wrobert

Okay I will kick this off. Like I was saying on another thread, Walton County is 5th in the percentage of schools obtaining an letter grade A in the State of Florida. And the teachers and principals, as well as all the support staff, are to be commended for a job well done.

I spoke to a 10th grader this afternoon. Asking him about his experience at Walton High School. Keeping in mind that my son is attending there next year, and I really believe that we need to engage the students into conversation on how we can do better with education.

Okay first, he loves the school. After moving from Paxton the course offerings are much better and he is very happy. He is involved in athletics and thinks the programs are great. Loves the way he can earn credits so quickly, but hates block scheduling because the classes are way to long and the subject gets boring after a bit.

My surprise came though when we were talking about politics in general and this student had absolutely no idea who Charlie Crist was. This, to me, is a strong indication that we are failing to involve our students at some level in what is going on around them.

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SWGB

Has anyone ever floated a media partnership? When I was in highschool we got a copy of the local newspaper once a week in our English glass and had an assignment that revolved around it. In addition to the lesson it also gave us a moment to find out what was going on in the city, county, state, nation, and world.

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timyandell

The lack of skills in science and social studies is something that I am hearing from parents. Our students are more proficient in reading, writing and math because that's what the FCAT focuses on, at least in the early grades. They (including the top 25%) are coming to high school lacking in science and social studies as well as higher order thinking (i.e. applying the knowledge to other areas).

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August 26 Vote Tim Yandell for Walton County School Board, District 1

mdd88jd

Can't disagree with either of your assessments. As I stated on a previous post, because the general public (and Chambers of Commerce and the like) tend to focus on those school grades and FCAT scores, that is what the Superintendent and principals think they must focus on in schools. English (not reading, they are different), Social Studies, Civics, non-FCAT science and math are simply ignored or pushed aside. Again, I am proud of what I schools did on the FCAT, but, that is only part of the equation. I will continue to fight this constant FCAT pounding. Mark.

DemoLady

This study was forwarded to me by one of the candidates for Superintendent of the Walton County schools. It basically said this: Of those Walton County HS grads who enrolled as freshmen at OWCC, the following numbers needed preparatory classes in English, Reading, and Math:

2005 36 students out of 62 graduates 58%

2006 47 students out of 99 graduates 47%

2007 84 students out of 105 graduates 80%

This candidate said, "We are going backward, not forward, in the quality of students we are graduating from our system."

scooterbug44

Aren't prep classes to prepare you for college?

There is definitely something SEVERELY wrong if 80% of their graduates needed remedial classes in those subjects, but I would assume many are taking the classes to prepare them for a 4 year college, not because they are illiterates who can't add.

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"I hate to break it to you, but this year (and probably the next few) was going to suck even if Jesus himself was president. These problems were not created overnight and they aren't going away overnight." -Jdarg

mdd88jd

If correct, those numbers are not encouraging. I will do some fact checking and see if they are correct.

DemoLady

According to my information, these students had to take "pre-college" level courses to get up to speed for OWCC's regular curriculum. These are not high school level PREP courses -- which many HS students take prior to applying for college. These are college courses designed for students aren't up to speed even though they've graduated from high school.

scooterbug44

That is incredibly worrisome!!!

80% of our GRADUATING high schoolers aren't prepared enough for community college?

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"I hate to break it to you, but this year (and probably the next few) was going to suck even if Jesus himself was president. These problems were not created overnight and they aren't going away overnight." -Jdarg

DemoLady

I was so startled by this information which was given verbally that I asked to see the study. The info was mailed to me without specific sources. This is one time I would like to be proven wrong.

DemoLady

Please note that these are only the students who applied and were accepted at OWCC. This would not include graduates who get into other colleges/universities.

scooterbug44

What exactly are the requirements to get into OWCC? Does it have certain grade/SAT requirements or is it more of a "if the check clears" situation?

I would expect a certain percentage to be taking these classes to raise their scores/make them more prepared for a 4 year college, but that still seems like a pretty high percentage.

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"I hate to break it to you, but this year (and probably the next few) was going to suck even if Jesus himself was president. These problems were not created overnight and they aren't going away overnight." -Jdarg

jdarg

I would like to see this list broken down by the different Walton County high schools.

