Staff Reports

Arizona City Independent

July 14, 2010

SIGNAL PEAK — More than one in four ­— 27 percent — of Pinal County’s recent high school graduates enrolled at Central Arizona College last fall.

That includes roughly 47 percent of the graduates at Pinnacle High School, 40 percent at Casa Grande Union High School, 34 percent at Florence High School, 29 percent at Coolidge High School, 27 percent at Villa Oasis Interscholastic Center for Education, 24 percent at Santa Cruz Valley Union High School and 14 percent at Maricopa High School, Jim Moore, CAC’s dean of records and admissions, told the Governing Board on Tuesday.

Moore said he believes the high numbers are because of the efforts of CAC’s community outreach coordinators and its innovative programs like First Step, Early College and Promise for the Future.

The data does not show what the other 73 percent of recent graduates did after graduation.

“We want every student in high school to know that they can afford to come here and have a post-secondary experience, if that’s their choice,” he said. “We still think there’s a significant number of students who may not be taking a post-secondary experience at all.”

A recent forecast by the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University says workers in the United States will need 22 million college degrees, associate level or better, by 2018 but will fall short by at least 3 million. The nation also will need at least 4.7 million new workers with post-secondary certificates.

“At a time when every job is precious,” says the executive summary, “this shortfall will mean lost economic opportunity for millions of American workers.”

CAC has a grant-funded AmeriCorps program that encourages CAC students and community members to volunteer, to mentor and to tutor high school students to help them to qualify for their Promise for the Future Scholarships, which provide two years paid tuition, if they keep their grades up. Volunteers receive a living allowance and are eligible for a scholarship. For more information, call program coordinator Alfreda Poynter at 494-5529.