WASHOEWASHOE KK--1616 DATADATA PROFILEPROFILE TRUCKEE MEADOWS COMMUNITY COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO WASHOE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT Prepared By: Education Collaborative of Washoe County Joint Data Profile Committee November 2003 DATADATA PROFILEPROFILE COMMITTEECOMMITTEE Members: Washoe County School District Anne Loring, WCSD Board of Trustees Dotty Merrill, Senior Director, Public Policy, Accountability & Assessment University of Nevada, Reno Bill Cathey, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Melisa Choroszy, Assist. VP for Records/Enrollment Serge Herzog, Director of Institutional Analysis John Mahaffy, Director of Assessment Truckee Meadows Community College Elena Bubnova, Director of Institutional Research University & Community College System of Nevada Tyler Trevor, Assistant Vice Chancellor State Department of Education Denise Quon, Evaluation Consultant 1 DATADATA PROFILEPROFILE COMMITTEECOMMITTEE Acknowledgment for Special Assistance in Preparing the 2003 Data Profile: Washoe County School District Jennifer Crow, Program Services Coordinator Jim Grace, Reporting Specialist University of Nevada, Reno Virginia Moore, Management Analyst III Filip Wiecko, Graduate Research Assistant, Enrollment Services 2 SummarySummary Introduction For the past six years, the University of Nevada Reno, Truckee Meadows Community College, and the Washoe County School District have collaborated through the Education Collaborative of Washoe County to produce the Washoe K-16 Data Profile, formerly called the High School Data Profile. The Nevada Department of Education and the University and Community College System of Nevada have supported this effort. The Data Profile is a collection and presentation of data about Washoe County School District high school students and the continuation of those graduates into the University of Nevada, Reno and Truckee Meadows Community College. Through this effort we hope to identify factors that can increase the success of our students as they proceed from high school to post-secondary education. The Data Profile has expanded in scope each year. The 2002 edition reported a two-year increasing trend in the percentage of Washoe County School District graduates enrolled in remedial English and/or mathematics courses at both UNR and TMCC. Concern about this trend and its potential impact on students led to an increased focus on the remediation issue for the 2003 edition of the Data Profile. An analysis of the transcripts of 773 new freshman from Washoe County high schools at the University of Nevada, Reno (Wiecko and Choroszy, 2003) expands our understanding of students who need college-level remediation at the university level. The Education Collaborative of Washoe County hopes that this and future issues of the Data Profile will continue to help educators, parents, students, and our community better prepare our graduates for a successful transition into higher education and for continued success throughout their college careers. 3 SummarySummary Summary of Data Trends WCSD Graduates including the Class of 2002 • WCSD dropout rate continued its decline to 3.4%, compared to 7.3% in 1999. This is significantly lower than the statewide dropout rate in 2002 of 6.3%. Compared to the previous year, the dropout rate for all ethnic groups except Hispanic declined in 2002, with the dropout rate for Hispanic students increasing only slightly over the previous year. Caucasian students constitute the largest number and percentage of dropouts. • In 2002, the percentage of students passing all portions of the High School Proficiency Exam was unchanged in Writing at 99.9%, dropped from 99.9% to 99.7% in Reading, and dropped from 97.7% to 96.5% in Mathematics compared to the previous year. • SAT verbal scores have increased 19 points, and math scores have increased 33 points since 1997; both increased from 2001 to 2002, and both exceeded state and national averages. • ACT English and math scores also increased from 2001 to 2002 and also exceeded state and national averages. • The ACT participation rate dropped six percentage points from 2001 to 2002 and is eight percentage points lower than it was for the Class of 1998; the SAT participation rate remained unchanged from 2001 to 2002 but is five percentage points lower than it was for the Class of 1998. • The percentage of juniors and seniors enrolled in Advanced Placement courses increased significantly from 2001 to 2002 both district-wide and in 7 of the 8 high schools that have a history of AP participation. In the 2002 school year, all Washoe County students had access to Advanced Placement courses at their home high schools, including Gerlach High School. • Enrollment in advanced science courses increased for the third consecutive year. 4 SummarySummary College Data: Washoe County School District Graduating Cohorts • The percentage of WCSD graduates attending UNR and TMCC the following Fall has increased from 41% to 51% since 1998. In 1998, 846 WCSD graduates attended UNR and TMCC the following Fall compared to 1309 in 2002. • The percentage of WCSD graduates enrolled