Preparing students for college
RECENT DISCUSSION ABOUT low graduation rates at community colleges has focused more on assigning blame and less on taking action. High schools have been criticized for graduating students unprepared for college. Community colleges have been criticized for not adequately supporting students. The Board of Higher Education has been criticized for not holding the colleges accountable. The state has been faulted for not sufficiently funding the colleges. This finger-pointing isn't helping.
The biggest problem is that too many students arrive at college unprepared. Approximately 60 percent of community college students in Massachusetts need remedial coursework during their first year of college. For students coming out of the Boston public schools alone, the number rises to more than 75 percent. The state needs to stop paying for high school twice.
The approach needs to be focused on the big picture, and on real solutions. It's not about low graduation rates or inaccurate measures -- it's about too many students showing up unprepared for college and too few students leaving school without a certificate or degree.
There are many potential solutions to the problem, and most will require collaboration between K-12 schools and higher education. Each area needs to recognize its particular roles and responsibilities in making sure students succeed. The Board of Higher Education and the Department of Education have been working on numerous collaborative efforts to prepare students to attend and succeed in college. The complexity of the problem demands cooperative and sustained efforts, such as the following:
Earlier this year, the Board of Higher Education and the Department of Education launched a campaign to inspire students to "think again" about college and to take the necessary steps to be prepared and succeed in college. It's not the kids in Wellesley and Hingham we're worried about. It's the ones in Lawrence, Fall River, New Bedford, Worcester, and Springfield who leave the educational pipeline.
With leaders in K-12 and the business community, we have developed a mandatory core curriculum, or "MassCore," for all high school students. This would include a mandatory fourth year of math, which is optional in too many schools. Research shows that taking math in the senior year is the single biggest predictor of success in college -- not just getting in, but graduating.
We have developed a "School to College Database" that follows students from public high school to -- and through -- any of our public colleges. This will enable the Board of Higher Education to provide reports to every single public high school and college in Massachusetts -- reports that will "flag" problems in specific courses, schools, towns or districts.
We are working with K-12 to develop a "one-stop shopping" website that will enable Massachusetts students beginning in middle school to plan for and prepare for college. A Web portal would provide guidance and access to important resources, but would also be interactive and enable students to build personalized "profiles" where they could keep track of coursework, test scores, college applications, financial aid, and so on. A similar Web portal in North Carolina increased college attendance by 9 percent.
We recommended legislation to distribute college assessment tests to 11th-grade high school students to determine their level of college readiness before graduating from high school. Doing so in the 11th grade, as opposed to when students reach college, will allow time to intervene early around college readiness.
We continue to advocate for state funding of dual enrollment programs, which allow qualified students to take college courses while in high school. A well-designed, targeted dual enrollment program can increase college readiness, decrease the time-to-degree completion, and encourage students to complete degrees and certificates in the majors needed for Massachusetts economic growth.
By 2012, the number of jobs requiring an associate degree or higher will increase from 33 percent to 56 percent. And to a large degree, the students enrolling in community colleges today represent the only area of population growth in Massachusetts. Without a more focused effort to increase the number of residents who earn at least an associate degree, the economic health of the Commonwealth is in jeopardy. It's time to move beyond finger-pointing to problem solving.
Patricia F. Plummer is chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. 
