Brooklyn passes the town and eductation budgets:
On the $5.1 million town budget:
Yes: 424….No: 361.
On the $14.8 million education budget:
Yes: 392…No: 379.
On the $341,774 capital improvement question:
Yes: 399….No: 358.
Today the Hartford Courant published a large table that ranked Connecticut High Schools by their graduate enrollment in college (page B2, 6/26/2007; the link at the newspaper website did not work). The title of this half page article was “More Graduates Heading to Private Out-of-State Colleges� – the main message of the article. But, although the data ordered all 179 CT high schools by the percentage of graduating high school students that attended private colleges, the table also showed the total percentage of high school seniors that went on to both private and public colleges. This survey compiled its data only from 2004-2006 graduating seniors.
As might be expected, the same affluent towns that ranked high among preK-8 – New Canaan (2), Darien (1), Wilton (4), Staples/Westport(5), Ridgefield (9), and Simsbury High School (12), e.g towns that don’t send their kids to out-of-town high schools were at the top of the list with 90-97% of graduating seniors going off to either type of college. Among this elite group the percentage of seniors going off to private colleges ranged from 76% down to 54%.
You may recall a previous article on the high ranking of the K-8 school systems in Pomfret and Woodstock which ranked 11th and 22nd, respectively, statewide among 157 public middle schools in terms of meeting the goals of NCLB (no child left behind); but surrounding towns fared less well.
Woodstock Academy (WA) was ranked 108th out of 179 high schools for private college enrollment with 25% of its seniors enrolling in private colleges. When WA was ranked by total college enrollment, only 10 out of the 108 high schools ranked above WA scored a lower percentage of total college enrollment, and 43 of the 59 high schools ranking below WA in terms of private college enrollment scored below WA in total college enrollment. Thus, if the list of high schools was ordered by total college enrollment, WA would have ranked 114th in the state with a percentage of 74% graduating seniors enrolling in college. According to the ranking based on private college attendance, Putnam HS was ranked 109th just behind the Academy, although if one looks at total college enrollment Putnam showed only 61% total college enrollment.
Among the 53-59 high schools that ranked below WA on the list in college enrollment were most of the numerous inner city high schools of large cities like Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Norwalk, and 13 of the “Technical� high schools of the state. Ellis Tech was ranked 171 out of 179 and about the same for total college enrollment. Killingly HS was ranked 149th out of 179. So the two alternative high schools for the Town of Woodstock offer an environment that may not encourage college enrollment.
One surprise in this list was the ranking of Thompson. Tortellotte HS was in the upper third in the state with 34% of its seniors enrolling in private colleges and 70% of its graduating seniors attending either public or private colleges, a ranking very close to the Academy. Another surprise was Gilbert Academy that ranked 71st in private college enrollment with 73% of its seniors going on to public or private colleges. Both of these schools’ K-8 contributing systems ranked much lower than the Woodstock K-8 public school system in the earlier article. Finally Norwich Free Academy was 105 out of 179 for private college enrollment, but NFA showed that 82% of seniors went on to public or private colleges.
I spent alot of time looking at that chart this morning at work. For anyone who doesn’t understand the changing world our kids are going to have to deal with or how important a college education is, the Courant ran another article a few days ago that should be of interest.
H.S. Diploma? Not Enough
http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-hsgrads0619.artjun19,0,7682916.story?coll=hc-headlines-education
This is very revealing as it does not support the public relations of the Academy.
Here is this historic, private school in a growing community with a beautiful hilltop campus and devoted alumni – what could be a true educational model. Instead, we have a group of low-minded Trustees who orient to the most ignorant members of the local political caste and seem engaged in a political shakedown of the local public education system.
It is almost incredible – what are these people thinking?
I would also like to thank Romeo Blackmar and all of the WBOE for their tireless efforts in advocating for education. However, it must be kept in mind that there is a difference between advocacy and activism. Activists will deny till the bitter end that there is a difference between the two and in fact are very cabable of gaining recruits in the name of advocacy. However, there is a difference. Here are six ways to tell the difference:
1)Activists will always move their agenda forward despite public opinion.
