In education we are now filled with data. At the high school level we keep track of our state mandated testing, AP Scores, SAT scores, GPA etc. To me what we really need to do is focus on what percentage of our students are graduating college within six years. Who cares if you have SAT scores that a great if you did not graduate college.
Whenever, I have posed this to a colleague their first remarks are that they most students probably drop our due to financial reasons. While I am sure that this happens to some students we really have not statistics on what causes our students to not graduate college. Also should it not be part of our responsibility to help guide the student and their parent to an institution that they can afford.
In reading Paul Tough's book, "How Children Succeed" (a must for all educators) he talks about important non-cognitive factors such as GRIT. Students with a high GRIT score manage to work around the problems of lack of finance by finding scholarships, jobs or loans to keep their college dream alive. Our school which is probably one of the leaders in Baltimore County has about 48% of our graduating seniors finish college within years.
The challenge is how to we increase this number.
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