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By Anna L. Mallory
The Roanoke Times
A Radford City School Board member
says she is in favor of requiring all high school students in the district to
apply to college, even if they don't think they want to attend a two- or
four-year school.
Board member Vanessa Duncan said
she heard about the idea during a Virginia School Boards Association
conference. At last week's school board meeting, she suggested Radford High
School begin doing the same. No action was taken on the suggestion, but
Superintendent Chuck Bishop said he'd pass along the idea.
The idea would be to reach out to
high school students who don't think about their life plans past senior year.
It's an idea that board Vice Chairman Lynn Burris said in the meeting that he
also would support.
Radford already a high
college-going rate. The Virginia Department of Education reported that 86
percent of the school's 119 graduating seniors in 2008 planned to attend a two-
or four-year college.
Duncan said that the practice would be
easy in Radford because of the number of students who already do apply to
colleges.
"If there's only eight or 10
[students] left, you should be able to do that," Duncan said.
Denise Goff, a guidance counselor
at Radford High School, said she's interested in
the idea, but it doesn't take into consideration students with vocational
training who will enter the work force after graduation or those who plan to
join the military.
"I think that it would be
probably helpful, but it would have to have exceptions," she said.
"My feeling is that as long as they are making a plan for after high
school then we are doing good."
She suggested that 95 percent of
Radford's class of 2008 planned to attend college, vocational programs or the
military.
Goff also questioned the logistics
of such a policy for larger schools. No plans have been made to put the
practice into policy, and Goff said no one in administration had mentioned the
idea to her.
Martinsville City Schools
implemented the practice two years ago, said Superintendent Scott Kizner. It's
part of the students' senior portfolios.
"We want to make sure we're
not the reason that a child is not going to school," Kizner said Tuesday.
He said administrators started the
practice because many high school students in the district become
first-generation college students, and navigating applications can be tricky
even for parents who hold degrees.
Martinsville also has one full-time guidance
counselor dedicated to working with students trying to get into college.
"It's not been as simple as I
thought it would be," he said.
Initially, Kizner wanted to attach
a tracking number to students to find out if they actually attend the schools
to which they apply. Instead, this summer, his staff will have to contact every
2008 graduate to find out what happened after high school.
It's not an unheard of idea. In
2008, legislation in Maine
required high school seniors to apply to college as a condition of receiving
their diplomas. Neither
Duncan nor Burris is willing to go that far.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/199565
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