Commission for a College Ready Texas

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News

Changing mindset step toward getting more students in college
Midland Reporter-Telegram, Ruth Campbell
Preparedness for college life continues to lag
Star Telegram, John Austin
Filling in potholes on College Road
Star Telegram, Linda Campbell

Changing mindset step toward getting more students in college, Midland Reporter-Telegram
By RUTH CAMPBELL

-Commission for a College Ready Texas holds first regional meeting in Midland.

Smaller class sizes, community involvement and changing the mindset of students and parents about higher education can help bring more students into higher education, according to officials testifying at a regional Commission for a College Ready Texas meeting Tuesday.

Dozens of educators, business people, chamber officials and other interested parties from across the region attended the meeting, held in the Roadrunner Room at Scharbauer Student Center at Midland College.

Officials noted people in West Texas tend to think college is a waste of time and money when you can make a good living in the oilfield. Although sectors of the industry, such as engineers and geologists, go to college and get advanced degrees.

Suggestions and incentives for getting more students into college -- and to complete college -- were presented through testimony by local college officials.

Under House Bill 1, passed in 2006, there are state vertical teams mainly made up of college officials. University of Texas of the Permian Basin President David Watts said there should be regional vertical teams as well.

"West Texas as a region has one of the lowest college going rates in the state," Watts said. "We have been, and are, working on that."

The last U.S. census showed people with a college degree earned $1 million more than high school graduates in their lifetimes. College graduates also report higher levels of happiness, probably the result of making more money, Watts said.

College graduates also report better health, better ability to deal with serious illness, longer lifespans and participate more in civic life.

Watts suggests leveling the playing field for all higher education. Tuition can be waived by community colleges, but not universities.

Universities can't offer courses on public school property, he said.

He said testing levels need to be agreed upon, especially in English and math. Watts said these are important because they contribute to student success.

Recent diagnostic test results found 80 percent of students needed remedial math. Watts said UTPB will do intensive tutorials and have the students re-take the tests.

Midland College Vice President of Instruction Rex Peebles, a panel member, said 80 percent is "disappointing, but not uncommon."

Higher education should also be appropriately funded. Watts said he is grateful for tuition deregulation, but it has created a barrier -- whether real or perceived -- to college.

Odessa College Vice President of Instruction Clayton Alred said having a highly trained educated workforce is critical, but so is the mindset and commitment of students and their families to attend college.

Alred recommends doing everything possible to expand bridge programs between high school and college, expanding prekindergarden through college alignment and educating the public and parents of students. He suggested a public relations campaign similar to "Don't Mess with Texas."

Ector County ISD Temporary Interim Superintendent Hector Mendez said everyone needs a solid foundation to start with through prekindergarden or early childhood education.

Midland ISD Superintendent Sylvester Perez said he would like state and federal accountability to be more aligned. Currently, if a school is academically acceptable under state standards, it may not meet federal No Child Left Behind requirements.

"It causes a lot of confusion and it plays out in the media," Perez said.

Internal dropout rates show MISD with a 31 percent rate from ninth through 12th grade, but what it reports to the state is lower because the Texas Education Agency has a different reporting mechanism, officials said.

Perez said that 31 percent figure tracks state and federal rates. Variables can include early graduates or students who move to other districts or states and aren't tracked.

"So we're all in bad shape," Perez said.

Teacher pay is another issue, Perez said. Texas is in the 30th percentile in the nation for teacher pay. "We have eight positions open at MISD and almost all are in math," he said.

Panel members Tuesday included Jose Cuevas Jr., founder and president of JumBurrito; Rex C. Peebles, vice president of instruction, Midland College; and Lorraine Perryman, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, secretary of the board.

The commission is chaired by Austin attorney and education policy leader Sandy Kress. Ex-officio members of the CCRT include Acting Commissioner of Education Robert Scott, Texas Education Agency, and Commissioner Raymund Paredes, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Cuevas said a draft of the commission's report will be out in the fall and the final report is due out in early 2008.

The commission's goal is to provide support to the vertical teams and the State Board of Education regarding House Bill 1 requirements.

The law requires vertical teams of educators to define college readiness and the SBOE to re-align high school curriculum and develop online instructional resources for students and professional development for educators.

The authority to incorporate college readiness standards into Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) rests with the SBOE.

Source: http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=18702993&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475626&rfi=8

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Preparedness for college life continues to lag, Star Telegram
By JOHN AUSTIN, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

ARLINGTON -- National efforts to improve higher education readiness are no better than they were a decade ago, according to some researchers. That's the message that members of the Commission for a College Ready Texas heard Tuesday during a meeting at the University of Texas at Arlington.

The commission is working to ensure that high school graduates are prepared for those learning opportunities. Gov. Rick Perry appointed the commission members in March to study aligning high school curriculum and college standards.

In California, for example, millions of dollars are spent every year to teach college students material they should already know, a university official told commissioners. The California State University system, which has 23 campuses and about 400,000 students, spends about $30 million annually on remediation, said Beverly Young, an assistant vice chancellor for the California system.

