Graduation Rates

Recently, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research released a report pointing out that at 19 percent, Coppin State University's retention and graduation rates rank among the lowest in the nation. Those numbers are based on a six-year cohort dating from 2000-2006. We acknowledge this. We understand our obligation to be good stewards of the public's investment in us and that we will be held accountable. Improving retention and graduation rates has been the No. 1 priority of my nearly 16-month tenure as president.

Two weeks before the high school Class of 2009 begins walking across stages around the state, school districts are reporting a significant reduction in the number of students who won't graduate because they have not met the new High School Assessment requirement. In late March, about 4,600 seniors in the state had yet to meet the requirement, but that number has been decreasing as students work to complete projects in subjects they had failed. In Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Howard, Carroll, Harford and Montgomery counties combined, the most recent data show that fewer than 1,150 students have not met the mark and each day the numbers are falling.

Here's an excerpt of an entry posted Wednesday on The Baltimore Sun's InsideEd blog: America's Promise Alliance, the collaborative founded by Colin and Alma Powell to improve the well-being of youth, has a new report out today with on-time high school graduation rates in the nation's 50 largest cities. In Baltimore, the rate increased 7.7 points over a decade, from 33.8 percent in 1995 to 41.5 percent in 2005. The report, called "Cities in Crisis 2009," did its calculations slightly differently than the oft-cited Education Week rankings, but for Baltimore the results are about the same - and far lower than the city's official graduation rate as reported by the state: 62.6 percent in 2008 and 59 percent in 2005.

By the time Jodie Meeks got going for Kentucky, Notre Dame was all but packing its bags for New York. The Irish were up by 15 points before Meeks made his second basket, on just his fourth shot with 12:18 left in the game, and the Irish survived a 17-5 run late by the visiting Wildcats to end a 10-game losing streak to Kentucky with a 77-67 victory Wednesday night to advance to the National Invitation Tournament semifinals. "They did a great job of guarding him," Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie said.

Fla. St. to appeal NCAA's punishment colleges Florida State will appeal part of an NCAA punishment that would strip the school of victories in 10 sports, including as many as 14 in football. The university president called the penalty "excessive and inappropriate." Football coach Bobby Bowden has 382 career wins - one fewer than Penn State's Joe Paterno, the major college leader. "The coaches had no involvement," Florida State president T.K. Wetherell said yesterday. "To hold them responsible in this case is simply wrong."

African-American students are falling further behind their peers at state universities, according to data released yesterday that show a widening gap in graduation rates despite efforts to close it. The state university system reported that 40 percent of black students earn a degree within six years of entering college, compared with 65 percent of all students. That 25-point gap is a significant increase over three years ago, when the gap was 15 percentage points. Officials said the system is enrolling thousands more African-American students, and particularly more lower-income students who often have to drop out for financial reasons.

Baltimore County schools officials have developed a plan to improve student achievement and the graduation rate at Dundalk High School that includes replacing some school staff, fostering community ties and switching to a six-period day of classes. "It's all about moving our kids forward," said Tom Shouldice, principal of the high school since July, of what is officially called an "alternative governance plan." The plan, which the school board is to consider tonight, is part of a requisite process for schools that have repeatedly failed to meet benchmarks known as adequate yearly progress, or AYP. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, states must annually identify schools and school systems that miss the benchmarks.

You actually have a choice, you know. You can gripe and whine about the unfairness of the Bowl Championship Series and the stupidity of the entire college football bowl system - again. But you don't have to do it while glued to your television. The powers that be in the sport and at the networks don't provide the bowls and the BCS games as a public service, after all. They wouldn't be on the air, getting contracts extended and increased (half a billion dollars for four years from ESPN starting in 2010)

Three years ago, the city of Kalamazoo, Mich., was beset by shrinking public school enrollments, high dropout rates and a loss of manufacturing jobs that crippled efforts at economic development. The city's response: Rally local businesses and foundations to create a new kind of scholarship program that guarantees free college tuition to every public school student in the city, regardless of race or income. The program, known as Promise, aimed to attract middle-class families and jobs back to the city, keep the best students in state schools and encourage academic achievement at both the secondary and college levels.

Maryland must spend more on its historically black colleges and universities if they are to make up a wide gap in graduation rates and campus facilities compared with other public universities, a state panel has found. The panel's 34-page report, released yesterday, identifies many ways in which Maryland's four public historically black colleges have fallen behind other state schools - in science and technology labs, buildings, and retention and graduation rates. "Substantial additional resources must be invested in [the historically black colleges]