A new study by Western Michigan University and the latest enrollment data from The Kalamazoo Promise suggest the scholarship program is having a positive effect on student aspirations and Kalamazoo Public Schools' rate of college enrollment.

Almost 830 graduates of the district used Promise scholarships to attend college in 2008-09 — about 60 percent of the 1,386 eligible in the first three years of the program, according to data released last week by The Kalamazoo Promise office. That's about 2 percentage points higher than the national college-attendance rate for high school graduates younger than age 22, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

What's more, The Promise attendance numbers do not include the dozens of Kalamazoo graduates enrolled in private or out-of-state colleges, which means the actual college attendance is even more than Promise numbers indicate.

“This is a high-poverty district, which makes (the college attendance rates) even more positive,” said Michelle Miller-Adams, author of “The Power of a Promise,” a new book about the scholarship program and its effect on Kalamazoo.
Among other highlights from The Promise office's data:

• About 80 percent of the Kalamazoo Public Schools' class of 2008 — 386 students — used The Promise in 2008-09. Nationally, about 67 percent of teenagers enter college immediately after high school graduation.
• Almost 60 percent of Promise students are choosing to stay in Kalamazoo for college, attending either WMU or Kalamazoo Valley Community College. In the 2009 winter semester, those two schools also accounted for 60 percent of Promise enrollments.
• After WMU and KVCC, the most popular institutions for Promise students were the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, which each enrolled almost 100 Promise students in 2008-09.

Retention has been high for students who entered universities out of high school. But the retention numbers are much lower for those who started at community colleges, which do not have admission requirements and tend to attract more students who struggle.

Miller-Adams points out the class of 2006 learned about The Promise only a few months before graduation. Those students with decent grades headed to universities. The remainder went to community colleges, including many who had no intention of attending college before The Promise was announced.

“It's nice that we're above the national average” in terms of college attendance, but “the national average is not satisfactory,” district Superintendent Michael Rice said. “We still have quite a bit of improving to do so that all children — all children — are wholly college-ready.”

Still, he said, the Kalamazoo Public Schools' test scores and AP enrollment have been improving for the past three years, indicators that the district is moving in the right direction.

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Source: Kalamazoo Gazette, 7.12.09