Schools address college prep

More than 100 educators from nine neighboring counties gathered at St. Johns River Community College on Monday to discuss legislation concerning college readiness of high school students. "This is an effort that's been put together with Putnam County Schools, St. Johns River Community College and the North East Florida Educational Consortium to address the new high school accountability requirements that are coming about as a result of Senate Bill 1908," NEFEC Executive Director Dr. James Surrency said. "The major thrust of our summit today is to really get that information to the school level with guidance counselors and principals and talk about some of the things that are going to have to change."

Senate Bill 1908 was designed to improve college and career readiness by lowering the percentage of high school graduates needing post-secondary remediation in reading, writing, and mathematics before starting college level course work.

"It's a known fact that between 60 and 70 percent of high school students that attend community college within one year of graduation need remediation or college prep courses in at least one area," said SJRCC President Joe Pickens.

Summit organizers outlined the new state standards for high schools and stressed that a high school diploma does not guarantee college readiness.

"One of the things we're trying to do is educate everyone to the fact that there is a difference between the minimum requirements to be prepared to do college work for credit or go into a career or technical training at a highe level," Pickens said. "Students that had a decent grade point average and had passed the FCAT were truly surprised they weren't college-ready."

Schools are addressing the problem by offering courses to high school senoirs that are not considered college-ready. "Based on the FCAT score, they're eligible to take the College Placement Test in 11th grade to identify whether or not they have deficiencies in their ability to do college level work," Pickens said.

If scores indicate a deficiency, students then have an opportunity to take a college preparatory course while they're still in high school.

Students who score a 2,3 or 4 on the math portion of the FCAT or 2 or 3 on the reading portion are eligible to take the CPT in high school.

Summit attendees also heard from Dr. Gene Bottoms from the Southern Regional Education Board about strategies and examples that will help local schools meet the new standards.