Entrance test results for the College of the Marshall Islands show that students in local high schools are performing better in English than two years ago, and the college’s president said four schools in particular — one private and three public — should be commended for good work.
“Four high schools show 90-100 percent of their test takers achieving ‘passing’ scores — Assumption High School and Northern Islands High School 100 percent, and Marshall Islands High School and Laura High School 90 percent,” said College of the Marshall Islands President Wilson Hess. “This is a singular accomplishment in the data record.”
But this improvement in public schools is tempered by the fact that only one percent of the more than 600 students taking the college entrance test qualify for “credit” level courses.
Still, Hess sees positive signs on the English language front from local high schools.
“Significantly more students are placing in Developmental Level Two (out of three levels) than in previous years, and there is a three year trend of higher admission rates among test takers,” Hess said of statistics from 2007 to 2009: 66 percent, 69 percent, and 73 percent, respectively, gaining admission.
“Overall, the movement of high school admission rates from two-thirds to nearly three-fourths of all test takers in a period of three years is a significant improvement,” he said. “We should all celebrate these gains.
They mean that so many more of our students will have access to higher education opportunities.”
But improvements still have a long way to go since still very few high school students qualify for credit level college courses. “We all need to be reminded that our educational system needs to strive to achieve the next level of quality that will prepare more of our graduates to enter directly into credit level college coursework,” Hess said.
Very few high school students in the Marshall Islands qualify for credit level courses at the College of the Marshall Islands after graduation.
But the number of students qualifying for the middle of three “developmental” levels at the College of the Marshall Islands is increasing, as the number going into the lowest levels of developmental courses are going down.
