Getting students college ready

Studies from www.collegeboard.org show Maryland student’s SAT scores have dropped for the third straight year and have dipped below the national average. Salisbury University’s Asst. Vice President of Enrollment Aaron Basko, says those trends have affected enrollment, because low scores mean less students are college ready.

“I think we see it in terms of having less choices for students. The overall number of students is declining right now,” Basko said.

Basko says he is competing with other area schools  to get the best students and although Salisbury does not require applicants to take the SAT’s, he says it is still considered the standard for college readiness.

In order to address the increasing number of students who aren’t as prepared for college some school districts on the Eastern Shore are using a program called Naviance.

The program which students start using in sixth grade offers free SAT prep work and shows kids the necessary steps they’ll need to take to get into the colleges they want to according to Lori Batts supervisor of guidance and counseling of Wicomico County Public Schools.

Wicomico County Public Schools started using the program three years ago  and Basko believes that sort of prep work is part of what’s needed to get more kids college ready in Maryland.

“Any way that you can expose students to what those challenges might be for them okay great give them some practice tests. Allow them to see what it is that colleges are really looking for and then they know how to spend their time,” Basko said.

With those sort of tools in place and by starting kids off early school officials on the Eastern shore are hopeful that more and more kids will be college ready in the future.