Post-Secondary Work - Valley Students Outpace Others
Article published January 13, 2008
BINGHAM -- In what educators call a culture shift, Valley High School increased the percentage of its students going on to post-secondary schools by more than 36 percent over four years.
The percentage of Valley High School students going on to post-secondary education increased from 54 percent in 2003 to 96 percent in 2006, according to the MELMAC Education Foundation. That is the most of 28 high schools that received a foundation grant during that period.
For the small two-town school system with a history of winning basketball championships, the perennially high rate of graduates who attend four-year college, community college or vocational training programs has become a source of pride.
"It is no longer whether you are going to go to college, it is where you are going to go to college. It is not if you are going to college, it is when you are going to go to college," said Valley guidance counselor Katie Flood.Of schools that received grants in 2003, Valley High School also had the highest percentage (96 percent) of its students attending post-secondary schools in 2006.
The average post-secondary enrollment rate of the 28 high schools and one vocational school that received foundation grants was 73 percent in 2006, according to information provided by Valley High School.
The foundation awards grants to Maine high schools to encourage students to continue their education after high school. Valley has received two $20,000 two-year grants and a one-year $5,000 planning grant since 2003.
School Administrative District 13 Superintendent Kenneth Smith said that the grants have played a big role in the district's efforts to make college aspirations part of the culture.
MELMAC money has gone towards college sweatshirts for students who are accepted to schools and also to college tours in New England or beyond over summer vacation.
Smith said that in an area with a high rate of poverty, families sometimes see a college education as out of reach.
Once families see college as a possibility, he said they work hard to keep their children in college.
Flood, in her sixth year at Valley, said she has seen a big change in the attitude toward higher education in that time and credits the MELMAC grant for a large part of that success.
But even though high numbers of Valley students are enrolling in post-secondary institutions, Flood said the school needs to figure out how to help them stay there until graduation.
Flood estimates that only about 50 percent of students remain in college until graduation.
She said the focus of her school's next MELMAC grant will be largely on how to help students stay in school. The school will apply for that grant -- $40,000 over four years -- in April.
Coming from a small town where everybody knows everybody else, Flood said it can be hard for students to make the transition to a place where, at least at first, they don't know anybody.
Most students in this year's graduating class of 18 have been together since kindergarten, she said.
No statewide statistics were available for the number of Maine high school graduates who attend post-secondary schools.
David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for the Department of Education, said the state stopped keeping that statistic because it was difficult to get an accurate number for the number of students who actually attend post-secondary schools.
He said the state was looking for ways to get that information in the future.