2) Activists will move an agenda forward even if it undermines the people they are advocating for.
3) Activists will move their agenda forward in a manner where they shift blame to “carrying out the process” or “moving forward to come to conclusion”.
4) When placed in a corner, activists will always claim that there is a greater power that calls them to action. This greater power can be, oh, say, the State of Connecticut for example.
5) Activists will always try to bring emotion into the issue by playing the victim through promoting their “advocacy” for a just cause.
6) If activists don’t get their way they circumvent the people they represent and seek sanctuary with a higher power, oh, say, the Connecticut State Legislature.
Tonight is the Public Forum For the 9th Grade Retention Proposal or the Grade 9 Community Forum (sounds much nicer). 7pm Woodstock Middle School.
Thursday night the WBOE meets to vote on whether or not to move the proposal “forward”.
The actions of the WBOE in the next two nights will be very telling of whether or not we have “activists” on the board or “advocates” on the board.
Let me conclude that it is with great gratitude that I salute the WBOE on their advocacy of education. They put in long, voluntary hours that others take for granted. We have a group who are intelligent, articulate, and caring. They deserve the highest respect and we should be proud of them. However, it would bring great shame to this community if the perception that they are activists persist beyond the next two nights. Let’s hope the WBOE does the right thing: Stop this mad crusade. Move onward toward what really matters…the advocacy for education.
I think we want to be very careful what we read into these numbers. I’ve brought up the difference between causation and correlation before. We do know that the numbers of graduates of WA that go on to college are lower than other towns like Simsbury. What we don’t know is why.
Is it because WA is giving an inferior education?
Is it because some of the other schools have better funding?
Is it because a higher number of the parents in more affluent communities have money to pay for higher education?
Is it because more Woodstock kids have to go to work earlier to support their families?
Is it because of town cultural differences?
Is it because Woodstock kids are doing things like joining the military to pay for college later in life?
Some combination of all of these and some others?
I know when you see a positive correlation it is tempting to draw conclusions but many times we are only considering a subset of the factors that cause that correlation in a much more complex system. Maybe our elementary school might not be quite as high ranked as Simsbury’s Squadron Line school but what conclusions can we draw from that?
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that we wanted our elementary school to rank as high as Squadron Line; how would we go about it? We could probably use Pareto’s Principle to identify the most likely causes but there are going to be more than one. It isn’t going to just be how much money the school has or the degree levels of the instructors, though each of these will undoubtedly have an effect on the outcome. Some of the factors may exists in the homes as well as in the schools.
So my point is that it is difficult to look at just one data point. An affluent family that has enough disposable income to send their children to collage and has a high expectation of the children going to college is probably going to have a much different experience at WA than a blue collar family who may have dreams of sending their children to college but not the financial means to easily do so. Towns like Simsbury are much more likely to have more of the former than the later due to property values alone.
Does that let WA off the hook? No, not really. It just means that we know this correlation exists and the entire system (home and school) needs to be examined for the cause. Now that it has been identified the question is what has the WA done to look for internal causes? What programs can they implement to mitigate home, social and financial problems outside of their direct control? Are they even interested? The answers to these questions, I would think, say more about the quality (or its lack) of WA than the raw numbers.
Thanks.
Bowman, I agree with your cautionary message. I tried to present this without interpretation, although presenting it will lead to interpretation. However, the Academy is continuously hyping themselves in the Villager and Shoppers guide and yet, whenever we see actual stats, a rather average picture develops.
While acknowledging this is only one data point, I am concerned. I know I have heard several times in the last decade that 90% of Academy students go on to college. So, if now the rate is 74% that represents a substantial reduction. I would also be interested to know what the Academy is doing about it. If the 74% doesn’t represent an actual reduction, there is a completely different discussion we need to have.
Author,
I was mostly just putting that out as a cautionary statement. As you have pointed out in just about every public measurement we have looked at (including cost per student) the WA is near average or below average for the state.
