A Focus on Education
Why are so few people in our
community going to college?
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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Team Members
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Isabel Cabrebra
Victor Duran
Yolanda Fernandez
Janet Jimenez
Stephanie Sanchez
Megan Santos
Anna Villarreal
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
2
Project Goals
To collect information:
What factors keep our local students from attending
college.
To create a proposal that will address:
What can be done in high school, at home and in the
community to increase the percentage of high school
students that go on to college.
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
3
Data Collection
 Surveyed 100 people
 Surveys distributed to and collected from:
▪ Cabrillo College campus (Watsonville)
▪ Watsonville High School
▪ Downtown Watsonville area
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
4
General Statistics of Respondents
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Gender
47% were male
53% were female
Age
Race
85% Hispanic/Latino
10% white
1% Asian
2% African American
2% other
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36% were between the ages 15-20
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18% were between the ages 21-25
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16% were between the ages 26-30
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29% were over 30
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
5
Educational Background
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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Family Values and Support
Do local families value education?
92% of respondents said their families value education
Did your family encourage you to go to college?
87% of respondents stated their families
encouraged them to go to college
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
“I cant get no satisfaction”
59% of respondents said they were
unsatisfied with their education
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
High School Support and Outreach
Did your high counselor encourage you to go to college?
 10% strongly disagreed
 13% disagreed
 28% neither agreed or disagreed
 21% agreed
 27% strongly agreed
Did college staff do outreach at your school?
50% stated yes
50% stated no
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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Did you research going
to college on your own?
At least 28% of respondents reached going to college.
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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Can you afford to go to college?
60% of our respondents said they could not afford College
Respondents stated they didn’t know about the following programs
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
11
Motivated for college
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6% of respondents stated they were completely unmotivated
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9% of respondents stated they were not motivated
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22% of respondents stated they were indifferent
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31% of respondents stated they were motivated
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25% of respondents stated they were extremely motivated
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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What motivated you to go to college?
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DBA
Myself
Family
Money
Girls
Meeting new people
Counselors
Friends
Job opportunities
A dream
U.S.M.C
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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Confidence for Success
Did you doubt you could be successful in college?
 41% said yes
 59% percent said no
Do you have or suspect you may have a learning disability?
 25% of respondents said yes
 75% of respondents said no
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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Half of our respondents stated their were issues
which stopped them from going to college.
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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If you did not attend college, what did you
need to help get you there?
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Financial aid
Family support
Transportation
Time
Motivation
English skills
High school diploma
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
If you could start high school over again,
what would you do differently?
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58% of respondents said
they would relive their
high school years
42% of respondents said
they would not relive
their high school years
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The respondents that said
yes would:
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Try harder to be a successful
student
Take advantage of teacher
support
Apply to UC’s
Keep away from bad habits
Be more involved in school
activities
Prepare myself for college
Form goals
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Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
Needs Analysis
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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Needs
Quality education
 H.S. support & outreach
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College counseling
Life counseling
Financial aid
 Learning disabilities support
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Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
19
High School Outreach and
Support: College Counseling
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Troubles
51% of respondents did
not receive
encouragement from
their H.S. counselors
41% doubted they could
go on to college and
succeed
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Need
Counselors can greatly
impact students’ future
by providing the right
motivation.
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
20
High School Outreach and Support:
Life Counseling
These issues prevented
respondents from going to
college
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parental drug/alcohol abuse
personal drug/alcohol abuse
domestic violence
child of their own
affordable childcare
gang involvement
work to support themselves
This is what Students needed that
they didn’t get
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Financial aid
Family support
Transportation
Time
Motivation
English skills
High school diploma
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
21
Financial Aid
Troubles
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60% of respondents could
not afford to go to college
17% of respondents did
not know of financial aid
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Need
It is apparent that our
respondents need help
with money.
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
22
Learning Disabilities Support
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Troubles
25% of respondents
suspected that they had a
learning disability.
This highly correlates
with the fact that
respondents doubted that
they could be successful
in college.
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Need
Students, teachers, and
parents should be aware
if a child has a learning
disability.
This should be known as
soon as possible to better
meet the child’s needs.
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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Solutions Analysis
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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Solutions
 High
school outreach
 Learning disability awareness
 DBA
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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SOLUTION 1: H.S. Outreach
More effective academic counseling
 Workshops
 Guest speakers
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Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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Solution 2: Learning disability
awareness
Early testing for struggling students
 Training teachers to recognize disabilities
 Student outreach
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Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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Solution 3: DBA!
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The DBA helps students:
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Develop mentally
Develop academically
Create a healthy learning environment
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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“The chosen one”
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As a group we decided that the solution that
would best satisfy our respondents’ needs is the
DBA.
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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DBA
The DBA is an excellent program that shows
students how to be successful in school and life.
 The DBA helps students:
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Accept personal responsibility.
Discover self motivation.
Master self management
Employ interdependence.
Gain self awareness.
Adopt life-long learning.
Develop emotional intelligence.
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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The DBA in High School
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In the DBA we discovered our learning styles. We think
that this knowledge would be very helpful to all high
school students.
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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The DBA is the key to success
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We believe that all students would benefit from
a semester in the DBA.
Digital Bridge Academy - Cabrillo College
- Spring 2009
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