Jun 4, 2007

Commission: 42 percent of Paly grads go to college

Board member disputes state commission's findings

By Melanie Carroll / Daily News Staff Writer

Palo Alto High, one of two high schools in a school district with a reputation for academic excellence, is below the state average when it comes to sending graduates to college, according to one state commission.

Approximately 43.7 percent of California's graduating seniors went on to college in 2005, according to statistics gathered by the Sacramento-based California Postsecondary Education Commission. The commission found that only 42 percent of Palo Alto High School graduates enrolled in college that year.

The numbers were better at Gunn High School; 49 percent of its graduates went on to college in 2005, according to the commission, which makes recommendations to the governor and Legislature about higher education policy.

Palo Alto Unified School District Board Member Mandy Lowell says the commission's numbers are wrong.

"We have 90 percent going on to college after graduation and 75 percent are going to four-year colleges," Lowell said. "We would be having a revolt if only one in two students were going on to college. I would be recalled from office if it were true."



Other discrepancies

Stanford University education professor Mike Kirst said the commission's figures for Palo Alto and Gunn high schools may be low because they don't factor in students who are going on to community colleges or because they assume some students dropped out of high school.

Kirst said that in California, about 62 percent of high school graduates go on to college. That's slightly less than the national average of 65.8 percent for fall of 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Meanwhile, the commission reported that 60 percent of Mountain View High and 71 percent of Sequoia High graduates went on to college in 2005.

In five area school districts - Palo Alto Unified, San Mateo Union, Sequoia Union, Mountain View-Los Altos Union and Santa Clara Unified - roughly 6,955 seniors have graduated or will in the coming days and weeks.

While many are headed to college, the prospects for those who aren't may be more limited than in the past, officials from the commission warned.



College vs. no college

Seventy percent of jobs don't require a college degree, but even attending college and not graduating can boost earnings by 25 percent, said Peter McNamee, the commission's assistant director for policy. Californians with a bachelor's degree earned $56,296 on average last year compared to those with just a high school diploma, who earned $27,024 on average, according to the commission.

More and more jobs are requiring college degrees or at least two years of higher education, McNamee said. But there are a growing number of jobs in the health and elder care fields for those who don't attend college, he said.

The need for college-educated employees is rising while the number of college-educated residents is declining, according to the commission. Forty-one percent of 45- to 64-year-olds hold college degrees compared to 36 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds in the state.

Going forward, Silicon Valley will need a highly skilled work force to remain competitive, said Russell Hancock, president and CEO of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, which analyzes trends in the region.

"Companies are going to get the best people and don't care where they find them," Hancock said. "There is going to be a growing divide and (number of) people who are left behind."

E-mail Melanie Carroll at

mcarroll@dailynewsgroup.com.