleading in discussions about public K-12 reorm because theyalso include adult rst-time and returning learners who we wouldnot expect to represent an accurate refection o a recent publicschool preparation.

In Figure 6, we isolated the remediation rates or only thosestudents who enrolled at FSCJ or the rst time, directly out oDCPS, in the all o 2009. Here we see that o those students,

58.9% o them required some sort o remediation beore beingready to enroll in credit-bearing coursework. Only 41.1% arrivedcollege-ready or with no need or any remediation. For thenearly 60% o students requiring remediation, the averageamount o remediation required was 5.9 credit hours in Reading,Math or Writing just to get their basic skills up to minimumcollege level. At $85.16 per credit hour (in 2009), that meansthat these students on average had to spend over $500 in tuitionor student loans beore even earning one college-level credittowards their degree.19

Beginning in 2011 a new state law required schools to test allstudents or postsecondary readiness beore they reach 12th

grade and, i necessary, to provide any remediation courseworkthey may need beore they graduate.20 On the positive side, thihas already helped to save some students the cost o paying othat remediation when they get to college. However there arealso serious concerns about the impact o adding an extra layero testing requirements on students and coursework optioncosts to the districts budget at a time they can hardly aord it. Apromising pilot partnership with FSCJ to provide the remediatioat some DCPS high schools has helped ease at least part o thisburden in the early stages o implementation.

UNf dATA : kEyS TO PERSISTENCE ANd SUCCESS

Because o a comparatively more selective application processthan FSCJ and other open-access state colleges, UNF tendsto deal less with academic remediation needs or its incomingstudents and more with other readiness and adjustment actors.Two major benchmarks that UNF tracks to measure studentsuccess are rst-year persistence rates (the percent o studentswho return ater their rst year to continue working towards theirdegree), and six-year graduation rates.

In Figure 7, we see the persistence and graduation rates orthe past ve cohorts o students entering UNF rom DCPS.The percent o students rom DCPS persisting with theirpostsecondary education beyond their rst year has increasedsignicantly at UNF since 2007, up to as high as 89% o rst yea

students continuing in 2011. The six-year college graduationrate or DCPS students at UNF, however, has remained relativelyunchanged over the past ve years and highlights an area orimportant exploration. What is still causing students to losetheir way between returning or their second year and actuallycompleting their degree?

In their own studies, UNF ound SAT score and high school gradepoint average (GPA) to be the two most predictive incomingreadiness indicators o likely college success or their students more so than FCAT scores or AP coursework participation.21

PERSISTENCE ANd GRAdUATION RATES fOR PAST fIvE COhORTS Of dCPS GRAdUATES AT UNf

78%

2006 | 2002 2007 | 2003 2008 | 2004 2009 | 2005

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

2010 | 2006

80%

47%

76%

42%

82%

47%

85%

49%

89%

46%

First-Year Persistence Rates

Six-Year Graduation Rates

FIG 7

90%

UNF found that SAT score and high school

grade point average (GPA) to be the

two most predictive incoming readiness

indicators of likely college success for

studentsmore so than FCAT scores or AP

coursework participation.

ENTERING ClASS yEAR

Source: University of North Florida


10/120

dISTRICT RECOmmENdATIONS

Increased Monitoring and Support for High School Transition:Implement a single, streamlined, district-wide student progressmonitoring system. The system should include indicators to helpteachers and administrators identiy students early who are at riskor alling behind and provide appropriate intervention and supportbeore they do.

Models o high quality student monitoring systems exist in anumber o cities around the country, such as the GraduationTracker developed by Bostons Plan or Excellence in the PublicSchools. For more inormation about how systems like this arealready working in other districts, visit www.JaxPEF.org.

Dedicated College Access Centers and Support Staff at All HighSchools: As seen in Figure 8, student caseloads or districtguidance councelors have grown increasingly unmanageableover the past several years. Working with community partners toplace dedicated college access resource centers and sta at everyhigh school would help to alleviate at least some o the limitationson college counseling time or students arising rom this. Enlisting

community partners to help create and operate these centersallows the sta to remain independent rom other school-basedresponsibilities (such as administering or managing standardizedtests) to remain completely ocused on postsecondary planningand support or students.