To cut those costs, the CSU system has implemented a wide-ranging program to improve students' chances in college by assessing them as high school juniors, giving them extra preparation in their senior year and providing teachers with more professional development.

Nancy Brynelson, co-director of CSU's Center for the Advancement of Reading, said that, so far, she'd give the program an "A for effort and design, a C minus for results."

Although readiness standards of Texas high schools and colleges have not been well-aligned, Texas is in better shape than California, said Eric Hanushek, a researcher at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and at the University of Texas at Dallas. But Hanushek said there's a long way to go.

"If the average Texas high school student was brought up to the standards of the top states in the U.S., they could expect to earn 8 or 10 percent more per year for the rest of their life," Hanushek said. "

What is college readiness?
Students are college ready when they have the knowledge, skills and behaviors to successfully complete a college course without remediation, according to the College Board, the organization known for the SAT.

Remediation is teaching students what they should already know.

What does remediation cost?
Nationwide, about $1 billion annually, according to a 2004 report, "Crisis at the Core," issued by ACT, the nonprofit organization known for the college entrance exam of the same name.

Will more testing solve college readiness challenges?
It'll take more than that, Thomas Rudin, senior vice president for advocacy, government relations and development for the College Board, told commissioners at the Tuesday meeting. He said better preparation is needed.

"You don't make a hog fatter just by weighing him," Rudin said. "You've got to feed him, too."

Source: http://www.star-telegram.com/arlington_news/story/187432.html

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Filling in potholes on College Road, Star Telegram
By LINDA P. CAMPBELL, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

In seven months or so, draft a plan for making sure that more Texas students leave high school prepared for college.

Easy as passing advanced placement calculus?

That's the task of the Commission on a College Ready Texas, which Gov. Rick Perry appointed earlier this year to gather and assimilate information on ways to smooth the bumps and fill the potholes on the road from high school to college -- and get many more students traveling it.

Why? About half of students who enroll in Texas colleges and universities aren't quite prepared for some aspect of the coursework and need classes that in essence duplicate what they were supposed to be doing in high school.

Enhancing preparation and producing more high school and college graduates would substantially boost the state economy, analysts say. If Texas "moderately" improved education over the next 20 to 30 years, the added income to the state -- from individual earnings and taxes paid -- would more than pay for the schools, a College Board analyst told the commission at a hearing Wednesday at UT-Arlington.

In a study earlier this year, economist Ray Perryman estimated that over a 24-year period, Texas would generate $8.08 in revenue for every $1 spent by meeting the goals of "Closing the Gaps by 2015" -- a state plan that calls for adding 500,000 students to the 990,000 currently in higher education.

So what will it take? That's what the commission, headed by former George W. Bush education adviser Sandy Kress, is expected to tell us by October in a draft report after studying a range of issues, including the gaps between Texas' math and English standards and those of other states.

Here are a few words of advice that witnesses gave commissioners during their daylong session in Arlington:

"It's all about preparing, not just assessing or testing," said Tom Rudin, senior vice president with the College Board, which produces the SAT.

The College Board advocates lots of math, English, science and social sciences courses, emphasis on thinking and problem-solving skills and information on navigating college and career options.

"You don't make a hog fat by weighing more often; you've got to feed him, too," Rudin said, attributing the quip to Roy Romer, the former Colorado governor who later spent six years as Los Angeles school superintendent.

Think "applications, applications, applications," said Tegwin Pulley, a Texas Instruments vice president.

Give students "real-world, 21st-century examples," starting in pre-kindergarten, showing how math and science matter.

(Let's see, which cellphone plan is more economical: $15 a month for 15,000 text messages or $30 a month with unlimited texting? What's the technology for expanding video game personalization options?)

Pulley said TI gives an eighth-grade-level math/science test to entry-level manufacturing applicants, and 30 percent of those taking it fail.

She suggested that students need better grounding in algebra and calculus before leaving high school. "Beginning in pre-K, teachers must be better trained to excite their students about math," she said.

"It's critical we begin to think about employer needs," said Wes Jurey, president/CEO of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

When it's cheaper for a U.S. hospital to have a radiologist in India read and return an image, that's a serious challenge to our ability to compete, he said. More graduates must be highly trained and digitally fluent, he said.

"I have yet to meet a college graduate who didn't want to be highly employable."

Compensate teachers based on performance, said Scott Kahl of National Semiconductor.

And stop letting high school students skip final exams when they have a passing grade and perfect attendance, he said. "That's inadequate preparation for the college experience."

Schools and businesses should partner to "motivate students to finish high school and hope for the future," said Bob Pence, president/CEO of Freese and Nichols engineering firm in Fort Worth.

For both college and work, students must be prepared with self-discipline, persistence, time-management and communication skills and "the ability to respect and work with many kinds of people," he said.

Now, fit all that in a school day.

The commission is scheduled to meet again Sept. 24 in San Antonio. I'm sure members would love more ideas on how to work miracles.

(The commission coordinator can be reached at sara.weiss@tea.state.tx.us or at 512-463-9535.)

Source: http://www.star-telegram.com/245/story/188826.html

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