College Readiness Improving?

In February 16, 2005’s issue of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, The Associated Press featured an article titled “College Readiness Up in LA.” The article summarized Louisiana’s high school graduation and “college readiness” rates and compared them to the national rates and those of other states in a study conducted by the Manhattan Institute.
Louisiana has an overall graduation rate of 63% whereas the national rate is 71%, ranking it 41st in the United States. Louisiana’s Hispanic graduation rate is 73%, notably the highest in the nation. African Americans have a graduation rate of 56% in Louisiana, and whites have a 69% graduation rate. Nationally the averages are as follows: Hispanic 52%, African Americans 56%, whites 78%.
Now, the “college readiness” mentioned in the headline of the Times-Picayune article refers to a different set of percentages. Of those high school graduates in Louisiana, only 35% are deemed academically prepared for college as determined by this study. In 1991, this number was a disheartening 22%. Compared to the nation as a whole, Louisiana isn’t doing terrible, as the nation’s college readiness rate is 34%. Here is a table of the public high school graduation rates and college readiness rates: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_08_t06.htm
What do these numbers mean? It is well known that students who fail to graduate high school face a “bleak future” as noted by the institute who conducted this study. The same can be said about attending college. But what is less agreed upon is the extent to which public schools are graduating students while at the same time preparing them for college. What is surprising to many is that a student can graduate from high school still not possess the necessary academic skills to attend their own state’s public university. This shows that the minimum standards in most states to receive a high school diploma are less than those required to enter even a slightly competitive four-year college. To debate the condition of Louisiana’s or any other state’s public schools would be a completely different blog; however the numbers seem to be quite indicative of not only a state-wide, but national problem as well.After initially reading the article, I felt compelled to further research the statistics. Who conducted the study? How were the rates calculated? The Manhattan Institute, whose mission is “to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility” released the study on February 15, 2005. The report was written by Jay Greene, a senior fellow at the institute and Marcus Winters, a research associate.
I was thoroughly impressed by the amount of information available and the ease at which it could be found on its website (http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_08.htm).I did notice however, that the institute faulted one of the government’s main education entities in its calculations. For instance, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has a much higher national graduation rate (86% in the most recent study in 1998) than that of the Manhattan Institute, which it accredits to the fact that the NCES includes students receiving GEDs. There is much more information available from both organizations, but overall I felt that the NCES’ information was more difficult to access and more confusing to understand. What do you think? (http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/dropout/98250-06.asp). I found it not only interesting, but crucial to investigate other sources that have done similar research and to see what the methods and results were.
Overall, the Manhattan’s Institute’s calculations of graduation and college readiness rates indicate two main things: the graduation rate has stayed relatively the same overall, but more of these students leaving high school with a diploma are prepared to attend college. For the nation, college readiness is up to 34% in 2002, as compared to 25% in 1991.