NEW YORK—Woody Allen once said, “Eighty percent of life is about showing up.”
David Conley, the research director for the Center for Educational Policy, said he wants 80 percent of high school students to do more than just show up—he wants children really learning. Conley was making introductory remarks at a Creating College Ready Communities forum in Manhattan Tuesday.
In a few weeks, the Center for New York City Affairs will release a final analysis of NYC’s school- and community-based college readiness efforts, and what more needs to be done to prepare students for college and the workforce. Tuesday’s panel of experts was discussing what else should be added to the report.
Conley said New York students have high aspirations and high-school graduation rates and college enrollment are increasing. Yet, the three-year graduation rate for CUNY community colleges was less than 12 percent for full-time students that entered in the fall of 2008.
“They don’t have the behavior to match their aspirations,” Conley said.
He suggested implementing additional tests to measure students’ basic communication skills—such as speech, listening, and following directions. He said these skills are vital for entry-level jobs, but many young people lack them.
In addition, Conley said there should be more focus on teaching students interpretation skills, how to use technology, and how to research to replace procedural thinking.
“It is not so much a difference in the students’ cognitive abilities, but that some students just don’t know how to learn,” he said. “It doesn’t come natural for many people, but it is teachable, it is malleable.”
Not Grasped
David Bloomfield, a law and policy professor at Brooklyn College, said students who fail a course can do makeup assignments to pass the class. But passing doesn’t mean students fully grasped the course material.
“Because of Bloomberg’s fanaticism about the graduation rates, there are graduating kids who don’t have a mastery of their courses,” Bloomfield said. “I think that’s the biggest issue.”
Conley said the current testing system encourages students to develop a procedural type of thinking. Many students are retaking Regents repeatedly to get a passing score.
A student needs at least a 65 on the English Regent to graduate high school in New York, and at least 75 in English, and 80 in math, to avoid taking remedial courses in college.
Conley said he wants to see changes to the testing system.
“I’m not anti-testing. I’m not anti-English or math scores,” he said. “I’m just saying they’re not entirely sufficient.”
Parental Support
Traditionally, parents were supposed to give remedial help to children in 6th-8th grades, and continue to coach study habits through 9th grade and 10th grade. But many parents are neither college nor high-school graduates.
Nonprofit organizations, such as the Urban Youth Collaborative, are stepping in to assist students with college application essays, financial aid paperwork, and SAT preparations.
More than 150 organizations helped 93,000 New York teens enter colleges, according to the center’s analysis report.
Fernando Carlo, director of Sistas & Brothas United at the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, said students today have more options to seek help.
Carlo entered John F. Kennedy High School, in the Bronx, a straight A student in 2000. He said he got away with signing up for “several lunch periods” and there were no guidance counselors to stop him.
“The educational system is getting better now, but there’s parts that are still not working,” he said. “What makes it better is that students may now have the option of turning to charter schools and community organizations.”
Tuesday’s forum collaborated ideas between schools and community organizations to discuss how to reform New York’s educational policies. The majority of the education experts present said that a significant proportion of students were simply not ready for college-level courses.
“Are we setting them up to fail and end up with mountains of debt?” asked Andrew White, the director of Center for New York City Affairs.
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