A new Web site that went live today has no shortage of stats and pretty charts about California youth and higher education: high school graduation trends, completion of a-g requirements in high school, by gender; college enrollment trends; community college completion rates for degree-seekers, etc.

Measuring Success, Making Progress — as the site is called — is funded by the Hewlett Foundation.

What do you make of the information? Does any of it surprise you?

I was struck by the dropoff in the 12th grade between the number of kids who enrolled as seniors and those who received a diploma. ( This was among group of kids whose enrollment was tracked since they were seventh-graders in 2002.)

If you know a middle or high school student who has a free day this weekend and might be interested in, say, neuroscience, dancing, artificial intelligence, juggling, or painting, keep reading!

More than 100 Stanford University students are playing teacher for the weekend in a marathon learning session on the Palo Alto campus. It’s called Splash, and it runs Saturday and Sunday. The full price is $40 for both days (and $20 for siblings), but the event organizers say that participants who can’t afford the fee can just say so and they don’t have to pay anything.

You can learn more about Splash, and its (literally) 209 course offerings, here. This is the third time students have organized the event, and they expect up to 1,000 kids to participate. Those who haven’t registered online can just show up on Saturday or Sunday.

Can’t make it this weekend? They’re planning another one in April.

The free event goes from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) at the Oakland school district’s administrative office building – 1025 Second Avenue, near Laney College.

Some of the colleges will offer on-the-spot admissions and scholarships, so students should bring their SAT scores and school transcripts.

A partnership between the Oakland school district, The United College Action Network (U-CAN) and the United Black Student Unions of California, it is open to Oakland high school students of all races and ethnicities.

The participating colleges include Grambling State University, Hampton University, Howard University, and Spellman College.

For more information about this event, call U-CAN at (916) 921-UCAN or visit www.ucangotocollege.com.

All of Oakland’s semifinalists attend private schools, but that’s not the case in some other nearby districts, like Fremont:

OAKLAND
COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL
522 Harper, Gwendolyn G.
712 Hermans, Lena E.
602 Hunt, Timothy C.
999 Joseph, Ethan Z.
999 Marcus, Virginia W.
722 Naiman, Thera M.
999 Seiwald, Forrest J.
999 Sontag, Samuel
999 Stites-Clayton, Cole R.
947 Wurtele, Abigail
HEAD – ROYCE SCHOOL
303 Arnold, Ian W.
999 Emery, Luke
999 Glenn-Murray, Lydia K.
941 Herringer, Julia C.
000 Holden, Walker J.
467 Januta, Andrea M.
771 Melnyk, Yurij D.
843 Murayama, Takumi
999 Orton, Nora
454 Tam, Eric W.
999 Werner, Alexander C.
BISHOP O’DOWD H. S.
742 Appeldorn, Robert C.
212 Kelly, Kathryn L.
710 Zepeda, Raquel A.
 
ALAMEDA
ALAMEDA H. S.
162 Chan, Carrie
160 Lin, Jonathan K.
467 Pan, Rebecca S.

ALBANY
ALBANY H. S.
250 Amaro, Lani E.
710 Ha, Bori C.
450 Lee, Gi-Youn
450 Lincoff, James A.
160 Shi, Jonathan X.
457 Yang, Eugene J.
201 Zhang, Yu

BERKELEY
BERKELEY H. S.
999 Baldwin, Kyra
999 Gleick, Jeremy R.
723 Goettlich, Kerry D.
948 McKetney, Justin
121 Neuhaus, Alexander G.
999 Olson, Matthew A.
303 Saldanha, Gavin V.
907 Sesser-Ginzberg, Sasha J.
999 Shaw, Samuel
553 Wayne, Charlotte R.
999 Werby, Jasper J.

CASTRO VALLEY
CASTRO VALLEY H. S.
999 Cheung, Michelle L.
999 Ding, Jackie Y.
999 Henderson, Zella

