SNOW HILL – A school system survey of seniors revealed that close to three-quarters of Worcester County’s graduates planned to attend college.
In a presentation to the Worcester County Board of Education this week, school system officials announced that that majority of graduating seniors at Stephen Decatur, Snow Hill and Pocomoke high schools reported on a senior survey that they planned to attend a college or university.
“Overall as a long-term trend those numbers are going up,” said Amy Gallagher, coordinator of accountability and assessment for the school system.
Gallagher presented a variety of information collected during the annual exit survey completed by Worcester County’s senior class. As usual, the bulk of the county’s graduates — 286 of 449 — came from Stephen Decatur High School. Nineteen percent of the county’s grads came from Pocomoke while 17 percent came from Snow Hill High School.
Gallagher said that in 2018, Worcester County Public Schools students completed 610 Advanced Placement exams. More than 64 percent of those exams earned a passing score of three or better.
This year’s survey also revealed more than half of the seniors at each of the county’s high schools took advantage of counseling services. Gallagher said that showed students valued the services offered by their school guidance counselors.
Gallagher added that the top counseling services involved college applications and college searches.
More than 75 percent of seniors at Stephen Decatur and Snow Hill high schools submitted college applications this year, while 77.9 percent of seniors at Pocomoke High School submitted college applications.
In 2018 the county’s seniors were offered $11,545,281 in scholarships. Collectively they accepted roughly $4.6 million in scholarships.
Gallagher said that at Stephen Decatur, 73.8 percent of seniors reported that they planned to attend college or university. At Snow Hill High, 69.7 percent of seniors said they planned to attend college while at Pocomoke High 77.9 percent of seniors said they would attend college.
“I think what they’re planning to do beyond high school is encouraging,” she said.
Other selections as far as future plans included enlisting in the military and entering the workforce. At Decatur, 5.2 percent of seniors this year planned to enlist in the military while 20.1 percent said they planned to enter the workforce.
Gallagher said in the past four or five years, as the school system had increased its focus on producing “college and career ready” students, the percentage of students interested in attending college had increased.
