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Commentary: If They Only Knew Then ...
Readers by now are familiar with mounting
evidence that large numbers of students leave high
school unprepared for postsecondary education and
work -- at precisely the time that a perfect storm
of economic, demographic and social forces are making
improved preparation an economic necessity and a
moral imperative. Nationwide, for every 100 9th graders,
only 68 graduate from high school on time, only 40
enroll in college, only 27 are still enrolled as
sophomores and only 18 graduate from college on time.
Our educational pipeline is hemorrhaging students
at an alarming and unsustainable rate. And the picture
is much grimmer for low-income and minority students.
Today, Achieve is releasing a new
poll that adds fresh and compelling voices to the
urgent call for high school reform. A survey of 1,500
recent high school graduates, 300 college instructors
and 400 employers provides powerful new evidence
that the preparation gap is real and must be closed.
Approximately 40 percent of recent high school graduates
say they are not adequately prepared for the work
they must do, whether in the college classroom or
the workplace. Young people report gaps in their
reading, math, science, research, communications
and writing skills, with more than a third reporting
significant gaps in at least one of these areas.
Employers and college faculty agree
with and, in many cases, amplify this assessment.
Employers estimate that 39 percent of the high
school graduates they hire are not well prepared
for entry-level jobs, and even more (45 percent)
are unprepared to advance beyond the entry level.
Only 18 percent of college faculty think high
school students come to their classrooms extremely or very well
prepared, while 70 percent of those who teach
credit-bearing courses say they must spend time
teaching skills students should have developed
before coming to college.
High school graduates are unequivocal
about the power of high expectations. Those who
feel well prepared are much more likely to come
from high schools that challenged them and held
them to high standards. Compared to the other
respondents, they took a far more rigorous math
and science curriculum, including mathematics
beyond Algebra II. Good writing also was stressed;
graduates who feel well prepared were asked to
write often and to revise their work several times
to get it right.
Most telling of all, the vast
majority of graduates (more than 80 percent)
tell us that if they could do high school all
over again, they would have worked harder and
taken more rigorous courses. Unfortunately, they
won't have that opportunity.
There is a lot of hard work ahead
-- and much to learn -- to strengthen our
high schools and help more students make a successful
transition to postsecondary education and work.
But young people right out of high school are
telling us loudly and clearly that they would
be better off had we expected more of them and
given them the help and encouragement to achieve.
The governors and business and education leaders
who will convene at the National Education Summit
on High Schools later this month should heed
their advice.
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News Clips
Click on the links below to view
articles of interest from the past month. Some
publications require free registration to read
articles.
- Bar raising. Oklahoma does
not have a high-stakes graduation exam, but the
state does print end-of-course test results on
student transcripts. Now it may join 23 other
states and make passing the battery of exams
a graduation requirement. At the same time, North
Carolina's State Board may replace
the state's High School Competency Tests with
scores from four of the five end-of-course tests
students also currently take. Additionally, North
Carolina may require students to complete a senior
project to assess skills that cannot be evaluated
with a paper-and-pencil exam. And New
Jersey's education commissioner continues
to try to close the loophole that allows a significant
number of students to take an alternative, easier
test to graduate.
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Expecting more. In an effort to
get more students to take tougher courses through
their senior year and to create a more rigorous
diploma, Mississippi officials
want to make a challenging curriculum the norm for all students, which Arkansas, Indiana and Texas already have done. A state task force in Missouri
likewise is calling for more coursework in the
four core subjects in high school. Task force
members also are considering an exit exam.
- Schooling the
competition. A strong focus on standards
and urging students to take the Core 40 college-prep
curriculum has caused Indiana to
soar from 34th to 10th in the nation in percentage of high
school students going to college.
- Scientific
thought.
Realizing the important role that science
education plays in college and workplace
readiness, Governor Mitt Romney wants to
add the subject to the Massachusetts
exit exam, while Georgia,
which already tests students in the subject,
is considering state-funded tutoring to boost
science scores.
- Pay for performance. New
York Governor George Pataki has
proposed that the state pay colleges
$500 for every student that graduates
with a bachelor's degree on time. This
is a small step in the right direction because
only 54 percent of four-year college
students across the nation finish their degrees within
six years.
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