RIVERSIDE COUNTY A-G COMPLETION REPORT Mike Horton AVID Administrator, RCOE 2011

Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018 — shows that fully 60 percent of jobs in the U.S will require postsecondary education by is the year that present juniors in high school will graduate college at the average of 5 years for bachelor’s degree attainment. Presently, what is the A-G completion rate for Riverside County?Presently, what is the A-G completion rate for California? Presently, what is the A-G completion rate for Riverside Co. AVID?

Statewide County Ranking 2010 High School Graduates Meeting CTE/ROP Certification Requirements County Enrollment Grades Number of Capstone CTE Course Students with Sufficient Technical Skills (LEAs) Number of Capstone CTE Course Students with Sufficient Technical Skills (ROCPs) Number of Capstone CTE Course Students with Sufficient Technical Skills (LEAs+ROCPs) Technical Skills Attainment Rate Tulare28,1182,1954,1516, % Contra Costa52,8482,2098,69810, % Los Angeles532,15815,08086,560101, % Riverside133,8426,98717,63524, % Orange168,2015,08222,04127, % Fresno60,6922,7146,7029, % San Bernardino136,0247,27012,46719, % San Joaquin41, ,0925, % State2,013,68677,928202,374280, % Kern55,0194, , % Ventura46,1432,9881,5204,5089.8% San Diego163,2571,67310,54912,2227.5% Alameda67,8641,8182,7194,5376.7% Santa Clara79,5962,0511,3943,4454.3% San Mateo27, ,1344.1% Sacramento75,5502, % Stanislaus32, %

Statewide County Ranking 2011 High School Graduation Rate

Statewide County Ranking 2011 High School Graduates Meeting UC/CSU Required Courses

 Education-Trust West studied K-12 districts in California and gave them a letter grade across several categories.  Key Data Systems pulled out the Riverside County districts and compared them to the rest of the state.  Riverside County fared very well in 3 out of the 4 categories.

-In the category of Overall Performance of under-represented students, Riverside County districts occupied 3 out of the top 5 places in the state (including first place and the only grade of “B”). -In the category of Achievement Gains for under-represented students, Riverside County districts also occupied 3 of the top 5 places including first place and four districts earning grades of “A”. -For closing the achievement gap, a Riverside County district (Lake Elsinore) took the first place spot in closing the African-American achievement gap. (Lake Elsinore also took the top spot overall in the state.)

 But in A-G Completion for “Students of Color,” Riverside County’s top spot was 9 th place  If we calculate a GPA for the 4 categories:  Category 1: 2.33  Category 2: 2.67  Category 3: 2.00  Category 4 (A-G Comp.): 1.27

Key Data Systems suggested that the issue is likely a reporting issue, the numbers are not actually that low. There is a lot of evidence supporting this claim. In one district, only 86 A-G completers were reported to the state. AVID students alone in this district comprised more than 200 A-G completers. From another district, I analyzed senior transcripts and found actual completion rates to be different than reported completion rates. The district followed up and found similar disparities.

By the school year, API will be replaced by EQI and will include, “a State Assessment Index, a Graduation Rate Index, a College Preparedness Index, and a Career Readiness Index.” The CPI may include “... local and state assessments (EAP?), course enrollment and completion (A-G?), academic and extracurricular programs (AVID?), and advanced or additional learning opportunities (Dual Enrollment/AP Courses?)...” “... additional weight for schools that can demonstrate that English learners are making progress toward English language acquisition, graduation, and preparedness for college and career.”

It’s clear that we need to clean up the A-G data to accurately determine what the next steps should be. The elephant in the room But... will that be enough?

A transcript analysis revealed that data cleaning is not enough. In one Riverside County district, there were 1,736 seniors. More than 230 missed completing A-G by one category, many by one course or one semester of one course. Which of the A-G requirements do you think was missed most? a) HSSb) ELAc) Mathd) Sciencee) Foreign Language f) VAPAg) Elective

Long and Kurlaender found that, “Community college students were 36 percent less likely to obtain a bachelor's degree than similar students who started at four-year colleges. Moreover, among community college students who expressed an intention to obtain a four-year bachelor's degree, only 26 percent have such a degree nine years later. On the other hand, 50 percent and 73 percent of those who start at nonselective and selective four-year institutions, respectively, obtain a bachelor's degree within nine years. The negative effect of starting post- secondary education at a community college remains even after the authors adjust for selection bias by controlling for students' race, gender, age, ability (measured by ACT scores) and family income.” Long, Bridget Terry; and Kurlaender, Michal. "Do Community Colleges Provide a Viable Pathway to a Baccalaureate Degree?" Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (forthcoming).

What to do?? 1) Clean up the data 2) Analyze the data to determine areas of need 3) Every student creates an 8- to 11-year plan and progress is monitored at least annually 4) Have a credit-recovery plan 5) Grow your AVID program 6) Spread your AVID program school-wide 7) Other? Report out things that are already being done in your district.