in a remedial course the following Fall dropped by one percentage point at UNR but increased six percentage points at TMCC. The increase at TMCC is attributed to a larger number of entering students taking math and English their first semester, which positively influences the persistence rate of those students. • At UNR, the percentage of WCSD graduates returning after one semester rose from 88% in 2001 to 91% in 2002; the percentage returning after two semesters rose from 78% to 84%, which is a five-year high. • At TMCC, the percentage of WCSD graduates returning after one semester rose from 71% in 2001 to 74% in 2002; the percentage returning after two semesters rose to a 5-year high of 62%. • The persistence rates of WCSD graduates at both TMCC and UNR exceed the national averages for 2- and 4-year institutions. • The combined verbal and math SAT score of WCSD graduates from the Class of 2002 attending UNR rose 20 points from that of the Class of 2001, even though the number of graduates who attended UNR with SAT scores also rose. College-Level Remediation in English and Mathematics at the University of Nevada, Reno The following conclusions are based on data in a study entitled “Washoe County New Freshmen enrolled at the University of Nevada, Reno in Fall 2002” by Filip Wiecko and Dr. Melisa Choroszy (2003). This study will be available on the University of Nevada, Reno website at www.unr.edu under Enrollment Services Report. It will also be available as part of the Data Profile report on the Education Collaborative of Washoe County website at www.ed-collaborative.org. 5 SummarySummary • Of the Washoe County freshmen entering UNR in 2002, over twice as many took remedial English as took remedial math. Of the 91% (702 students) of Washoe County freshmen who enrolled in mathematics, 12% (85 students) enrolled in remedial math. Of the 93% (717 students) enrolled in English, 24% (172 students) took remedial English • Ninety-one percent of the Washoe County freshmen entering UNR in 2002 were Millennium Scholars. About 11% of the Millennium Scholars who enrolled in math their freshman year took remedial math, and about 22% of those enrolled in English took remedial English. For non-Millennium Scholars, the percentage taking remedial math and English was about twice that of Millennium Scholars. • The overwhelming majority of students enrolled in remedial English or math as freshmen at UNR were there because of their placement exam scores and not because of self-selection. Of the 172 Washoe County graduates enrolled in remedial English at UNR, only 4 (2%) qualified for college-level English but self-selected remedial English, and another 8 (5%) did not take either the ACT or SAT but took remedial English. Of the 85 Washoe County graduates enrolled in remedial math at UNR, only 11 (13%) qualified for college-level math but self-selected remedial math, and another 6 (7%) did not take either the ACT or SAT but took remedial math. • Of the Washoe County freshmen entering UNR in 2002, 17% had taken AP mathematics in high school, and none of those students took remedial math at UNR. For every increase in the level of math taken by a student in high school, the chances that the student would need college-level remediation dropped by over 50%, according to the study by Wiecko and Choroszy (2003). [Similar results were found in an analysis of 1999-00 Reed High School graduates enrolled at TMCC and UNR in 2000 (High School Data Profile, September 2002).] About 60% of the 2002 Washoe County freshmen entering UNR had taken a math course beyond Algebra 3-4 in high school, but only about 2% of those students enrolled in remedial math at UNR. 6 SummarySummary • Of the Washoe County freshmen entering UNR in 2002, 24% had taken AP English. Less than 2% of these students enrolled in remediation in English compared to almost 27% of students who had not taken AP English in high school. Recommendations for Future Work • Continue examination of the issue of college-level remediation. Analyze the relationship of the need for remediation and whether or not a student is a Millennium Scholar. • Explore more effective methods of tracking WCSD graduates going to out-of-state colleges. • Begin to disaggregate selective data sets by student ethnicity. • Continue to improve the capability to identify factors that promote or retard student success in higher education. 7 DATADATA PROFILEPROFILE PROJECPROJECTT History of Data Profile Project First research completed in 1998 • Tracking and analysis of 1997 WCSD graduating cohort • Baseline data established • Comparisons made to state and national measures Research continued through 2003 • Tracking and analysis of 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 & 2002 WCSD graduating cohorts • Comparisons made to 1998 data, as well as state and national measures 8 WCSDWCSD HIGHHIGH SCHOOLSSCHOOLS Eleven High Schools Included in Data Profile: • Galena • Reno • Gerlach • Sparks • Hug • TMCC HS • Incline • Washoe • McQueen • Wooster • Reed Limited data are presented for North Valleys & Spanish Springs high schools, which opened without a senior class in the 2001-02 school year.