Alabama Politics in
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& Home of Lawn Mower Repair

A new report by the Southern Regional Education Board shows the rate of Alabama students graduating college lags behind the national average, even though the state system enrolls students at a higher rate than other states.

It also praises the state’s student achievement in reading, even as the state’s poverty level has increased.

The report, released Tuesday, is an update on the state’s progress meeting SREB’s Challenge to Lead goals in education. A commission of regional leaders approved those goals in 2002. The goals seek “major improvements” in K-12 student performance, their readiness for college and other areas of education in the 16 states that are members of SREB.

SREB is a nonprofit based in Atlanta. It focuses on improving K-12 and higher education. SREB publishes a report on meeting these goals every two years, SREB Director of Communications Alan Richard said.

The report found that only 49 percent of students who enter Alabama’s public colleges graduate within six years. The national average is 55 percent.

A summary of the report provided by SREB says paying for college is harder as Alabama’s percentage of low-income households rises.

Students from those same households are achieving more in some subjects, the report found. According to the report summary, more than half of the Southeast’s fourth-graders from low-income families score at or above the basic level in reading on the 2007 National Assessment on Educational Progress (NAEP). The percentage of Alabama fourth-graders from low-income families that scored at or above the basic level has increased by 10 percentage points since 2003.

Richard credited the Alabama Reading Initiative for the improvement. ARI is a statewide K-12 program trying to achieve 100 percent literacy among public school students.

“That’s why we’re recognizing that as a model to all of our states,” Richard said.

Richard said the SREB report should encourage people in Alabama, even though the state should work harder on improving college graduation rates. Richard said SREB will work with its member states to improve these rates by making sure high schools prepare students for college. Alabama recently made its advanced diploma the standard for all high school freshmen, starting in 2009.

Richard called that “an encouraging development.”

“We’ve got kids that are graduating from high school making straight A’s but when they get to college they have to take remedial math,” Richard said.

Jacksonville State University President Bill Meehan blames the state’s low college graduation rates on the economy. Because college costs more, more students are working to pay for it and taking longer to graduate, he said.

“If you extend it beyond six years you’ll find a lot of students are graduating,” Meehan said.

Gregory Fitch, executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher education, the coordinating board for higher education in the state, agrees with the report’s conclusions.

“We also need to recognize that students may go into employment rather than into academics and college and they need training in technical areas,” Fitch said.

Michael Sibley, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Education, said the report validates state programs like ARI.

“Alabama’s gains in fourth-grade reading last year were triple the national average and higher than any other gain in the history of NAEP assessment,” Sibley said.

As for college graduation rates, Sibley said Alabama “has its challenges.” He pointed to the decision to make the advanced diploma standard for freshmen as a sign the state recognizes the need to better prepare students for college.