How College-Ready Are Dublin Students?

Local News

The other day I told you about The Lounge at Dublin's Recreation Center and all the activities available for residents 55 and older.

Well, it turns out Dublin has been doing something like this for quite a while.

Yesterday I was flipping through Dublin's Journey, a book about our city's history, and I came across an old photograph of a couple of ladies sitting around a computer. The caption explained that the Recreation Center offered computer classes for residents 55 and older.

And apparently, this wasn't just an occasional activity.

When Dublin was planning the Recreation Center back in the 1990s, the idea was to have something for everyone. The athletic facilities opened first in 1996, but the second phase, completed in February 2000, included classrooms, a theater, a community hall and dedicated spaces for seniors and teenagers.

So while The Lounge may have a fresh new look, the idea behind it has been around for more than 25 years.

And I have to wonder how many of the people taking those computer classes back then are still enjoying activities at the Recreation Center today.

If you missed our earlier story, you can take another look at what's happening at The Lounge these days.

Local News

If you’ve watched one of Dublin’s marching bands at a football game this fall, there’s a pretty good chance you haven’t actually seen their whole show.

I didn’t realize this, but the performances our bands take to marching competitions are considerably more involved than what they can usually fit into halftime at a football game. The full shows are typically built around several songs that flow together as one performance.

And this week, we get a chance to see all three of them.

Coffman, Jerome and Scioto will all perform their complete competition shows back-to-back at the annual Dublin Band Showcase. There’s no football game happening around them this time — the bands get the field.

It’s also completely free and open to the community.

Dublin Schools currently has the showcase scheduled for Thursday at 7 PM at Coffman Stadium.

So if you’ve only ever seen our marching bands during halftime, here’s your chance to see the whole thing.

Local News

We hear plenty about how good Dublin's schools are. But how do our students stack up when it comes to being ready for college?

The Columbus Dispatch just compared 37 central Ohio school districts based on how many students met Ohio's college-readiness benchmarks on the ACT and SAT.

And Dublin did pretty well. 55.2% of Dublin test-takers met those benchmarks, putting us fourth in central Ohio. New Albany (64.5%), Upper Arlington (62.1%) and Bexley (60.5%) finished ahead of us.

We also came in ahead of Olentangy (52.6%), Hilliard (37.9%) and Worthington (33.7%). And here's a number that makes Dublin's performance look even better. The statewide average was just 17.6%. So our percentage was more than three times as high.

That's a lot to be proud of.

But it's also interesting that New Albany, Upper Arlington and Bexley are still a good bit ahead of us. And while test scores certainly aren't everything, these particular benchmarks tell us something about how prepared students are for college-level work.

So there's plenty of reason to celebrate our schools. And perhaps just as much reason to keep pushing to make them even better.

See how all 37 districts compare in the Columbus Dispatch.