I came across an incredible Arizona State Regents report that tracked all the public and charter high school graduates from the 2005-2006 school year to see how many went on to graduate from either a two-year or four-year college within 6 years of their high school graduation. The numbers were abysmal, placing Arizona 40th among the 50 states for turning out four-year college grads within six years of graduating high school. The report, which hasn’t been widely distributed (probably because it’s embarrassing), even reported the data by individual school.
Statewide, just 18.6% of the 53,392 who graduated high school during the 2005-2006 school year obtained a Bachelor’s degree by 2013. Another 5.6% obtained a two-year Associates degree. 32% took at least one college class but less than two year’s worth. But an incredible 43% didn’t even take one college class!
Here’s the link to the Report: https://azregents.asu.edu/Documents/AZ%20HS%20Class%20of%202005-06%20Postsecondary%20Outcomes%20After%20Six%20Years%2011-5-13.pdf
I even checked the smaller cities in N. and E. Arizona, figuring that grads from these small towns would be more anxious to better themselves due to the limited opportunities facing them. Although Flagstaff and Prescott had some high schools that performed much better than the statewide averages, most of N. and E. Arizona had worse grad rates. That’s perplexing to me because there aren’t that many good-paying blue-collar jobs anymore, now that the mines are reduced in number and the lumber industry is a shell of its former self.
But it gets worse. There were 466high schools in Arizona in 2005-2006. But just 32 of them produced half of those who went on to get four-year degrees. An incredible 188 of the 466, had none of their grads go on to obtain a bachelor’s degree. 240 of the 466 schools – over half – saw less than 5% of their grads – less than 1 in 20 – proceed to obtain a four-year degree. No wonder teachers get depressed and burnt out. Imagine going into your high school class day after day knowing that just one student on average is going to go on and get a degree, and almost half won’t even take one college class. Even taking into account that some of those, who produced few graduates, were either small rural high schools or small charters, those 188 schools with no college grads constituted nearly 8% of the total number of 2005-2006 grads, and the 240 that produced under 5% with degrees represented 12% of the 2005-2006 graduates pool.
Here in Tucson, we had 29 high schools that had zero students go on to get four-year degrees, and 5 more graduate less than 5%. I’ll list these at the end of this column. Only one of Tucson’s three magnet high schools, Tucson High, surpassed the statewide graduate average of 18.6%. Here are the Pima County high schools that surpassed the state average:
| University High | 72.1% |
| Catalina Foothills | 57.8% |
| Basis Tucson | 53.8% |
| Ironwood Ridge | 38.0% |
| Sabino | 37.2% |
| Canyon del Oro | 34.3% |
| Sonoran Science Academy – Broadway | 33.3% |
| * Mountain View | 28.6% |
| Sahuaro | 28.1% |
| Vail | 23.8% |
| Academy of Tucson | 23.7% |
| Tucson Magnet | 20.6% |
| Cienega | 19.1% |
| Amerischools Academy- County Club | 19.0% |
* There are two Mountain View High Schools in Arizona, and the report didn’t differentiate between them by location. The other high school reported a 20.1% graduation rate. Either way, Mountain View is above-average.
As for the high schools in Pima County that didn’t have one 2005-2006 graduate go on to get a four-year college degree, they are:
A.C.E. Charter, Aztec Desert Vista, Aztec Middle College, Aztec Middle College East, Aztec Middle College West, Baboquivari, Calli Ollin, Desert Mosaic, Edge High – Himmel, Edge High – Northwest, Mary Meredith, Nosotros Academy, Pace Alternative, Pantano, Pass Alternative, Pima Vocational, PPEC TEC – Robles Junction, PPEP TEC – Celestino Fernandez, PPEP TEC- Cesar Chavez, PPEP TEC – John David Arnold, PPEP TEC Victor Soltero, Project More, STAR Academic Center, School for Integrated Academics and Techonologies, Southwest Alternative, Teenage Parent Program, Toltecali, Tucson Preparatory School, Vision Charter,
In conclusion, these numbers should really cause top education administrators and school boards to brainstorm and change the way they’re doing things. And remember, all this comes on top of Arizona’s above-average high school dropout rates and teen motherhood rates. And why does the state permit high schools that see virtually none of its grads go on to get four year degrees to remain open? Clearly, there are real problems. Of course, parents and students share blame, too, as it appears that parents aren’t promoting education enough to their children. And few Arizona parents and grandparents are socking away money in 529 college funds to help defray college costs. In fact, for every dollar Arizonans have collectively invested, Virginia residents have placed an incredible $250 in 529 plans, and both states are about the same size in population. It has to be more than college costs, too, since people aren’t going on to get much cheaper two year degrees, either.
Do students now think that they can coast through life somehow after high school?