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H-F graduates meeting success on college campuses

Homewood-Flossmoor High School college counselor Kevin Coy gave the District 233 board members numbers they can use to show the success of H-F graduates.
 
H-F’s 2017 graduation rate was 96.4 percent.
 
During the Dec. 19 board meeting, Coy shared these statistics:
 
  • Sixteen percent of students in the Class of 2017 were accepted to Ivy League and highly selective schools, compared to the national average of 9.1 percent. H-F students are at Cornell University, Harvard College, the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Class of 2017 students are enrolled at 171 colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and internationally.
  • Seventy-six percent of graduates pursued a two-year or four-year college degree. This is above the national average of 69 percent and does not include students enlisting in the military, trade school or taking a gap year. 
  • A five-year study of college retention rates shows 85 percent of H-F graduates continue from freshmen to sophomore year. That exceeds the national average of 68 percent. At four-year colleges, 93 percent of H-F graduates continue from freshmen to sophomore year.
  • Students enlisted in four of the five branches of the military.
Coy said he and fellow college counselor Brad Kain recognize that H-F students are prepared for college work. This is despite the Illinois Report Card’s College Readiness Standards statistic that 46 percent of H-F students are college ready.
 
“We understand the importance of national standardized testing. By no means are we trying to skirt that. We know that,” Coy emphasized. “But one test on one day is not the sole indicator of how successful students are going to be once they graduate from H-F. 
 
“Our students are going out and they’re being successful on those college campuses. Not only are they being successful but they’re well above the national averages on college retention and graduation rates. Our acceptance rate at highly selective and Ivy colleges is well above the national acceptance,” Coy told the board members.
 
The Guidance Office is recognizing a slight downward shift in the number of students selecting college after graduation. The numbers of students choosing other options, such as trade schools, matches the trends in the work force as older people in the trades retire “and we will have students trained to go into those trades.  I think that word’s starting to get out there,” he said.
 
Whether H-F graduates are choosing the military or trades, Coy stressed, “Although they’re not going to college they are very successful members of society.”

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