THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 26, 1996 TAG: 9610260002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: OPINION
SOURCE: By PAMELA C. KLOEPPEL
LENGTH: 74 lines
Recently, The Virginian-Pilot published an article reporting that some Norfolk State University officials believe Norfolk counselors do not adequately prepare students for college admission or completion. That is simply not true!
Counselors hold 15 small-group sessions with talented fourth- and fifth-graders who may be the first in their family to enter college; they also meet with the parents of these students.
Five hundred talented middle-school students participate in the Junior University, held at Ruffner Middle School every summer; many of these students signed a contract with the Tidewater Scholarship Foundation agreeing to earn a 2.5 grade-point average, to have a 90 percent attendance rate and to remain drug free.
More than 550 middle-school students and 2,200 high-school students take the PSAT annually. Norfolk public schools pay the cost for most of the students; counselors and teachers prepare students for the exam and review returned test scores recommending future course selections.
Counselors hold individual academic-advising sessions every year beginning in the sixth grade. They discuss career and educational goals and plan four years of high-school course work. More than 1,000 parents of eighth-grade students participate in these sessions.
Rising seniors with a 3.0 or higher grade-point average and their parents attend an individual scholarship session during the summer where they investigate scholarship opportunities. Last year 105 parents participated.
The 100 sophomores who earn the highest PSAT scores are invited to a 12-week workshop, provided free of charge, to become more competitive on the 11th-grade PSAT. The 11th-grade PSAT score is used for national merit recognition, scholarship awards and college searches.
All Norfolk students, K-12, have access to computerized career and scholarship software, including electronic college and financial-aid applications.
Our counselors' efforts are really beginning to pay dividends.
In 1995-96, 462 graduates earned the Advanced Studies for college-bound students diploma - 36 percent of the June graduating class. In 1996, the percentage of graduates receiving a general diploma dropped to 40 percent, the lowest percentage ever for Norfolk public-school graduates.
Twenty-one percent of the class of 1996 earned almost $5 million in merit scholarships and were accepted at some of the most prestigious universities in the country, including Princeton, Brown, Virginia and the College of William and Mary.
In the past three years, 46 of our juniors scored so high on the PSAT they were commended or recognized as semifinalists in the National Merit and/or the National Achievement program.
In 1995-96, 1,515 students took Advanced Placement courses with rigorous college-level curricula developed by the College Board; 262 Advanced Placement examinations were taken by these students, and they earned college credit for more than 130 courses.
Through a special pilot program with the College Board, 101 of Norfolk's juniors and seniors were invited to take the College Level Education Program examination for college credit last June. Twenty-seven students earned college credit, saving their parents more than $30,000 in tuition and textbooks. According to the College Board, it is unusual for so many students to earn college credit from the CLEP exam.
In 1995-96, 20 percent of Norfolk public schools' eighth-graders successfully completed Algebra 1, and 33 eighth-graders passed geometry, enabling them to take calculus as juniors and college-level math as seniors.
Approximately 900 of Norfolk's middle-school students completed a foreign language in 1995-96.
These results reveal that instead of chastising Norfolk public-school counselors, people should commend the counselors for their dedication and proactive approach. The guidance program in Norfolk public schools often serves as a model for other guidance programs across the country. MEMO: Pamela C. Kloeppel is senior coordinator of guidance of Norfolk
public schools. by CNB