I would also like to see statistics of the kids going to others colleges and universities that are not community colleges, but I imagine this would be impossible to track, which to me makes the OWC stats a bit more alarmist than relevant. Some students ( and quite often, students with poor grades), use community colleges to gain enough "strength" so to speak to allow them to apply to bigger schools later, since they may not have had the board scores and grades to apply as freshmen.

I know private school kids that have had to do this- not every kid graduates from high school totally ready for college work. Another factor to consider is the parents. Where were the parents of these kids, and why were they not involved enough in their kids' educations to not have a clue that their kids weren't ready for college? Another example of how parent involvement is so important.

80% of the graduates THAT WENT TO OWC needed the remedial classes. That is not 80% of all Walton County graduates, just the ones that went to OW. We are a rural county, and college prep is not the total focus, and not every kid needs to go to college, but I would like to see improvements in their preparation.

I imagine Tricia Hutchison sent this out since she seems to be using these stats as the basis of her campaign platform. I am concerned, but not going to get all woo-hoo over it because there are so many other factors and considerations.

beachmouse

OWC is indeed open enrollment- if you've got a pulse and money to cover tuition, then you're good for class.

Also a couple years back, Florida abolished remedial education courses at all traditional universities except fror A&M, and put pretty much all remedial classes into the community colleges. So if you know coming out of high school that your math skills are just barely strong enough to pass FCATs, then I can understand wanting to take a sub-1000 level class in order to get comfortable with college math before going on to a bigger school or more challenging class.

wrobert

The Daily News has a Newspapers In Education program that they use. I am thinking it started back when my wife was still in the classroom teaching. They provide a quantity of newspapers that are used in the classroom.

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ShallowsNole

And, from my 20+ years' perspective, if you go on to graduate with an AA from OWC, you are more than ready for anything that lies ahead.

Stats can be manipulated until you get the result you are looking for. Yes, this sounds alarming, but without analyzing how many from which school and what these students took while in high school, all the stats are good for is shock value.

Also...were students entering OWC under dual-enrollment part of these figures?

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wrobert

I understand this helped the census count at Tallahassee Community College tremendously.

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ckhagen

You cannot be dual enrolled if you have to take prep classes...
If you don't fully pass the placement test, you are not eligible for dual enrollment.

If you come up short in areas on the placement tests, that's the gauge they use as to how many prep classes are required before you're ready for the college classes. There's two levels of prep English and two levels of prep math. The first level of the prep math class is... err... what I would call 6th grade math. The second level is comparable to maybe 8th grade algebra. I don't know anything about the prep English classes except that the first one focuses on bringing reading up to HS level.

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CK

jdarg

The numbers came from graduates of Walton County high schools who enrolled as freshman at OWCC.

wrobert

Since this is a general discussion on the school system. Strange to me that they stopped meetings in south Walton due to lack of attendance by the public. At the budget hearing tonight, which I consider one of the most important meetings since it affects just about everyone in the county, only two members of the public showed up. Me and Tim. Now I usually am at these particular meetings. And there was no press present. Thank goodness Tim came or I would not have had anyone to talk too.

So if we are using attendance by the public as a barometer, does that mean we can now cancel all future meetings in DeFuniak Springs? And if so, just where the heck is it that we should be meeting in the future?

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SWGB

If you can pass the GED in Florida then you can pass the community college entrance exam.

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jdarg

I talked to Mark Davis about publicizing some of the "hot topics" instead of the complete school board meeting agendas, which are line after line of housekeeping-type duties. I would submit it to the SWHS Seahawk News and SoWal.com every week, and maybe the school board could e-mail to the abridged agenda to each school and those schools with a parent e-mail system could send it out.

Most parents are not going to look at the school district website or the Sun website to find the meeting agendas. Maybe we could try giving people a "heads up" on upcoming topics, and discussions.

timyandell

I totally agree. I would guess that some parents may not realize these meetings are open for them to attend. The "heads up" in all school newsletters is a great idea. I know that when our son started school years ago we didn't give much thought to school board meetings. This was before Lisa was a teacher. Perhaps if we'd ever had a serious problem we would have investigated further. Still, I know there were some issues and had we known via the school newsletter we would have attended.

I know that the drive to Defuniak is a deterrent for those in the South end. I mean, I think meetings should be on a rotating basis so that each area gets equal meetings regardless of attendance. That just seems fair for everyone.

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August 26 Vote Tim Yandell for Walton County School Board, District 1