Getting in isn't enough

A COLLEGE acceptance letter alone isn't a ticket to success. A landmark tracking study by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University shows that, of the 1,904 Boston Public Schools graduates in the class of 2000 who attended two- and four-year colleges, only 35 percent earned a degree by June 2007. The study compels the Menino administration to take a long and deep look into the gulf between "getting in" and "getting through" college.

Students attending two-year community colleges managed a dismal 12 percent graduation rate. Students at four-year, private colleges fared the best, with a 56 percent graduation rate. About a third of the students at four-year state colleges pulled through. Slightly more than half of the white and Asian graduates who attended college would go on to a degree. But the success rate dropped to about one-quarter for black and Hispanic students.

Most big-city mayors would look to bury this news under the nearest highway overpass. Mayor Menino deserves some credit for making the raw data available to university researchers. But now city and school officials acknowledge they have to fix the problem. And they may have to get personal with college admission officers - who congratulate themselves for reaching out to Boston students, but then sit by while the students fall apart academically.

Unfortunately, the study does not show how individual colleges fared at retaining students. It notes that 232 members of the class of 2000 went to Bunker Hill Community College. But it isn't clear how those students fared compared with, say, the 22 students who went to Massasoit Community College or any of the other community colleges in the study. The same holds true for the 20 four-year colleges that accepted 15 or more members of the class of 2000.

Neil Sullivan, head of the Boston Private Industry Council, says the colleges need time to absorb the information. But today's high school seniors deserve to know now which schools are likely to offer the extra financial or academic help they need.

A good strategy is starting to develop. The Boston Foundation, which provided partial funding to the city and Private Industry Council for the study, is prepared to fund nonprofit groups willing to work with individual students. School Superintendent Carol Johnson is pushing to provide more Advanced Placement courses and other accelerated offerings. And Menino is setting a specific goal to double the college graduation rate for the class of 2011.

Now the colleges, and especially the community colleges, need to step up with some big ideas on how to turn entering students into graduates.