One example o this type o successul partnership already working

Special thanks to the Duval County Public Schools (Department o Instructional Research and Accountability; Career and TechnicalEducation; Oce o High School Programs; Guidance Services; Communications Department) Florida State College at Jacksonville

Jacksonville Community Council, Inc.; JAXUSA; The Jacksonville Commitment; University o North Florida; WorkSource.

We recomend a streamlined, district-wide

student progress monitoring system that

includes indicators to help teachers and

administrators identify students early who a

at risk for falling behind and provide approp

intervention and support before they do.

WhAT NEEdS TO bE dONE?

AvERAGE STUdENT TO GUIdANCE COUNSElOR RATIOSIN dCPS hIGh SChOOlS (2008-2012)

FIG 8

Recommended Ratio:250:1

GUIdANCE COUNSElOR

DCPS HS Ratio(2012): 448:1

DCPS HS Ratio(2008): 405:1

Source: Duval County Public Schools

at some o the districts most high needs high schools is TheJacksonville Commitment. For more inormation about best practicand how The Jacksonville Commitment and other successul schoobased college access partnerships work, visitwww.JaxPEF.org.

COmmUNITy RECOmmENdATIONS

Alignment of expectations, standards, goals and information:Create a community-wide college access coalition involving theschool district, local universities, business leaders, policy makersand advocacy organizations to identiy a common set o goals,denitions, and inormation systems to be shared across the grou

This coalition should become the core driver o a unied eorttoward creating a college-going culture and attracting high-qual

jobs to Jacksonville.

Examples o community-wide college access monitoringcollaborations have been appearing in cities all around the countryrecently, including particularly strong models in Chicago and MiamFor more inormation on these community-wide collaborative collegaccess models, along with additional online content, resources andinormation on what you can do to get involved or continue theconversation, please visit us atwww.JaxPEF.org.


11/12

ACT: The ACT (o acroym) is a stadardized test or high schoolachievemet ad college admissios produced by ACT, Ic. The ACTmeasures kowledge through multiple-choice respose items i ourcotet areas, Eglish, Mathematics, Readig, ad Sciece Reasoig,with a additioal (optioal) Writig assessmet also available.

Advaced Iteratioal Certifcate o Educatio (AICE): AICE isa iteratioally recogized, pre-uiversity curriculum adexamiatio system, sposored by the Uiversity o Cambridge

Iteratioal Examiatios.

Advaced Placemet (AP): AP courses allow studets to pursuecollege-level studies while still i high school. Based o theirperormace o rigorous AP Exams, studets ca ear credit,advaced placemet, or both, or college.

Career academies: Career academies are defed by the stateDepartmet o Educatio as small, persoalized learig commuitieswithi a high school that select a subset o studets ad teachers ora two-, three-, or our-year spa to ocus o a college-prep curriculumwith a career theme, icorporatig parterships with employers, thecommuity, ad higher educatio.

Career clusters: The natioal Career Clusters Framework is aatioally recogized ramework or orgaizig ad deliverigquality CTE programs o study usig 16 larger career clusters tologically group more tha 79 career pathways programs by commoidustry areas.

Early College: The Early College Program bleds high school adcollege courses to eable studets to ear a high school diplomaad a Associate degree with miimal facial cost. I grades 11ad 12, Early College studets are erolled ull-time at FSCJ. TheEarly College Program provides studets greater access to higher

educatio ad promotes studet achievemet at the high schoolad postsecodary levels.

Iteratioal Baccalaureate (IB): The IB Diploma Program is aiteratioally recogized pre-uiversity course o study, desigedto help studets develop the itellectual, persoal, emotioal adsocial skills to live, lear ad work i a rapidly globalizig world.

Postsecodary readiess: Geerally reers to the degree to which

studets are prepared to meet the academic demads o ogoigeducatio at a college, uiversity, or techical traiig istitutioater high school without eed or remediatio. Sometimes alsoused to reer to the emotioal, procedural or facial readiesso studets to successully cotiue their educatio beyod highschool. This term is ote used iterchageably with the termscollege readiess or college ad career readiess.

Relative risk: Simple calculatio used to estimate the risk o aoutcome (i this case, graduatig rom high school o-time or ot)relative to beig i a certai group. Relative risk is a ratio o theprobability o the outcome occurrig i the target group beigcosidered versus studets ot i that group.

Remediatio: Term used to reer to remedial educatio or studetscosidered academically uderprepared or higher educatio.Studets who eter college without the ecessary readig, writigor math skills to compete with their college peers must completea certai amout o remediatio coursework or testig beoreerollig i college-level credit coursework towards their degree.

