ACADEMICS Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. School of Education
School of Ed uses grant to support urban student college readiness Dr. Jeffrey Liles, Associate Professor in the School of Education, has long been concerned with issues of college readiness among high school students in urban schools. Statistics show that fewer than 50 percent of the students in the Rochester City School District graduate from high school in four years. And, of that number, the state reports that only five percent are “college ready.” His interest in the issue of college readiness led him to pursue-and receive-a grant. “I want to provide opportunities and programming for students from city schools to learn about and prepare for college,” says Liles. “But I also want to learn more about why this population of students is overwhelmingly not ready. If we can learn more about that, we can help remedy the situation.” With the support of a $7,500 Bank of America grant, Liles partnered with the Rochester Early College and International High School to bring “Project College Bound” to St. John Fisher College. In the Fall of 2013, a group of 35 eligible students have attended two daylong workshops with two more planned by the close of the academic calendar. The 9th and 10th graders learned about the financial aid process, support available through the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP), multicultural and diversity events at Fisher, and college readiness. The students also work in groups to develop and research their own questions related to college readiness, including time management, transitioning from high school to college, extracurricular activities, and academic skills. A group of 15 Fisher faculty, staff, and students volunteer to work with these groups.
“’Project College Bound’ is designed to support the high school’s mission and the students there who are interested in going to college. Research shows that programs like this help students academically while they are in high school and increase the odds that they will go to college and be successful. I am really hopeful that our program will have this impact,” Liles said. In his effort to explore the issue of why these students are not ready, Liles and a group of Rochester-area professors collaborated with teachers and students from East High School. “The adults and students have equal power and voice within the group,” says Liles. Through their efforts to research why only five percent of Rochester’s urban school graduates are ready for college, the group has presented their findings at major academic conferences in both New York City and Boston. And, they wrote and produced a documentary entitled “College Ready” which debuted at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco. The benefits of this collaboration have been two-fold: they are gleaning answers on how to improve the system, and engaging students in solid academic work that will help prepare them for college. “The first three students from our group to graduate are all college freshmen this year,” he says proudly. Moving forward, Liles hopes the partnerships with both schools will continue. “We are helping more students gain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in college, and we are gaining insight on how to help even more students prepare for their next big step in education.”
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