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GREENSBORO — Guilford County graduates are less prepared for college and fewer graduate within five years than students from most other large urban districts, a new report indicates.

“It’s not great,” said Margaret Arbuckle, executive director of the Guilford Education Alliance, said about the results. “I think we have reason to be very concerned about how well our students are doing.”

The Guilford Education Alliance is a nonprofit that describes itself as a “critical friend” of the district.

Queens University of Charlotte looked at eight performance measures for freshmen from public schools who are attending UNC system schools.

The report, released last month, tracked areas such as enrollment in higher-level courses or remedial courses, grade-point average, whether students return for a second year and whether they graduate within five years.

The report compares the state’s large urban districts: Guilford, Wake, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Forsyth and Durham .

Guilford and Forsyth trailed in the percentage of freshmen at state universities with a 2.0 GPA or higher who returned the next year. They also came behind Charlotte, Wake and the state in five-year graduation rates.

Fewer Guilford graduates were recommended for honors-level math and English courses at state schools compared with Charlotte and Wake. Guilford, Charlotte and Forsyth saw a similar percentage of students taking one or more remedial courses in college — slightly higher than the state average of 4.8 percent .

Guilford beat out Charlotte in one measure: a smaller percentage of Guilford students were recommended for remedial math their freshman year.

Guilford has been working on fixing the problem of students needing remedial college courses by offering double doses of English and math for students who are struggling, said Phyllis Martin, an instructional improvement officer .

“I think most definitely you will see the shift and the change,” she said.

Guilford also has long encouraged students to take honors and Advanced Placement courses to help prepare them for college and has made use of the N.C. Virtual Public School and other online programs, Martin said.

Students took more than 500 online courses — about half for college credit — this past school year, said Steve McGrath , director of virtual learning opportunities.

“To allow them that exposure, to be successful in a college course online during their high school years, that’s just very powerful for students,” he said.

And students as early as middle school can take online classes not offered at their school, allowing them to take higher-level courses in preparation for college, McGrath said.

The authors of the Queens University report recommend tracking the college performance of high school graduates, in part to see how large urban districts compare to each other.

They also recommend that districts work with the university system to better align high school expectations and skills with those of the universities.

Arbuckle said that information should be included on the state’s annual school district report cards so parents can see how well each school prepares students for college. District information was included in the alliance’s report, Education Matters, released last fall.

“I certainly agree we need to be paying attention to this on an annual basis,” she said.

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jennifer.fernandez@news-record.com