Updated College Readiness Number: 63%

The Seattle Times reported today on Seattle Public Schools' updated number on the number of students who have the credits required by public universities in Washington. It's 63%.

That's a whole lot more than the 17% initially reported and the 46% reported later.

The Times story has links to additional documents including a memo from Mark Teoh to the Board and a table of the adjusted numbers by school.

Still no word on when the District will correct the other misleading or simply mistaken data reported on School Reports.

Comments

Eric M said…
Holy crap.
Anonymous said…
Wow, I think we should all say we're sorry and beg MGJ to return. Her results are out of this world...

Mr. Ed
Didn't use all the stats they should have (science, middle school foreign language credit and overall GPA which is what colleges use). And, they excluded kids who didn't take the SAT or ACT.

Thank you to Linda Shaw at the Times for following up.

Comments after most education stories are about how terrible Seattle schools are. Those of us who have/had our children in our high schools know there are a LOT of bright kids out there, challenging themselves and yes, are ready for college.
Patrick said…
Different hat, different numbers.
Anonymous said…
Having Broad Brad as the numbers guy was like having the fox watching over the hen house. Particularly with GJ as his boss.

Good riddance to all of them.

Maybe now we'll start seeing real accountability.
dan dempsey said…
Dora,

You said:
"Good riddance to all of them. ...Maybe now we'll start seeing real accountability."

Given the 22 hour window for the "declared emergency" that bought out the two criminals for $400,000 and also appointed an interim "Super", who has also violated laws on more than one occasion, I would not be expecting that "accountability" to be beginning until the "Four" elected in 2007 are gone.

Don't forget Enfield was the person who in many cases was the lead person on action reports that pushed a whole lotta expensive crap. I've seen nothing to indicate much different is going on NOW or likely to be changing much in the future.

My Testimony on this matter from 3-16-2011.
dan dempsey said…
Check those increases by school shown on the linked report over the last few years as shown. Franklin up 11% and RBHS up 10% and Roosevelt up 8%...... Terrific!!!

What is no terrific is the collegiate remediation rates in Math... especially the placements of those students who graduated but need severe remediation in math. Seeing that in many cases 75% of gradates are "prepared" .... leaves me wondering: if the SPS ever plans on preparing students in math for collegiate level mathematics, given Enfield's and Sunquist's statements to the Seattle Times Editorial Board........ apparently NOT!!!
Marion said…
Actually, many colleges do not use overall GPA but refigure the GPA to core classes (taking out courses like Health and Occupation Ed, Art and Music). Most colleges also require a minimum of 2 years of foreign language in high school.
Anonymous said…
This and the college board recognition make me think that the teachers deserve an apology and perhaps monetary damages for pain and suffering inflicted by the lies and distortions presented by our superiors and further propagated by the media.

I feel that a tremendous weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I can now hold my head up high when I tell people where I work. The teachers are not to blame. We do our jobs. Now get rid of that NWEA test that tells us nothing about the kind of work I do with my kids.

Thank you very much.
-a teacher, proudly enuogh
wseadawg said…
Hey Teach! I agree you deserve apologies! We've got your back and always will, but the trolls at JSCEE, as well as Gates/Broad/Walton & the Dept of Ed should be taken behind the woodshed and paddled for their lies and propaganda.

Make no mistake people: Bernatek's "crisis-provoking" 17% figure didn't come out of thin air. It's got the reformers' finger prints all over it. If you've read Naiomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" and/or are familiar with the term "disaster capitalism" (capitalizing on disaster) this is an oh-so familiar game plan being followed.

Overwhelm the opposition with BS and propaganda that puts them back on their heels, then move in quickly and take over the reins of power - with public support - before everyone figures out it was all a big lie. (AKA "the big lie" theory)

I'm waiting for McGinn's mea culpa too, after stating publicly on several occasions that our schools are in crisis.
dan dempsey said…
Wseadawg,

It seems what is in "the BIG State of CRISIS" is education leadership in Seattle, WA State, and the Nation.

So let us all continue to recognize that and work to make others aware of it.

It is going to take a lot of public awareness to overcome those Billionaires Club propaganda "sky is falling" dollars.

Bye, Bye, Rhee and Bye-Bye MGJ .... were excellent small beginnings. We need to turn this into a series of Major Victories. United we stand.
SP said…
I'm sorry to say, Marion is right-
The district has pulled off another smoke & mirrors "data" release and almost all of you have fallen for it!

First, keep in mind that this data is only for HS graduates and does not reflect the drop out/graduation rate (ie 62% graduated at Sealth, but only 49% of those graduates are "college ready").

Next, the bigger problem- Check out the actual minimum college graduation requirements by HECB Board (hecb.wa.gov) required for a 4-year WA state college and you'll see that SPS is still out of line with the rest of the planet on this:

1.Taking the SAT/ACT is actually a REQUIREMENT for admissions into all WA state 4-year colleges (although there is no minimum score required). The majority of all other colleges require SAT/ACT scores still. And, of course, there IS accurate information available on how many kids take these tests from each school- The fact that SPS notes (in Mark Teoh's memo) that "this data is largely dependent on student reporting" and actually drops it from their 4-year college readiness measure is totally bogus! (SPS should be embarrased to have pulled this off)

2. Science credit requirements- From the HECB website for 2011 college admission: 2 lab sciences are required (and not "a future requirement" as SPS notes). This is not a new change, either. One credit must be either in biology, chemistry or physics. There is no way around this requirement and CTE coursework does not fulfill this core lab requirement, despite what SPS says. The 2nd credit must also be a lab science, but may include such courses as astronomy, environmental or geological sciences, genetics or marine science. Once again, by SPS removing the core lab science requirements, they are watering down the college readiness data.

3. World Language credits- How can SPS recalculate WL credits using middle school WL classes? First, SPS is not offering HS credit for this retroactively, but starting from this year forward (remember all the discussions about this last year?). So for the first time, this year's 8th graders in SPS can earn 0.5 credit for the year (1.0 credit will be for 7th & 8th combined), and only if the teacher has HS credentials. So, to go back and retroactively change the college ready data with non-HS credits from middle school classes is really lowering the college ready bar.

4. These changes were made behind closed doors, apparently in the HS Steering Committee which does not allow cummunity input. What else is the district trying to hide?

signed, no district trust earned yet (in the red)
Marion said…
SP

You are so right!

Colleges actually want the student's high school transcript. Students must take foreign language in high school for the colleges to recognize it - not just get credit from their school district for coursework in middle school. Is it unreasonable to require two years of high school foreign language?

Can we stop with the manipulation of data? Let's not sell the students of Seattle short any longer.
peonypower said…
From the HECB site
"Students may meet high school requirements with courses taken in middle school, provided the courses are part of a sequence, which is successfully continued in high school and/or the course is included on the high school transcript as a high school level course."

I assume from this that students who enter high school ready to take the 2nd year of a foreign language would meet the above requirement.
SP said…
Yes, PeonyPower, this is on the HECB website, but the District can't ignore their own policy & procedure and retoactively award HS credit to ALL MS classes for the past 3 years which is specifically NOT allowed in the policy.

Besides, did they check to even see if all of those WL teachers had HS certificates? Does that mean that all kids currently in HS can now get those MS classes on their transcripts as HS credits?
Would those MS classes have the "B" course designation that HECB requires to be allowable?

Talk about watering down the "College Readiness" bar!

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