STATE REPORTS INCORRECT STUDENT PERFORMANCE INFORMATION - Calhoun And Gilmer's Numbers Improve

(10/16/2004)

The West Virginia Higher Education Commission compiled some misinformation when they recently released how many high school students had to take remedial college courses. A report that at least nine county school systems had poor numbers in preparing students for college has been changed, at least the stats are better. Glenville State College misclassified its orientation courses as developmental, which inflated its remediation rate and had a subsequent impact on the high schools feeding into that institution, according to Robert Morgenstern of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. "It's unfortunate for the counties," that it made those counties look worse. The commission issued a report last month that found about one-third of West Virginia's 2003 high school graduates had to take remedial courses in their freshman year of college. Glenville State College's data did change results in Gilmer, Braxton, Calhoun, Clay, Fayette, Lewis, Nicholas, Upshur and Webster counties. The data said that Gilmer County, based on the Glenville data, had been doing the worst job preparing its students with 85 percent of graduates from that county's only high school needing remedial courses. The actual number is 48 percent. Calhoun's numbers were corrected from about 58 percent to 44 percent. The correct rate for Braxton County is 39 percent; Clay, 28 percent; Fayette, 48 percent; Lewis, 43; Nicholas, 27 percent; Upshur, 28 percent; and Webster, 28 percent.

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