Report: HISD's degree path lagging
Only 15% of ninth-graders finish college within 4 years after graduation
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
June 18, 2010, 12:44AM
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EmailA sobering study tracking students from the Houston Independent School District shows that only 15 percent of ninth-graders go on to earn a college diploma within four years of graduating from high school.
The statistics, released to the school board Thursday, shine a harsh light on the job that HISD is doing in preparing students not only to graduate from high school, but also to pursue and succeed in higher education.
Slightly more than half of the ninth-graders in HISD's Class of 2005 - an estimated 52 percent - enrolled in two- or four-year colleges, according to the study commissioned by the school district. Fewer than one in five ended up with a college degree about four years later.
"It's unacceptable," HISD school board member Anna Eastman said of the college enrollment and graduation rates. "It's also relieving that we have the data and that we're willing to look at it and be frank about it and try to figure out how to change it."
Few, if any, other Houston-area school districts have commissioned such studies.
The success of HISD students in college could be better than it appears because the study looked only at those who earned a degree within 4½ years. Many students take longer. For example, the four-year graduation rate for full-time students at Texas colleges is 27 percent. But give students six years, and the number jumps to 57 percent,