SAT: The SAT (o acroym) is a stadardized test or high schoolachievemet ad college admissios produced by the CollegeBoard. The SAT measures kowledge i three cotet areas, CriticalReadig, Mathematics, ad Writig.

1Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. (2011). Recession, Recovery andBeyond. Jacksonville, FL. (http://goo.gl/BL64Q)

2 Florida State College at Jacksonville, Student Analytics and Research.Reported as o 02/12

3 U.S. Dept. o Labor, Bureau o Labor Statistics. (2010). Employmentprojections. (http://goo.gl/ScLrb)

4 Center on Education and the Workorce. (2011). The UndereducatedAmerica. Georgetown University, Washington, DC. (http://goo.gl/I2Ojc)

5 Worksource. (2011). Connecting workers to jobs: WorksourceComprehensive 2-year plan 2011-2012. (http://goo.gl/xwJwH)

6 Alliance or Excellent Education. Economic Impact Report for JacksonvilleMSA. Projections as o 02/2012.

7 For denitions and more inormation on dierent DCPS progression planoptions, go to (http://goo.gl/FByY8)

8 Beginning in 2011, testing requirements or mathematics perormancechanged as specic End o Course exams replaced the MathematicsFCAT or high school students.

9 State University System Admissions (http://goo.gl/L4L8i)

10 Duval County Public Schools Strategic Plan End o Year Data Dashboard(http://goo.gl/XvJVM)

11 FL Department o Education, ACT/SAT/AP Data (http://goo.gl/Crk2o)

12FL Department o Education, Dual Enrollment Trending Upward in the FloridaCollege System (http://goo.gl/jRmi6)

13 DCPS Career and Technical Education. Reported as o 02/12

14 Ibid.

15 For the purpose o this study, students with certain primary exceptionalities,including students identied with serious or proound mental handicaps,traumatic brain injury or Autism spectrum disorder, and students in dedicatedcenters such as exceptional student centers and juvenile justice schools wereremoved rom the sample prior to analysis.

16 Allensworth, E.M. & Easton, J. Q. (2005). The on-track indicator as a predictorof high school graduation. Consortium on Chicago School Research. Universityo Chicago. (http://goo.gl/nZsSZ)

17 The SAT is one o three postsecondary placement tests that may be usedto determine postsecondary readiness in Florida., along with the ACT andP.E.R.T.. Some students in this cohort may have taken one o the alternateexams and not be represented here.

18 National Student Clearinghouse. (2011). StudentTracker for High SchoolsAggregate Report. Prepared or Duval County School Districts.

19 Florida State College at Jacksonville, Student Analytics and Research.Reported as o 03/12

20 MyFloridaHouse.gov. (2011). CS/CS/HB 1255, Engrossed 2 (http://goo.gl/VttII)

21 University o North Florida, Oce o Institutional Research. Reported as o 01/12


12/12

BRIEFA POlICy bRIEf Of ThE JACkSONvIllE PUblIC EdUCATION fUNd

245 Riverside Avenue, Suite 310

Jacksonville, FL 32202

-

FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL 904 356 7757 OR VISIT WWW JAXPEF ORG

NON-PROFIT OR

US POSTAGE

PAIDJACKSONVILLE,

PERMIT NO 34

The Jacksoville Public Educatio Fud is a

idepedet Local Educatio Fud dedicated to

improvig the quality o educatio so that all studets

graduate rom Duval Couty Public Schools career

ad college-ready. Our three areas o work iclude

high-quality research o best practices ad studet

achievemet, commuity mobilizatio to elicit civic

voice ad actio, ad advocacy to improve policies

ad practices. JPEF works to build collaborative

parterships with key educatio stakeholders

throughout the Jacksoville commuity, across

geographic, racial ad political lies.

JPEF is also a member o the Public Educatio

network, a atioal orgaizatio o Local Educatio

Fuds, through which it is able to leverage atioal

best practices ad udig sources to support reorm

eorts i Duval Couty.

FoR MoRE InFoRMATIon, CAll 904-356-7757oR vISIT www.JAxPEF.oRg.

TO GRAdUATION ANd bEyONd:College & career readiness in Duval County

spring 2012 in brief: to graduation and beyond: college & career readiness in duval county

Documents