To the Editor:
Nina Hurwitz is performing a valuable role in her job as a volunteer college adviser at a Harlem high school in New York City (“Competing for College,” Jan. 25, 2006). While it is admirable that she works to get disadvantaged students into college, the sad fact is that many of those students probably lack the educational skills necessary to successfully complete a university education.
According to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, only about 40 percent of African-American students who enter college graduate. Obviously, it is hard to generalize about the six in 10 students who do not graduate, but many of them probably were underprepared to enter college.
Rather than attempting to level the playing field when students are 80 percent of the way through the education process, we should invest in preschool educational opportunities and continue to demand rigorous curricula for all K-12 students.
Patrick Mattimore
San Francisco, Calif.