FREMONT
AMERICAN H. S.
170 Nghiem, Andre T.
628 Prucha, Alexander D.
628 Tian, Kevin
CIRCLE OF INDEPENDENT
LEARNING CHARTER SCHOOL
906 Hsu, Aaron
710 Huang, Joshua H.
HOME SCHOOL
843 Bharath, Ranjeetha
IRVINGTON H. S.
451 Chan, Alan L.
450 Chiang, Kyle W.
407 Chou, Sarah
200 Dong, Jane J.
793 Gandhi, Sidhant
628 Huang, Deborah
999 Ichikawa, Kyle T.
628 Puranikmath, Niveditha S.
250 Shah, Pooja K.
999 Wang, Andy
821 Wang, Howard
204 Wang, Lucia
870 Wong, Christina A.
999 Wu, Dion
142 Yan, Justine J.
628 Yeh, Andrew K.
JOHN F. KENNEDY H. S.
628 Shim, Andrew K.
MISSION SAN JOSE H. S.
453 Bailey, Nathaniel K.
836 Cao, David X.
999 Chang, Jeff
451 Chen, Charles L.
600 Chen, Geoffrey
470 Chen, Joy C.
170 Cheng, Christine
999 Fong, Matthew C.
904 Fung, Valentina Y.
628 Gao, Rebecca W.
160 Gupta, Varsha
204 Hsu, Brent A.
999 Hu, Bonnie Y.
628 Huang, Manning
417 Huang, Tiffany A.
628 Hwang, Vicky
171 Jia, Chenyu
200 Jing, Kirk
999 Jou, Howen
712 Koh, Albert S.
120 Lee, Otis
774 Lian, Trisha
628 Lingam, Deepak
907 Liu, Dawei
740 Lu, Catherine G.
600 Lu, Kara Y.
160 Na, Youngjun
164 Parihar, Siddhant
253 Parikh, Aatash A.
000 Parikh, Natasha
121 Shah, Avni
161 Shen, Kevin R.
999 Shing, Vanessa S.
161 Tai, Vincent
162 Tao, Alyssa
870 Tay, Monica C.
600 Teekappanavar, Neha S.
164 Teng, Joseph
999 Tian, Daniel X.
450 Tu, Sharleen
907 Wang, Jane
459 Wang, Justin S.
121 Wang, May
712 Wu, Anthony S.
303 Wu, Jesse
999 Xiao, Allen
209 Xu, Jerald
161 Yelimeli, Sucharitha R.
000 Zeng, Yutian
628 Zhang, Kevin J.
160 Zhang, Sisi
209 Zhong, Lawrence H.
462 Zhong, Raymond
218 Zhou, Zhejun

HAYWARD
MOREAU CATHOLIC H. S.
462 McGinty, Claire D.
171 Nepomuceno, Helene L.

PIEDMONT
PIEDMONT H. S.
160 Amin, Dhruv T.
999 Jacobs, Simon D.
999 Jung, Joel P.
894 Lam, Michelle M.
160 Leong, Allison H.
999 Ramnarayan, Govind L.
906 Reed-Guy, Lauren E.
999 Savidge, Zachary A.
459 Turney, Christopher J.

SAN LEANDRO
CHINESE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
999 Sy, Jennifer V.
SAN LEANDRO H. S.
161 Vance, Hilary M.

SAN LORENZO
REDWOOD CHRISTIAN H. S.
454 Reed, Dana N.
904 Scholten, Jeromie J.
522 Wan, Joseph H.

I feel like I’ve been prepared very well by the Oakland Unified School District. Since my graduation from Skyline High School in 2006 I’ve completed three years of college and never felt disadvantaged or held back by my schooling. Culturally, however, the transition has been awkward, strange, and a little discouraging.

I have not had a hard time transitioning academically from Oakland schools to a private college, but I also got the very best of what the OUSD schools had to offer. My parents were my advocates, involved in a way that gave me the very best of a given school, and shielded me from some of the less functional parts. Teachers in my middle and high school ranged from inspiring individuals who shape every student they have in a positive way to so mind-bogglingly bad it’s a wonder they even bother to get up in the morning.

Having a year of English with one type of teacher versus the other can result in learning how to construct an essay or learning how to play poker in a back corner of a classroom. The reputation of these teachers is known through gossip and rumors far before the school schedules are passed out, and they’re almost always correct. My parents were in the offices of the administrators arguing to change my schedule every year during the first week of school. Additionally, they constantly gave me other tools in the form of private math tutoring, piano lessons, and family reading so that I could get into the GATE program and later, advanced math and science, honors and AP classes.

Because of their intense involvement and dedication to my education, my parents helped make my transition to a competitive university academically easy to experience. The cultural aspect though, was a little more uncomfortable.

My university is in Atlanta, and the average student is very wealthy. They most likely went to private schools or affluent public schools that were almost all white or Asian, and from my perspective at least, are very sheltered. It’s uncomfortable to come from a situation so different, and be in a place where no one understands what your experiences have been. I’ve been in a social situation where someone will quote a joke about race from Dave Chappelle or Chris Rock and it feels weird. People will talk about how unlucky it is to be a white male and dismiss every female or minority for being let in on affirmative action. Many students believe that every single person who isn’t making six figures is just lazy. It’s hard to take these opinions seriously when those people have spent their entire lives in a wealthy suburb, and don’t have any grasp of inner city issues besides vague references on the nightly news. The civil rights movement and Southern guilt has erased direct comments about black people, but it seems like Asian, gay, and Jewish culture are fair game as long as you add “just kidding” to anything you feel like spewing.

