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Stc, Local Schools Convene To Discuss College Preparation

Posted on: Thursday, 23 February 2006, 09:00 CST

By Daniel Perry, The Monitor, McAllen, Texas

Feb. 23--MISSION -- The battles some Rio Grande Valley high school graduates fight with poverty and a lack of English language skills make it even harder to handle college-level work.

"Let us not forget every student has a role in our society," said South Texas College board member Manuel Benavidez during a Wednesday morning speech at the Summit on College Readiness at The Club at Cimarron.

The McAllen-based college hosted the daylong meeting, bringing together more than 150 area school district and college representatives, business leaders and government officials to discuss what to do to get students ready for college.

The numbers that kindergarten teachers to economic development leaders are working with appear daunting.

In Texas, 77 percent of Hispanic and 60 percent of Anglo high school students are not ready for college, according to information from STC and the University of Texasâ€"Pan American. Nearly 80 percent of Hidalgo and Starr county students are unprepared to handle college work.

Rick Guerra, chief executive officer of Costillas Ltd. and vice president of operations of Castle Hospitality Ltd., both in McAllen, said parents needed to be more aware of their children's educations while schools and colleges needed to toughen existing coursework and create more mathematics, writing and reading classes.

"There are a bunch of courses that we are giving them as busy work," Guerra said.

But keeping students in college classrooms also looks to be a problem. Twenty-five percent of four-year university students and 50 percent of community college students nationwide often do not return for a second year of classes, said Martha G. Romero, senior scholar at Claremont Graduate University's School of Educational Studies in Claremont, Calif.

"All of us are responsible for student success," she said. "We have tended to work nationally in isolation."

Romero said Texans who graduate from high school could expect to make about $24,000 yearly, but getting a bachelor's degree could mean for them at least $40,000 earned yearly.

Being ready for college also means being ready to enter the workplace -- something McAllen Economic Development Corp. President Keith Patridge said is not fully accomplished now.

By 2011, there will be 750,000 new workers nationally to fill 1.5 million jobs -- baby boomers will retire around that time. Patridge said Texas' economic competition is worldwide, but jobs meant for present and future Valley workers could go overseas if more college and work-ready students did not step forward.

A Hidalgo County school district is already doing something about this.

The Weslaco school district and STC's Mid-Valley Campus in Weslaco work together providing dual enrollment for high school students. Lourdes Flores, the school district's curriculum director, said the partnership is helping the district push students forward as part of the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 forcing schools to be more accountable for educating students.

She was glad people from the academic, economic and business fields were in one room talking.

"This needs to be the beginning and we need to continue networking," Flores said.

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Daniel Perry covers Edinburg, education and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4454.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Monitor, McAllen, Texas

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Monitor (McAllen, Texas)

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