President's Update

continued President's message

For many of our students, this is their second and last semester. They may transfer to a university or another college, or they may drop out.  If we could get more of our first year students to continue into their second year at Cuesta College, we would, obviously, increase enrollment and students would increase their likelihood of getting a degree. Retaining students through their first year benefits everyone.

According to the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems in California (2000), for every 100 students who enter 9th grade only 70 graduate from high school in four years.  And of those 70 high school graduates, only 37% enter college, only 25% are still enrolled in college after sophomore year, and only 19% earn a degree within six years of entering college.  Locally, parallel statistics indicate that for SLO County, for every 100 students who enter 9th grade, 81 students graduate from high school and of those high school graduates, only 63% enter college, only 47% are still enrolled in college after the sophomore year, and only 39% earn a degree within six years of entering college.  While we at Cuesta have the fortune of getting good students from local high schools who are more likely to earn a college degree than elsewhere in California, we still have opportunities to enroll more students from the highs schools and  to retain more students into the sophomore year.  Let’s set a goal of getting 75% or more of the local high school students to enroll in college – and let’s make it Cuesta College!

What about students’ English and math skills as they enter Cuesta College.  Researcher Ryan Cartnal provided these statistics for English and Math Placement for 2005-2006:

English Assessment Results for 2005-2006
First-time Recent SLO County High School Grads

Math
First-time Recent SLO County High School Grads

First-time recent out of county high school graduates who took the placement tests at Cuesta College showed similar results. None of these statistics is presented to discourage. The percents show us that students can benefit from taking more English and math classes and encountering more assignments within classes that require writing, reading, and math skills.

I started this column with reference to program review and student learning outcomes assessment. What do we know about Cuesta College students’ English and Math skills when they finish their first year of college or graduate with an AA degree?  If students took the placement tests after satisfying degree and transfer requirements, what percent would place into transferable English and Math?

Perhaps we can answer these questions after more work on outcomes assessment and during the 2006-2008 accreditation self-study. Or perhaps we can describe and document student English and math outcomes in a very different way. Whatever we do, we will know more about what our students know and can do because they chose Cuesta as their college.