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The numbers are in and the news is good because of Wells County’s students who graduated from the county’s public high schools in May and June!
Three out of four seniors from the Class of 2009 say they will attend college this fall — the second highest in the past five years.
More often than not these days, news pages are filled with bad news, but not today. The number of students moving on to higher education is just one of many signs of progress you’ll soon read about across Wells County.
We have been working since earlier this spring on our annual Progress Edition, and this year’s special section will tell you — and show you — how Wells County is forging ahead despite a nationwide recession. Look for the section during the week of June 22.
From this vantage point, one of the greatest signs of progress is that some 76 percent of the county’s graduates say they will further their education this fall.
We spoke with guidance department officials at Bluffton, Norwell and Southern Wells and received information on 361 graduates. While the results aren’t overly surprising since Wells County puts such a strong emphasis on education, they are encouraging and note worthy.
Here is a sneak peak at one of many signs of progress you’ll read about later this month.
• 197 students — 55 percent of the county’s total graduates — plan to move on to four-year colleges.
• 75 students — 21 percent of Wells’ grads — say they will attend a two-year college, pursue a technical, associate, trade or vocational degree, or enter an apprenticeship.
• The top two students from each school will stay in Indiana for college.
Last year, about 67 percent of Wells County’s 372 graduates from public high schools planned to attend college. This year’s increase may be linked to the economy since we often seen higher college enrollment when there are fewer jobs. A look back at the past five years, however, shows that, on average, 72 percent of Wells graduates each year say they will attend college. And over the past five years, about 361 students graduate from the county’s public high schools each year.
The high percentage of students going on next year reinforces the point made in this space several times: public education here and in most districts across the state does work and is getting the job done. College admission requirements are more difficult than they were even nine years ago when this writer began. Most of our students today are meeting and exceeding those requirements as they pursue higher education. Plus, the number of Hoosiers with a bachelor’s degree has increased from 15.6 percent in 1998 to nearly 22 percent in 2008.
Indiana public schools are making progress despite the message that has been coming out of Indianapolis these days. The state’s graduation rate is higher than it was in the mid 1990s, as cited by the annual “Diplomas Count” survey from the Editorial Projects in Education team.
Public education continues to be a hot topic in Indianapolis as legislators discuss how much the new state budget will allocate to public schools. The hope from this corner is for an increase to keep Indiana education moving ahead with all due diligence.
by JUSTIN PEEPER
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
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