So it’s weird. I spoke up my first couple of years and still do if it’s especially inappropriate, but for the most part I stopped after being called a ‘preachy Californian’ a few dozen times. I guess the lessons I learned from OUSD are that there’s a good education in the system if you’re willing to fight for one, and race relations may not be perfect in Oakland, but it doesn’t come close to the backwards views of rich kids in Atlanta.

With the help of Matt Krupnick (and the quick thinking/typing skills of our guest, Cal State East Bay’s VP of enrollment, Greg Smith), I survived my first “live chat” this afternoon. We weren’t exactly overwhelmed with participants, but those who did join the discussion asked some good questions.

Sorry you missed it? Don’t be. You can read the entire thread here and find our Road to College guide here.

P.S. Now that I’ve caught the live chat fever, I could see how this format — the chance for readers to ask specific questions of an expert or other interesting source – could be useful on other issues as well. Have any ideas? Send them over!

As part of the Oakland Tribune’s and Contra Costa Times’ Road to College project, Greg Smith, the vice president of planning and enrollment management at Cal State East Bay, will be on hand tomorrow to answer them.

The live, online chat starts at noon tomorrow (Tuesday). You may submit questions, or you can just read along. You can find it here. You can also sign up for a reminder, if you need reminding.

Maybe I’ll see you there!

photo by Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group

“I’m going to Spain!” is usually my initial response, followed by an in depth explanation of why on earth I decided to put off college. A gap year, as some call it, has become more popular in recent years although still rare here in the states. Most people go straight to college from high school.

Students are usually told this is the best way and schools offer little guidance to those who may want to take an alternative route, which made my decision making process all the more difficult. I was surprised at the lack of information and resources offered to students like me, because I had a lot of questions that were difficult to get answers to.

Luckily I was able to get advice and guidance from family and friends, and in the mean time I went through the whole college application process just in case. If I did decide to take a gap year, I wanted to ensure that I had a spot reserved for me at a University when I came back from Spain so I wouldn’t have to apply later. This is what ended up happening. I accepted an offer of admission to Northwestern University and requested that my enrollment be deferred for a year and consequently I will be attending in Fall of 2010.

When making my decision a lot of things were uncertain and I knew it would be a risk. (I have never visited the University in Spain I will be attending, I have no idea how European higher education compares to American college, and not to mention all the cultural differences.) However, I decided to go for it and am now confident that I made the right choice.

When I tell people I am going to be attending school in Spain for a year, studying Spanish language and culture, they are usually very supportive. A lot of college graduates that I talked to confess that they feel they weren’t ready for college straight out of high school and wish they had done something like a gap year. Others attest to the fact that living abroad is an incredible, life changing experience and there is no better time to do it. I identify more with the latter, because its not that I don’t feel ready for college I just feel this is an incredible opportunity that is worth taking.

Hypothetical scenario: You’re helping a high school student narrow down her list of prospective colleges. You go over the tuition, admissions standards, location, programs, campus life and size of College A. Do you consider its graduation rate, as well?

What if it’s just 12 percent? Or less than half?

This report by the American Enterprise Institute lists the percentage of students who graduate from each public and private university (grouped by state) within six years. These numbers only include full-time, first-time students, and are based on data reported to the U.S. Department of Education. I know college dropout rates are not a new concern, but the report was still eye-opening to me.

To list a few in California…

Cal State East Bay – 40%
Holy Names University – 36%
Mills College – 57%
Saint Mary’s College – 67%
San Diego State – 56%
San Francisco State – 44%
San Jose State – 42%
Santa Clara University – 84%
Stanford University – 95%
UC Berkeley – 88%
UC Davis – 79%
UCLA – 90%
UC San Diego – 74%
UC Santa Cruz – 68%
University of San Francisco – 65%
State average: 60%

In case you missed my bold font, just 60 percent of kids who enter four-year universities in California graduate within six years. That number doesn’t even include community college dropouts. Obviously there are differences between highly competitive and less competitive universities, but the report found disparities even among schools serving similar student populations.

Are college graduation rates easy to pin down? Would you discourage your friend, child or student from attending a school with a low grad rate?

My editors plan to turn this Sunday’s front page into a guide for college-bound kids and their families. The guide will run in the Contra Costa Times, as well as the Tribune and its sister papers.

We’ve posted a short list of tips online, and we’re hoping you’ll add some pointers of your own. The Web page is up now; you can find it here.