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Shortchanged ... on college readiness
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Sarah Mills was an editorial intern at the Notebook this summer.
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Student activists push for more college prep
by Sarah Mills
“There is no talk of college at our school. They think we can’t make it there,” says Karl Knowles, a junior at Edison High School and a member of Youth United for Change (YUC). “After graduation, people are just home. Some find jobs; some just sit on their butts.”
Concern about statistics showing that just two in five Philadelphia public school graduates continue on to post-secondary studies has prompted two Philadelphia student organizations – YUC and the Philadelphia Student Union (PSU) – to organize campaigns to address the lack of attention to college and post-secondary opportunities at some local high schools, including Edison, Mastbaum, and West Philadelphia.
At Edison, students have campaigned to make a YUC college recruitment program into an official school initiative. The program, which includes provisions that all students take the SAT and visit at least one college, was launched by YUC in response to the stark contrast they saw between the high number of military recruiters who visit Edison (known for losing more students in the Vietnam War than any other high school in the nation) and the low number of college recruiters.
An event to educate parents about financial aid and college opportunities for their children, and to kick off YUC’s campaign, will be held in Edison’s gymnasium this fall. The event is being sponsored by City Councilman Juan Ramos.
PSU has also campaigned for improved post-secondary preparation through its continued support for Student Success Centers. The Centers offer full-time counselors and social workers and provide students with mentoring during the college process, including college visits and help with college applications.
The Centers were initially instituted in 10 schools in 2003-04, partially in response to a PSU campaign. As the Centers have faced the District’s budget chopping block, PSU student activists have come before the SRC several times during the past year, most recently in August, to request that they be spared.
“The Centers help people stay in class, so I thought it was ludicrous that they were going to be shut down. We organized, talked about what we should do, and went to the SRC,” said West Philadelphia High School Auto Academy senior and PSU member Lawrence Jones-Mahoney.
At Mastbaum, which was once one of the top trade schools in the city, few students receive coveted union apprenticeships. YUC is leading a campaign focused on developing a more rigorous curriculum in which Mastbaum staff work together with union apprenticeship training programs to better prepare students for the union workforce and for college.
Charles McClure, a 37-year member of Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 19, notes that Mastbaum’s curriculum leaves graduates lacking math and communication skills, and underprepared for both the strenuous union entrance exam and the workforce. He believes YUC’s campaign is “a win for both sides. Here are high school students getting a chance at a post-secondary education experience, and we get access to people who might want to become members one day,” he said.
“The kids I saw have a focus. They want to get ahead in life. I’m more than happy to help them on their way.”
“We proved we’re capable of organizing,” said Queen Hicks, a Mastbaum senior and YUC member. “People we’ve worked with don’t believe we’re this young and have the leadership and organizing skills that we do.”
YUC’s campaign at Mastbaum shares goals with but has evolved separately from the District’s much-publicized Project Labor Agreement, which negotiated a commitment from building-trades unions to open apprenticeship positions to Philadelphia public school graduates. That agreement potentially opens the high-paying jobs in the building-trades union workforce to more people of color.
YUC members hope to kick the school year off with a citywide career fair at Mastbaum in conjunction with the Philadelphia Apprenticeship Coordinators Association.
YUC and PSU students have some company in calling for improved post-secondary preparation and enrollment. The School Reform Commission’s 2004 Declaration of Education has several goals aimed at college readiness: that by 2008 the average SAT scores for the District will meet or exceed the national average; that 100 percent of high schools will offer Advanced Placement courses; and that 80 percent of graduating seniors will enroll in post-secondary education institutions.
Those goals are still far from reach. In 2006, the average District SAT score was 1179 out of a possible 2400 (well short of the national average of 1518). Only 48 out of 62 high schools offered AP classes.
And with data from the National Student Clearinghouse showing 41 percent of Philadelphia graduates going on to post-secondary institutions in 2006, the District is barely halfway to its goal of 80 percent post-secondary enrollment. (The SRC reports a higher post-secondary enrollment figure, but it is based on a state education survey using student self-reporting that is widely viewed as unreliable.)
Shakia Dawkins, a sophomore at Mastbaum, said she knows these college-going rates in Philadelphia are much lower than their counterparts in suburban districts and hopes YUC’s campaign will help more Philly graduates get the preparation they need.
“Just because you get a diploma doesn’t mean you know everything you have to know. It just means you graduated,” she noted.