http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-classof980111.artjan11,0,5629281.story
Bright Students, No College
5 Years After Diplomas, 10% Of High Scorers Haven't Gone Further
By ROBERT A. FRAHM
Courant Staff Writer
January 11 2006
Not only do many of Connecticut's brightest high school students leave
the state for higher education elsewhere, a surprising number never
enroll in college at all, says a landmark study being released today.
Nearly one in 10 students with high scores on a state achievement test
did not attend college in the five years after graduation, according to
a study that tracked public school graduates of the high school Class
of 1998.
"I think it's stunning that 10 percent never went to college anywhere.
I find that incredible," state Higher Education Commissioner Valerie F.
Lewis said of the report, believed to be one of the most extensive
studies of its kind.
The study, "First Steps: An Evaluation of the Success of Connecticut
Students Beyond High School," was designed to measure the effectiveness
of the Connecticut Academic Performance Test, an exam that has been
given annually to high school sophomores since 1994.
The findings will be presented this morning at a joint meeting in
Hartford of the Board of Governors for Higher Education and the State
Board of Education.
Researchers Stephen P. Coelen and Joseph Berger tracked more than
32,000 high school graduates who had taken the CAPT exam as sophomores.
The study provided convincing evidence, Coelen said, that sophomores
who score well on the rigorous test are more likely to go to college,
take more credits per semester, get good grades and earn degrees than
those who don't do as well.
The test "significantly explains every measure of success," said
Coelen, a retired University of Massachusetts professor and managing
partner in the World Institute for Strategic Economic Research at
Holyoke Community College.
The study followed the entire Class of 1998 for five years after high
school graduation and found that about two-thirds of the class enrolled
in college, but a substantial number of the brightest graduates, based
on scores on the 10th grade test, chose out-of-state schools.
Higher education officials said the report's warnings of a brain drain
- graduates attending college out of state - are tempered by figures
showing that more recent graduating classes are staying in Connecticut
in greater numbers, indicating the trend is reversing.
Before 2000, more than half of all college-bound graduates left the
state, but by 2004 nearly six out of 10 chose public and private
colleges in Connecticut, new state figures show.
The study's most surprising finding, however, was the number of bright
students who did not go on to college.
"Let's hope they made deliberate plans to make use of other [options],
like the military," said Lewis, the higher education commissioner. "My
concern is there are kids who are not learning about college early
enough, and that's a shame."
The study also made comparisons between the 10th-grade test and the SAT
college entrance exam, finding that the tests produce somewhat
different results.
The study found, for example, that some students who got high
mathematics scores on the 10th-grade test did not score as well in math
on the SAT, Coelen said.
Nevertheless, Coelen concludes that both tests are strong indicators of
future performance in college.
State Education Commissioner Betty J. Sternberg said the study
underlines the value of the state's 10th-grade test, an exam she
believes can be useful to college admissions officers.
"Certainly our state [colleges] should no longer have reservations
about using [it] as one of the criteria when they are admitting kids,"
she said.
The study was funded by the state departments of education and higher
education, Connecticut State University, the Nellie Mae Education
Foundation and the New England office of the College Board.
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