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HIGH SCHOOLS FAILING GENERATION NEXT
Stateline.org -- February 7, 2005
by Kevan Peterson
From the White House to all 50 statehouses, a consensus is growing that
something is seriously wrong with America’s high schools. Adding to the
pessimism is a new survey that finds nearly four out of 10 high school
graduates say they have been inadequately prepared to enter college or
hold down a job.
That’s not all. Their college professors and job supervisors say the
same thing.
According to a survey of recent high school graduates, employers and
college instructors released Feb. 7, public high schools are failing to
prepare at least 40 percent of graduates for higher education or an
entry-level job. The survey was conducted in December 2004 by Achieve
Inc., a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization headed by the nation’s
governors that advocates for higher academic standards.
Of 2,200 people surveyed, 300 college instructors estimated that about
two out of five college students (or 42 percent) were not prepared to
succeed in higher education. Four hundred employers surveyed estimated
that at least 39 percent of recent high school graduates lack basic
skills to hold down a job. An identical proportion of 1,500 recent high
school graduates said they have gaps in their preparation for college or
a job.
“While American public high schools are doing a reasonably good job with
a majority of their students, they are seriously failing a substantial
minority of young people across the nation,” Achieve Inc. President Mike
Cohen said in a teleconference Feb. 3.
The survey underscores dismal high school achievement rates nationwide
that have barely budged in the past 10 years, according to the National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federal testing program.
According to the most recent NAEP scores, only 17 percent of graduating
seniors are considered proficient in mathematics and just 36 percent in
reading.
Most troubling, nearly one of three eighth-graders in America does not
graduate from high school.
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, who co-chairs Achieve Inc., said the survey confirms
the situation in Ohio’s public universities, where 42 percent of college
students require remedial math and writing courses.
“This message should come as a wake-up call to governors and other state
officials to do all that is in their power to ensure that their states’
graduates are better-prepared for success,” Taft said during a
teleconference.
Seven of 10 college instructors surveyed by Achieve Inc. said they spend
significant amounts of class time reviewing material that students
should have learned in high school. The survey indicated that students
lacked core skill and knowledge in a range of areas, including work
habits, ability to read and understand complicated materials, and math,
science and writing skills.
Taft said the survey adds to momentum building among the nation’s
political and business leaders to redesign America’s high schools to
better prepare students to compete in the 21st century. He called for
states to require more challenging course work and stricter graduation
requirements to ensure students are earning a meaningful high school
diploma.
The nation’s governors plan to promote this message later this month at
the 2005 National Education Summit on High Schools, hosted by Achieve
Inc. and the National Governors Association (NGA) in Washington, D.C.
The summit will coincide with the NGA’s Annual Winter Meeting Feb. 26-27
that most of the nation’s 50 governors are expected to attend, along
with top business executives and K-12 and higher education leaders.
President George W. Bush hinted in his State of the Union Address Feb. 2
that he soon would propose new national standards for high schools. Bush
is expected to propose extending the accountability provisions of the No
Child Left Behind Act to high schools by requiring annual proficiency
exams in grades 9-11 and holding high schools accountable for student
achievement.
The survey concluded that more rigorous course work and higher
expectations lead to better-prepared students. Fewer than one-quarter of
high school graduates said they were significantly challenged and faced
high expectations in order to graduate from high school. Those students
who said they did face high expectations in high school also said they
felt adequately prepared for college or the work force.
More than 80 percent of graduates surveyed said they would have worked
harder and taken tougher courses if their high school had demanded more
from them. Among the reforms advocated by Achieve Inc. are a stricter
core curriculum, high school exit exams, more access to honors and
Advancement Placement courses, and greater access to guidance counselors
starting early in high school.
Twenty-one states already require students to pass an exit exam or
end-of-course exams to earn a high school diploma.
“We’re hearing a clear message from our graduates that we do them no
favors if we set the bar for performance too low,” Taft said.
The survey, conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates and Public
Opinion Strategies, found that students’ socio-economic backgrounds were
not a large factor in how prepared they felt, compared to how
challenging their high school experience was.
“The most important determining factor is not the socio-economic status
of the student, but the level of expectations that students had to meet
in their high school,” said Geoff Garin, president of the research firm.
However, many education advocates say stricter standards alone may not
be enough to overcome the significant achievement gap that low-income
and minority students face. Half of African-American and Hispanic
students never earn a high school diploma. Those who do graduate have
reading skills virtually the same as those of white eighth-graders.
Only a small fraction - 6 percent - of low-income students can expect to
earn a bachelor's degree by age 24, according the Pell Institute for the
Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. For wealthy students it's 51.3
percent.
Recent studies also show that higher proportions of low-income and
minority high school students are poorly served by their schools and
their families, arriving at college unprepared and forcing colleges and
universities to spend an estimated $1 billion a year on remediation.
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Report:
http://www.achieve.org/
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