Nonprofit study shows Isle grads ill-prepared for college

More than one out of three of last year’s Hawaii public school graduates enrolling in the University of Hawaii system needed remedial instruction in math or English, according to a new school-by-school report that helps paint a picture of the college- and career-readiness of the 2009 graduating class.

Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education compiled the “College and Career Readiness Indicators” data to better understand where students are going once they leave Hawaii high schools and how prepared they are for higher education or careers. Overall, about half of 2009 public school grads enrolled in college that fall, about the same rate as the class of 2008, the report shows.

But individual high schools saw a wide range of college entrance rates. For example, Kalani High School topped the state, with 79 percent of its '09 graduates enrolling in college, while Nanakuli High School had the lowest college-going rate, 21 percent, among noncharter high schools. The state has set a goal of reaching a 62 percent college-going rate by 2018.

Tammi Chun, executive director of P-20, said the report shows much more work is necessary to improve the state's college-going rate, although new initiatives are under way to improve student preparedness and decrease the number of graduates needing remedial courses.

About half of first-time freshmen at UH-Manoa graduate within six years, while, of those, just 15 percent graduate in four years, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics. After six years the university no longer keeps track. Meanwhile, UH-Hilo's six-year graduation rate is 32 percent, and Hawaii Pacific University's is 41 percent.

The P-20 Partnerships, which released the college-going report, is led by the nonprofit Good Beginnings Alliance, the state Department of Education and the University of Hawaii. Its mission is to strengthen the “education pipeline” from early childhood to college. Its report also shows:

• About 23 percent of public high school 2009 graduating seniors went on to a four-year college.
• About 27 percent went to a community college.
• 40 percent opted to attend one of the 10 campuses in the UH system.

P-20 calculates college-going rates with information from the National Student Clearinghouse, which gathers information from 91 percent of higher-education institutions in the United States. In its report, P-20 estimates that because some institutions are not included in the clearinghouse data, the college-going rate for a school could be 6 percentage points higher in reality. Chun said the clearinghouse data is the best available information on student enrollment in college, and said only a handful of schools are missing from the count.