Capital High School Principal Melanie Romero is working on early-intervention attendance and career programs to help her students stay engaged.
Credits: Alexa Schirtzinger
According to Cheryl Drangmeister, SFCC’s associate vice president for enrollment management, a significant chunk of SFCC students come from local public schools.
In fall 2010, for instance, 21 percent of SFCC’s total enrollment had attended one of Santa Fe’s two largest public high schools, Santa Fe or Capital High.
To make sense of student attrition, then, it’s essential to consider what happens in local high schools before students graduate.
When SFR presented Santa Fe High School Principal Robert Stephens with the key statistic—that 91 percent of Santa Fe high school graduates are unprepared even for community college—he was incredulous.
“I’d like to see where that number comes from,” Stephens says.
It comes from SFCC’s application for a Title V federal grant—funding available only to universities whose student populations are at least 25 percent Hispanic (SFCC’s is 36 percent)—for the first-year experience.
The grant language calls the percentage of academically unprepared students “astounding”—but at least by the measure of national test scores, low achievement among Santa Fe students is widespread. Only 60 percent of public high school students graduate at all. Of those who do, fewer than half of the students at Santa Fe and Capital High exhibited proficiency in math or reading on the Adequate Yearly Progress tests administered in 2010 under the national No Child Left Behind Act.
But Stephens says he’s more worried about attendance—itself both a cause and a symptom of students’ lack of academic preparedness.
“I’m convinced that if a student were to arrive at every class they were assigned to, day in and day out, they would pass—and not only pass, but pass with a good grade,” he says.
In one course, attendance is particularly crucial, he says.
“Algebra I is the indicator,” Stephens explains. “If they’re not successful there, they’re the most at risk for dropout.”
But Diane Otero-Bell, who teaches Algebra I at Santa Fe High, says the problem of preparedness extends beyond a student’s ability to master algebra.
“I feel as though the children don’t understand the fundamentals, don’t even know their multiplication tables,” Otero-Bell says.
Like Stephens, Capital High School Principal Melanie Romero recognizes the dual challenge of low academic achievement and high dropout rates—and has implemented intervention programs for students who log a certain number of absences, as well as career-oriented “academies” to help students relate their coursework to bigger goals.
The academies, Romero says, will put a focus on collaborative teaching around a curriculum designed to reinforce a given career field or interest area, such as science and technology or the arts.
“We have a big job, filling the gap” in student proficiency, Romero says. “I’m dealing with 1,100 teenagers, trying to prepare them for college or a career.”
Still, she says, collaborative teaching—increasingly with an eye to what students will need to succeed in SFCC’s English 101 course—is essential, particularly in the transition between freshman and sophomore years.
At that point, Romero says, “If I don’t figure out how to retain them, I’m going to lose them.”
Start with the staff at SFCC - the academic advisors are the worst I have ever seen!
I arrived needing a few prerequisite classes for work at UNM. I was told that my transcripts were all that was needed for placement. I had already earned a BA and an MA.
Upon arrival I was informed by a patronizing 'academic advisor' that coursework not completed within the last 5 years was 'not worth anything'. I replied that by this logic, all of the scientists at Los Alamos were non-functional, academically. The Advisor failed to see the humor or the logic in this. He huffily insisted I was to take a math placement exam 'for your own good'.
I circumvented the exam with a phone call to the instructor, who was only too happy to assist me with registration.
Several weeks later I had an uncomfortable encounter with the now enraged Advisor. In the hallway. He was completely unprofessional about it.
I passed the class with a 99 average. So the intervening 22 years failed to dull my ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Imagine that.
*Note to the SFCC administration: the installation of Academic Advisors who automatically regard every single incoming student as an unintelligent, uneducated and/or underperforming individual does nothing for your recruitment and retention.
Perhaps these same individuals should repeat some of their coursework since it is, obviously, more than 5 years out of date, and they are functioning below grade level.
The comment about the academic advisors being the worst ever is extremely false. I can understand this gentleman's frustrations; however his experience is an exception. My experience with the academic advisors has been wonderful. They are helpful and always trying their best to help anwser any questions a student may have. They make the transition from high school to college as convenient as possible.
Perhaps, the academic advisers are 'the worst' Homonym has ever seen, and if so, perhaps his experience is very limited. I returned to college in the summer of 2009, after an absence of almost 20 years (the most recent attempt at a degree), and encountered the same thing (previous courses work no longer valid). I consider myself extremely fortunate to have run into Calahan Fiddes, an academic advisor at SFCC. I was actually glad I retook the Algebra...I was a little rusty. I 'tested out' of the other prerequisites, and that was the end of it...I was on my way! I cannot thank the staff and instructors enough for their continued support and encouragement. As with anything in life, I realized I also had to be my own advocate, and persisted in looking for answers and solutions, when confronted with concerns or questions. I will graduate in May, having retrained in an entirely different field, and have been offered, and excepted a job in the health care. I'm have also registered for Fall 2011 classes, and plan to continue for a BA in health sciences. By the way, I'll be 65 in June, and know that many of us at SFCC seeking an 'encore' career have experienced the encouragement and support of the staff at SFCC>