High School - Alarming Statistics

[Chickpea]

OK - I am going to share a statistic I heard recently that was terribly alarming to me - I have no idea if this is true and I would imagine this can be checked quite easily but since this is the forum to come to when you need answers....

Some friends of mine are looking into starting a new highschool (this will be a hybrid of home-schooling, virtual school and regular teaching (more on this later - it sounds very promising) - but in their presentation they mentioned that only five (5%) - yes - 5% of high school students here (I do not recall if this was for NW Florida or Walton and Bay and Okaloosa combined) go on to college!!!!

Can this possibly be true?????

Having very young kids I have done so little research past Elementary School and I realize I need to get more involved but those of you who know anything please share....

Many thanks

 

[beachmouse]

Don't know about the rest, but Okaloosa says that 70% go on to college or technical training right out of high school.

 

[GoodWitch58]

I would be very surprised if this were true...our local community colleges seem to be overflowing, and FSU and UWF are also packed (of course that does not mean they are local students, but still)

I think that number may be off.

But, a few years ago I was shocked to learn that only 20% of all Americans have a passport...so, who knows

 

[Jdarg]

Oh geez Chickpea- whoever is providing you with this info needs to get real figures. Although I do not have the hard numbers, I cannot imagine that this would be accurate for SWHS. No way.

We do have a high school that is great and getting better by the day. If all the parents that spent so much time listening to rumor and junk spent some actual time learning real information about our public school, THEN spent some real time working at and in the school- imagine what we could do!! I am so tired of the assumption that our public schools are not good- and those comments are made mostly by people that have had no direct contact with the schools or have heard things through the grapevine.

SWHS is our high school. it is all we currently have- and why not work to make it even better? Sigh.....

 

[ShallowsNole]

I'm pretty sure that number is waaaaay off. The only difference might be the number of students who go directly into the state university system instead of spending two years locally at a community college, but I'm certain the number is still over 5%.

Now that I think about it, if you threw in all the Florida counties between here and I-75, maybe...no. Still can't be that low.

 

[RebelRider]

Does this bother you at all.

A posting from waltonuncensored.

I have spent the majority of my day reviewing the FEFP audit recently completed and presented to the School Board and Administration.

I find it interesting that 1 in 6 teachers in the sampled schools in the Walton County School System were not certified in the area where they were teaching. That is also coupled with the fact that they were taken to task for not following DOE guidelines concerning "parental notification" that their child was not being taught by a "out-of-field" teacher. I looked at the 2004 audit and found that during that audit we had 1 in 10 teachers teaching in a out-of-field position. My goodness - that is just exactly opposite of what we are hearing from the System. ( A+ system according to Supt.)

From the FEFP Audit:

"Twelve of the 75 teachers in our sample did not meet State requirements governing certification; School Board approval of out-of-field teacher assignments; notification of parents regarding out-of-field teachers,
or the earning of required in-service training points in ESOL strategies"


Rather than "It's 10 o'clock do you know where your children are?"

"It should be it is 2008 - is your child being taught by a teacher certified for the subject or grade level."

 

[scooterbug44]

I don't know the current stats for Walton County, but I do know that only 27% of the US population has a bachelor's degree or higher.

Only 5% going onto college is a stat that gang banging inner city schools would be ashamed of!!!

 

[RebelRider]

I would think that number is about correct.

 

[beachmouse]

Actually, the inner city schools post-secondary rates for graduates tend to run at least 30% and will sometimes be 50% or more. The key words there being for graduates. Typical in those schools to have a freshman class of 450 and a graduating class of 175 or so. The ones who are motivated to actually pass enough classes to graduate in the middle of poverty & chaos are also frequently the ones who are motivated enough to want to go on to higher ed, and higher education places a value on finding those kinds of kids and giving them the skills to move into the middle class.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Sounds like a statistical error. I believe that the school system doesn't have a way of tracking students, once they leave a school, even if they just change schools. I've been told that any student moving to another school, is counted as a drop out in the school which that student left. I would guess that this lack of tracking, plays a roll in that statistic being only 5% going to college.