Arizona is producing more high school graduates, but that is not translating into an increase in the number of local students eligible to attend one of the state’s three public universities.
Less than half of 2014 Arizona high school graduates — 46.5 percent — met eligibility requirements to attend the University of Arizona, Arizona State University or Northern Arizona University, according to an Arizona Board of Regents study.
The new study looked at the transcripts of more than 26,000 Arizona high school graduates. Whether the student was college-bound was not considered.
Though the eligibility for state universities was low, it remained essentially unchanged from 2009, when the study was last conducted. It is, however, nearly five percentage points higher than it was more than 15 years ago.
In response to what is being called “below average” eligibility rates, the Regents are reviewing admissions requirements to ensure they align with what best prepares students for college-level work. For example, the board recently approved allowing some career and technical education classes to be counted toward eligibility instead of a fine arts credit.
Beyond that, the board suggests that high schools set specific goals for students to pursue education and training after graduation — something public universities and community colleges have done in aiming to increase the percentage of adults with associate and bachelor’s degrees by 2020.
“There are a number of initiatives we can pursue to increase eligibility rates, and it starts with building a greater college-going culture and raising expectations for success in K-12,” said Eileen Klein, ABOR president.
For the graduating class of May 2014, 51 Arizona high schools did not send a single student on to post-secondary education that fall. Of the graduates who did enroll immediately, half came from 52 of the state’s 488 high schools.
“Many of our schools do an outstanding job preparing graduates, but performance is not consistent across the board,” Klein said.
In the Tucson Unified School District, a college-going culture has been emphasized for several years, not only at the high school level, but in K-8 schools as well, said Superintendent H.T. Sanchez.
There is also a push to increase participation in career and technical education courses that lead to certification and employment.
The district — the largest in Southern Arizona — has also worked to increase the number of students taking Advanced Placement and dual-credit courses, which give students the opportunity to earn college credits while in high school.
More than 76 percent of last year’s TUSD seniors reported plans to attend college after graduation, a survey showed. Another 2 percent planned to get vocational training. Of those planning to continue their educations, more than 1,100 said they were going to two-year colleges; nearly 900 opted for four-year programs.
Math problems
Where students most often get hung up in terms of deficiencies is math, the study found.
Forty-one percent of Arizona students failed to meet the university math requirement. Nineteen percent were able to slide by with one deficiency in math.
The foreign language and science requirements, respectively, were the next most difficult standards to achieve, with only 61 percent of students meeting the universities’ full requirements.
Arizona high school graduation requirements mostly align with the universities’ admission requirements, with the exception of foreign languages. The state requires that students take elective courses, but does not specifically call for foreign language.
Of Tucson’s nine major school districts, only two — Catalina Foothills and Tanque Verde — require two units of a foreign language to graduate. Flowing Wells calls for one unit.
Sanchez acknowledges that TUSD’s graduation policy may need to be revisited to achieve better alignment with the college admissions requirements.
“Whenever our counselors meet with our students, they always have a focus on college,” he said. “We offer multiple sections of foreign languages at our high schools across the board — it’s a staple of our elective offerings, but I think that’s something that we do need to look at and be more forthright in saying, ‘Make sure you take two foreign languages as a prerequisite.’”
Arizona high-schoolers had less trouble meeting the English, social sciences and fine arts requirements, the study found.
In dissecting student eligibility, minority students — African American, American Indian and Hispanic — had substantially lower eligibility rates to enter Arizona universities compared to Anglo and Asian-American students.
Klein found the trend to be troubling, especially given the increase in the Hispanic population.
“Hispanic students are the largest minority group in K-12, and are quickly approaching a majority of total enrollment in that system,” she said. “By 2035, the U.S. Census estimates that a majority of Arizona will be Hispanic. Improving the achievement rate among all students, but particularly among Hispanic students, is an imperative for economic success in our state.”
While the state universities are experiencing record-high enrollments, there was a 4 percent decline — 501 Arizona high school grads — who enrolled for the fall semester immediately following their senior year.
The loss ultimately affeccts the ability to meet work force demand in the state and Arizona’s capacity to recruit major businesses, said Greg Patterson, chair of the ABOR Academic and Student Affairs Committee.
The study, however, did find good news in the area of academic preparation of the university freshman class for the 2013-2014 school year, with 83 percent being admitted into college without deficiencies, compared to 82 percent in fall 2012 and 80 percent in fall 2011.
The success is partially attributed to an increase in high school graduation requirements for those who graduated in May 2013.
The fact that more students are getting into college without deficiencies and that there was little change in the percentage of students eligible for admission is surprising to Sanchez.
“I think that we’re very fortunate to not have lost ground significantly in the number of kids who qualify considering the underinvestment you’ve seen from the state level,” Sanchez said. “You would expect to have seen a greater loss, but it shows how hard people have worked with what they have.”
