District Urged to Focus on Schools With Low College-Bound Rates

Officials of the Los Angeles Unified School District recommended Thursday that high schools sending relatively few students on to a higher education should receive special attention to boost their college-going rate.

The rate of enrollment at two- or four-year California colleges ranged from a high of 78% of seniors at Granada Hills and Taft high schools to a low of 25% at Sylmar High School, according to a report based on 1986 statistics. The districtwide average was 57%, the report said.

The study showed, not surprisingly, that there is a link between poor school showings on the state achievement tests and the college attendance rate.

Improving the academic preparation at those high schools and their feeder junior highs and elementary schools “is essential if more of their graduates are to enter and succeed in four-year colleges,” the report stated, and that might be achieved by sending more staff help from district headquarters.

Schools with low college attendance should find out what the more successful ones have been doing to get their students, particularly black and Latino students, into college, the study said. About 12% of black seniors and 8% of Latino seniors in Los Angeles high schools went on to a UC or Cal State campus, compared to 18% of all seniors districtwide.

Impact of Alumni Stressed

The report urged counselors to stay in touch with their “top” black and Latino alumni. “Showing an interest in students after they graduate from high school can encourage them to enroll and stay in college. . . . Successful alumni can also help with college recruitment by visiting their high school and talking about their college experiences,” the study said.

At Sylmar High in the San Fernando Valley, which is highly Latino, Assistant Principal Angelo Porco said he had not seen the report and could not comment on it directly. But, he said, it is not surprising that schools with more students from affluent and professional families send more graduates to college. Taft and Granada Hills are in more affluent areas of the San Fernando Valley.

“College-educated people tend to have college-bound kids,” Porco said.

Locke High School in South Los Angeles was second from the bottom in the college-attendance rate, with 30% in 1986, according to the report.

However, Assistant Principal Annie Webb said Thursday that the rate has improved in the last two years to more than 40% because of more emphasis on making sure that students take the courses that make them eligible for UC and Cal State admission and more tutoring. More than 75% of Locke’s students are black, with most of the remainder Latino, she said.

WHO GOES TO COLLEGE Among the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 49 regular high schools, Granada Hills and Taft sent the largest percentage of seniors--78%--to two- and four-year colleges in California in the fall, 1986, according to the latest figures released by the district. Sylmar High, with 25%, sent on the fewest seniors.

Granada Hills 78% Taft 78% Venice 77% Gardena 74% El Camino 72% University 70% Grant 68% Garfield 67% Palisades 67% Marshall 67% Chatsworth 66% Eagle Rock 66% Birmingham 66% Westchester 65% Franklin 65% Fairfax 64% North Hollywood 63% Los Angeles 63% Monroe 61% Van Nuys 60% Cleveland 60% Verdugo 60% Wilson 59% Canoga Park 59% Banning 58% San Pedro 56% Bell 55% Narbonne 54% Kennedy 54% Crenshaw 54% Lincoln 53% Belmont 52% Jefferson 51% Carson 50% Washington 50% Reseda 50% Huntingon Park 49% South Gate 48% Hollywood 47% Manual Arts 46% Roosevelt 45% Polytechnic 45% Dorsey 43% Fremont 39% Jordan 34% San Fernando 34% Hamilton 32% Locke 30% Sylmar 25%