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Messenger-Inquirer
December 3, 2002
2 -year college students more likely to leave
Study says dropout rate is twice that of 4-year schools
Community college students are more than twice as likely as students at four-year
colleges to leave school before earning a degree, according to a new national
study by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Forty-four percent of students surveyed at two-year colleges dropped out within
three years without earning a certificate, diploma or degree -- more than double
the 19 percent of their peers who left four-year public colleges during those
years, the study said.
The center's report uses data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal
Study, which surveyed students who entered college for the 1995-96 school year
and surveyed them again in the spring and summer of 1998.
The data doesn't surprise Owensboro Community and Technical College President
Jacqueline Addington, who said two- and four-year colleges serve students with
different goals.
Because access to community college is so easy, students are more apt to "drift
in and out" than at a four-year school, Addington said Monday. Many students
enroll simply to brush up on certain skills to earn a promotion or find a better
job, she said.
The Kentucky Community and Technical College System has so many of those kinds
of students, they have a special name: ELMS, which stands for Early Leavers
with Marketable Skills, said Bryan Armstrong, director of public relations for
the system.
"We get a lot of students who never intend to graduate," Armstrong
said. "We have students who come in for short-term classes to make themselves
more employable. Retention and graduation rates are important to us, but it's
not the only measure of success."
Owensboro retains more of its freshmen than any other community college in
the state, Addington said. Last year, that rate was 57.7 percent, she said.
Statewide, the average retention rate at community colleges is 51 percent,
said Kevin Beardmore, dean of enrollment for the Owensboro college.
The study said 42 percent of the students said a job or other financial reasons
motivated them to leave school early. Academic problems (4 percent) were the
least cited reason for leaving school early, the study said.
Beardmore said the college has a "telecounseling program" that contacts
recent dropouts to survey them and try to entice them back. Most dropouts list
a job or family reasons for leaving school early, he said.
Nearly 85 percent of students at OCTC's three campuses enroll while also holding
down a job, Addington said.
"They're working, having families and trying to make ends meet,"
Addington said.
The study also found:
-- Students at community colleges who worked full-time were more likely to
leave early (59 percent) than those who worked part-time (33 percent) or not
at all (43 percent).
-- Students at four-year public schools who delayed enrolling for more than
a year after high school were more likely to leave school early (33 percent)
than their classmates who entered college directly out of high school (15 percent).
Messenger-Inquirer
November 27, 2002
OCTC receives grant
Education Briefs
Owensboro Community and Technical College recently received a $9,300 grant
from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board to expand the Agriculture Technology
Program by building a greenhouse.
The college needs a total of $30,000 for a complete greenhouse facility, said
Scott Williams, agriculture technology program coordinator for OCTC. The college
in the process of soliciting more funds, he said.
The greenhouse will be built on the main campus on New Hartford Road. The Kentucky
Agricultural Development Board was established to oversee the Agricultural Development
Fund that was created by the 2000 General Assembly using half of Kentucky's
tobacco settlement revenues.
WorkKeys assessments delayed for holiday
Skills Inc. will not give WorkKeys assessments on Thursday or Friday due to
the Thanksgiving holiday.
Tests will be given Dec. 3-20. The regular testing schedule will resume Jan.
3.
The Daily Independent
December 5, 2002
MAP, ATC cooperate in specialized training course
Students to be employed at Catlettsburg refinery
ASHLAND - The 26 Ashland Technical College students crawling through a pitch-black
maze carrying 30-pound tool bags are actually on the downhill side of a customized
course that prepares them for work in Marathon Ashland Petroleum's Catlettsburg
refinery.
They're four weeks into the five-week program and they've already negotiated
their way through classes on chemistry, fluid properties, distillation, plumbing
and other things they'll need to know to refine crude oil into commercial products.
The program is an abbreviated form of the Applied Process Technologies program,
which ordinarily takes upwards of two years to complete.
Marathon asked ATC to set up a training program that would have its new hires
ready to start by the first of the year, said Tony Henley, a training specialist
for the company. "We had a three-month window to hire them and then to
train them for the job," Henley said.
Such cooperative ventures aren't unusual, said program coordinator Robert A.
Chaffins. "We need the students and industry needs training that will meet
their needs," he said.
The company identified specific topics it wanted its new workers to learn and
ATC fashioned them into a sequence of courses.
About half of the 26 in the class already have been through the applied process
technologies program and most of the others have some experience in the industrial
workplace.
Jason Keyes of Grayson graduated from the APT program in 1998 and the training
serves as a refresher for him, he said.
It's mostly new information to Danny Burriss of Raceland, although he has an
industrial technology degree from Morehead State University and has worked at
AK Steel. "It's as good or better than any training I've ever had,"
Burriss said. "I've never heard of a company putting their new hires through
this length of training. Other places, you get a couple hours of orientation
and then get started."
Since the program is tailored specifically for Marathon's current hiring needs,
the students won't get transferable credit, said Jack Trautwein, acting dean
of academic affairs.
However, if any of them wanted to seek a degree, ATC could match some of the
work with courses in its catalogue and grant credit, he said.
"We're hoping this will produce a successful crop of new employees,"
said refinery manager Doug Sparkman. "This is the kind of thing that we
don't have the expertise or the time to do.
"It's a true win-win situation. They get valuable business and we get
a crop of operators."
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