Percentage of Ludlow students attending 4-year colleges declines

School Committee member Jacob R. Oliveira said the failure of many Ludlow High School graduates to complete a four-year degree is a concern.

File photo | The RepublicanLudlow school superintendent Theresa Kane said the percentage of Ludlow High School grauduates attending four-year colleges has declined over the past four years.

LUDLOW – The percentage of Ludlow High School graduates attending four-year colleges has declined between 2007 and 2010, School Superintendent Theresa M. Kane said.

The school district’s strategic plan mentions the decline as a challenge for the school district.

The percentage attending a four-year college fell from 45 percent from the class of 2007 to 34 percent in the class of 2009 before rising to 42 percent from the class of 2010, according to figures in the school district’s strategic plan. Of the class of 2008, 40 percent attending a four-year college.

Kane said the school district sends many students to two-year colleges after graduation, but many of those students do not continue their educations to obtain bachelor’s degrees.

“Some don’t complete an associate’s degree,” Kane told the School Committee.

School Committee member Jacob R. Oliveira said the failure of many Ludlow High School graduates to complete a four-year degrees is a concern.

Oliveira said that 25 percent of jobs in the state are projected to be in health care and education, which require advanced degrees.

Oliveira said only 16 percent of jobs are projected to be in manufacturing.

School Committee member James P. Harrington said the largest employers in the area are Baystate Medical Center and the MassMutual Financial Group, both of which employ highly skilled workers.

According to the federal census, 17.3 percent of adults in town have some college education and only 11.6 percent of adults have a bachelor’s degree, Kane said.

The percentage of residents who said a language other than English is spoken in the home has dropped in the last 10 years from 25 percent to 21.2 percent, Kane said.

She said that 10.3 percent of residents responding to the most recent census reported that they spoke English “less than very well.”

Kane said that 10 years ago 25 percent of those responding to the census said there were adults in the home who spoke English “less than very well.”