What conclusions do I get from this? We are paying an average price for an average education. They are not exceptional or remarkable in their results. The below average direct to college rates I’m not sure can be totally placed at their feet but they are not remarkable either.
So in this we are getting about what we are paying for. Not much more, not much less. Juxtapose that with the funding level of the K-8 system in Woodstock. Pretty much the same home conditions, less funding yet better test performance when compared to other towns. Like many here I’d agree that we are getting a much better deal with the K-8 system. This leads me with the distinct feeling that most of the attacks on the K-8 system are political in nature as they seem without any factual merit or support.
It isn’t that the WA is bad from a performance standpoint, at least as far as I can see. No silver bullets here, though. Privatization in a de-facto monopoly situation is not going to deliver any of the purported advantages of privatization. We are getting the performance of an average public school for about the same average cost. At least the “withhold the 9th grade” proposal raises the spectre of competition for the academy.
Thanks.
Author, you did present it without interpretation; however, the significance of the ranking of 114 for total college attendence cannot be ascertained without knowing more about the raw data. For example, if ranks 94 through 103 were at 76% and ranks 104 through 113 were at 75%, then WA at 74% and a rank of 114th hardly means anything significant. It would be more informative to have the mean and standard deviation of these percentages to figure out just how “bad” a rank of 114 is. Or to be able to plot a frequency distribution of the percent scores. It would also be interesting to see what WA’s % as a function of years has been, and other schools for that matter. It seems to me the private school % is really just a measure of how much money the parents in a school district have, and not how smart the kids are. Anybody can go to most private schools if they have the money to pay, just not Harvard.
Numbers, I was anticipating that the Courant would fix the link so readers to link to the data. I checked this afternoon and it hasn’t been fixed.
There’s no question that demographics play a huge role in this ranking. I grew up in Rowayton right next to Darien. The HS snobs at Darien all drove Corvettes to school.
Bowman has it in a nutshell.
The Woodstock public school system has excellent cost/ effectiveness based on above average test scores against below average costs. Woodstock Academy has average test scores against average costs, a result consistent across multiple indicators.
Other observations:
First, the Academy is using its monopoly market power to create the best public relations they can for themselves, together with, in this case, an alliance with CPS (Wetzel) to sponsor a PR assault on the Woodstock public schools, their competitor for funding. This PR has successfully created a public impression that is the opposite of the conclusions stated above.
Second, the Academy is working through the political system (Wholean) to maintain their government-granted monopoly to maximize their own revenues.
This is like a case study our of an economics textbook.
Tax – Where did you get this insipid distinction between “advocates” and “activists”. I mean, says who? You? It sounds like something borrowed from a right wing criticism of “activist judges”.
From reading above, I have trouble believing the Academy’s actions are legal. Is the State Department of Education aware that this “private” school is using public funds to conduct a public relations war against the town’s public education system?
It seeems increasingly apparant that you have no interest in any objective assesment of the town’s eucational system – you are just cheerleading at the direction of the Trustees. Why don’t you stop your own “mad crusade” and let the “highly intelligent. caring, hard working BOE” do its job? ?
I would love to. In spite of themselves, I remain hopeful that the BOE will drop the 9th grade proposal and sign a contract with the Academy by election day 2007.
[...] Another complaint of the anonymous author was that attendence at the new high school would hurt the chances of getting into college. Woodstock Academy was ranked 108th out of 179 high schools for private college enrollment with 25% of its seniors enrolling in private colleges. When WA was ranked by total college enrollment, only 10 out of the 108 high schools ranked above WA scored a lower percentage of total college enrollment, and 43 of the 59 high schools ranking below WA in terms of private college enrollment still scored below WA in total college enrollment. Thus, if the list of high schools was ordered by total college enrollment, WA would have ranked 114th in the state with a percentage of 74% graduating seniors enrolling in college. According to the ranking based on private college attendance, Putnam HS was ranked 109th just behind the Academy (the source of the data). [...]
[...] graduate enrollment in college (page B2; the link at the newspaper website does not work). The Cafe published an article on this report.The title of this half page article was “More Graduates Heading to Private [...]