Number of students in S.B. County ready to attend a university on the decline
By Andrea Edwards, Daily Bulletin Staff Writer 092506
When Cal State San Bernardino president Al K. Karnig talks about his school, he paints a rosy picture of the campus, despite a slight drop in enrollment last year.
Karnig said the campus now has more freshmen than ever before -- and also has enough money to allow most students to attend classes without paying any fees, which is why 57 percent of the student body is receiving full financial aid.
But there is one problem that has not gone away.
Like many local and state educators, Karnig is bothered that few San Bernardino County students are qualified to attend the campus when they leave high school.
"I'm disappointed because it's not the best thing for the Inland Empire," Karnig said Friday.
Karnig became the San Bernardino campus's third president in 1997. Since that time, the percentage of county high school graduates who have taken the high school classes needed to attend a state university has shrunk.
California Department of Education numbers show that at the end of the 1997-98 school year, nearly 26 percent of the county's high school graduates had completed course work necessary to enroll at one of California's public universities. By the time the county's graduates earned their diplomas at the end of the 2004-05 school year, slightly less than 23 percent had taken classes needed to enroll.
By end of the 2004-05 school year, the percentage of high school graduates from Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties who had completed state university-required classes was more than 10 percent higher than in San Bernardino County.
Other San Bernardino County educators agreed with Karnig that college-readiness levels must improve, for the sake of both individual students and the county's long-term economic future.
School district officials said they are currently relying on programs like AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination -- an elective class designed specifically to prepare high school and junior high school students for college. Guidance counselors and teachers face the challenge of encouraging teenagers to go to college even though they live in a county that typically has not produced large numbers of college graduates.
Karnig and County Superintendent of Schools Herbert Fischer both cited different factors as possible reasons why San Bernardino County's college-readiness rates are lower than neighboring counties.
Karnig noted that the San Bernardino area is home to many students who come from social groups that have historically faced racial discrimination and been underrepresented on college campuses. He said the university was trying to attract more people through outreach efforts at predominantly black and Latino churches.
Fischer brought up a different point -- that in the past, people from San Bernardino County did not need a college education to find work. The Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley both have the lowest rates of college attendance in the state, he said, even though the economic engines that powered those regions in the past have sputtered out.
"Both of these places have had the old work," Fischer said. "They relied on factories. They relied on agriculture. They relied on air bases. All those things are gone."
To enter a state university, students must take an extra year's worth of courses in both math and English than they need to graduate high school. Students wanting to enroll at a University of California or California State University must also study a foreign language for two years and the arts for one year.
But even for students who don't want to go to college, educators said the additional course work is necessary simply to get hired at a decent job.
"If you're going to be in an apprentice program, you're going to have to know the higher math," Fischer said.
A bright spot, Fischer said, is the AVID program, which is in place at 67 schools in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The program, introduced to the county in 1991, is intended to push students who earn average grades into more advanced course work. AVID students take special classes in which they work with teachers and tutors to hone their studying skills.
"They're in an environment where the total focus is on going to college," Fischer said.
In the past five years, Fischer said the college attendance rates for county students has increased by 44 percent. Most attended community colleges after graduating high school.
The Rialto Unified School District and Cal State San Bernardino work together in a similar program called Gear Up, a federally funded program aimed at low-income students. Rialto Unified superintendent Edna Herring said the program includes field trips and tutoring for students who are placed in more challenging courses. Teachers who participate in Gear Up receive additional training.
By the end of the 2004-05 school year, Rialto Unified had more graduates who had taken state university-required classes than any other district in the county -- 59.6 percent.
By comparison, percentages in other districts around San Bernardino ranged between 10 and 30 percent. In San Bernardino City Unified, the number was 14 percent. That figure was 13.7 percent for Fontana Unified, 22.4 percent for Colton Joint Unified, 28.3 percent for Redlands Unified and 30.1 percent for Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified.
San Bernardino City Unified offers the AVID program at all seven of its high schools.
District officials are not content that only a small fraction of their graduates leave school ready for a state university, district spokeswoman Linda Hill said.
"We certainly want our students to do better," she said.
A survey of the district's graduates showed that nearly three-fourths of those who graduated in 2005 went on to attend a university or trade school. That number was higher than in 2001, when about 68 percent of San Bernardino City Unified graduates went on to higher learning.
BS Ranch Perspective:
This is almost hard to write! Part of me believed in the "No Student Left Behind" Policy that was set forth by the Bush Administration! In fact it was one of the first things that he pushed through the House and Senate and got passed, it cost the Government so much more money, because of the Constant follow up testing that goes on between the student and the teacher. I know that you can say that this is just the beginning of the program and they have not started to get the children that belonged in the no children left behind because they were the ones that were supposed to be looked after however the system failed them, and you have to wonder, why what did we do to fail the student! It is to sad to figure what or why the no student left behind has or is failing at this point. Maybe in the near future it will pick up and the students will do better, and be much smarter, it is just the adjustment period that is taking place.
BSRanch
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