Many L.A. students get to college; only a few finish

Los Angeles Times ^ | 9/1/2017 | Howard Blume

[george76]

About 70% of Los Angeles high school graduates enroll in two- or four-year colleges, but only 25% graduate within six years.

...

it’s hard to assess recent district efforts that could be seen as pushing in different directions. On one hand, the district is touting higher standards: a high school graduation requirement that all students pass the courses necessary for applying to a four-year state college. On the other hand, the district requires a grade of D only in these classes and the colleges require a C or better to apply. The district also offers an array of “credit recovery” options to let students raise failing grades — a plan that has have been criticized for giving such credit too easily.

Although the district has achieved record graduation rates, skeptics have questioned whether all those graduates are fully prepared for higher education.

A companion study suggests one reason that high school graduates are not ready to stick it out in college: They can’t get the expert advice and support they need. More than 75% of high school counselors say they have the knowledge to help students complete college and financial aid applications, but only 42% said they have enough time to provide students with the needed assistance.

[george76]

New York State killing literacy test for Teachers in the name of Diversity .

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3534339/posts

[kearnyirish2]

I’m sure this is driven by the widespread sentiment among certain minorities that everyone working a job in their hive (and collecting a public employee check/benefits) should look like them - as though those certain minorities contribute ANYTHING towards the salaries.

Here in NJ, that is why non-blacks have no incentive to live in the collapsed cities (despite desperate attempts to attract them); they are only wanted to be contributors, and expected to accept without question the policies of the black “leadership” and bureaucracy.

[Mark was here]

So you are saying a kid doesn’t even need a mentor, someone who knows the ropes, to get on the right path to go to college?

[Paladin2]

Ca$h cows to be milked by Big Edumacation.

[Leaning Right]

> It’s called Mastery Grading... <

It’s a bit off-topic, but I am amazed how the left comes up with that kind of wording. Liberals are now progressives. Illegal aliens are now dreamers. Lowering standards is now mastery grading.

The list goes on and on.

[hal ogen]

The average IQ is 100. The average IQ of a college grad is 115. Intellectually, some can’;t hack it. Everyone shouldn’t go to college...for a variety of reasons.

[Paladin2]

Wild Bill would have sat in the back row if he had any sense.

I always sat in the back row and easily graduated in 4 back in the day when College courses had real content and required real work.

[kearnyirish2]

My wife was out with one of her friends that teaches in a public school in Jersey City; they ran into her principal, and my wife was shocked that she was barely literate. Public education in urban areas is nothing more than wealth re-distribution, and the gibsmedats want the whole pie.

[kearnyirish2]

IQ is only part of the issue; the fact is many urban students have never received a real education in either elementary school or high school. When I was in a state school years ago, they set aside a building for these ethnic “fake students” to attend “remedial classes”; these were the requirements white students wouldn’t even be attending the college without passing in high school; they had hordes of “preferred minorities” that were in those classes for years without earning any college credits. It was “High School Do-Over For Blacks & Hispanics” - nothing more.

Another trend I noticed as graduation neared was the separation of classes into “majors” and “non-majors” - so classes like economics could be dumbed down for fake students.

[Larry381]

I blame the Russians for this.

[hal ogen]

There is a lot of dumbing down to accommodate those who would suffer under meritocracy. Affirmative-action comes to mind. What a pathetic joke on those affected.

[UnwashedPeasant]

"To be honest, if a kid can't complete a college application, he has no right going to college."

There is fraud in the college selection process. The colleges know the numbers. They are setting up the kids for failure and many years of debt. This is grounds for lawsuit.

This is grounds for turning off the federal money pipeline.

[kearnyirish2]

Even worse, it is government acceptance and endorsement of policies incorporating genetic inferiority - for blacks, Hispanics, and women. They are trying to instill pride in people while simultaneously telling them they’ll never catch up - but its not their fault. In the government’s eyes, they’re just born “defective”...

[grania]

If you demanded that only A and B students got in, high schools would give everyone As and Bs. I'm a Luddite. Education will not have value unless we go back to SATs that evaluated certain abilities that correlate with college success, IQ tests, and not accepting anyone who needs remedial courses. Also, scrap Affirmative Action. Because of it, most minority students never reach their full potential, because of lowered expectations. That's brought down standards of excellence for all but a very small percentage of all students.

If a student needs loans for undergraduate study, it should be for vocational training that leads directly to a job skill in a year or two at the most. Otherwise, it's just setting those who don't graduate up for a life of failure.

[Do the math]

When I teach upper level or graduate courses in math most of my students pass because they don't get into these classes unless they are prepared. When I teach freshmen classes, like calculus 1, my pass rate is usual only about 40 percent. Most freshmen should not even have a high school diploma. I often have freshmen that can't add fractions, or do basic arithmetic with out a calculator. The worse students tend to have delusions of grandeur, unrealistic expectations of reality, and inflated egos. The snowflakes always blame me for failing my course, it's never their fault.

[familyop]

Imagine seeing the aftermath of a debt default from inside of this country without the media propaganda filtering events (as seen through the media filters from Argentina, Greece, Venezuela, etc., all with enormously increasing socialism long before their changes in government) And oh, yes, I’m talking about the education regime among other rackets.

Imagine the likes of Antifa many times larger and in the streets.

Socialism, folks? You’ve already been seeing it for decades. Look at what happened to most of our private production that once happened on our own U.S. soil. Notice where unions are permitted and supported, even by government-connected business, while they wield most of the influence over politics.

A women’s studies instructor once stated to university students, “We’ll didn’t get them in the boardrooms. We didn’t get them in politics. We got ‘em in education, though, didn’t we, girls! Next, we’ll take the good ‘ol boys down!

Well, stock up on popcorn in advance, and watch for reckoning time to come. It will be a great show, but it will be over for good and all in a flash.

[CodeToad]

Unfortunately, many graduate courses in many school have little pre-requisites. They also don’t require math or other more difficult subjects.

I’ve come across many people with an MS in something but have little to no understanding of math or science.

[familyop]

"There is fraud in the college selection process. The colleges know the numbers. They are setting up the kids for failure and many years of debt. This is grounds for lawsuit."

Poor things. They'll have nothing but their mothers' rotting houses and the administering of their homeowners' associations for jobs, if they can continue to pay the property taxes.

"This is grounds for turning off the federal money pipeline."

...or encouraging it to spend more. Maybe default is the answer. If local regulators and their anti-competition bosses no longer have the debt regime to fatten their accounts, they'll no longer stand in the way or have much influence in politics at all. We also won't have to put with them pushing the perversions of their spoiled ones in everyone's faces.

[A_perfect_lady]

Yeah, public school is becoming a joke, really. I have three more years till I can retire, and I honestly don’t know if I’ll make it. I guess I have to, but the constant pressure on teachers to make miracles out of lazy students who can’t do basic math and reading is exhausting.

[CodeToad]

I remember teachers when I was growing up needing a lot of work to do the job. I can only imagine the frustration levels today.

“Hi, Ms. Teacher. Here’s Sabulitha. She’s fresh from jail. She’s run away 5 times, prostitutes herself, takes drugs, and none of her older 5 siblings ever went past the 8th grade. She’s illiterate and cannot write her own name. Make sure she finishes the year with a good grade.”