Students meander toward graduation, taking courses that expose them to a little of everything and not much of anything
Getty ImagesOnce upon a time, when postwar industrial America was in full steam, a young person could leave school with basic skills and get a job that would support a family. That America is no more.
To succeed in today’s fast-changing, knowledge-based economy, young people need more skills than ever before. And the jobs that used to require work boots, a good set of tools, and a steady hand now require advanced math, science, and reading — and, typically, also a certificate or degree beyond a high school diploma.
Business leaders have long known this. But ample evidence suggests that many high schools have yet to fully grasp the reality of these new demands.
Despite widespread rhetoric around college and career-readiness for all students, just 8% of graduates from public high schools complete a full college- and career-preparatory course of study. Rates of college- and career-ready course-taking are consistently low across all student groups, according to The Education Trust’s new report, “Meandering Toward Graduation: Transcript Outcomes of High School Graduates.”
The reality is far too many young people — especially those of color and those from low-income households — have a diploma in hand but lack the knowledge and skills needed to be successful for life beyond high school. In fact, nearly half (47%) of all American public high-school graduates complete neither a college- nor career-ready course of study, defined here as the standard 15-course sequence required for entry at many public colleges, along with three or more credits in a broad career field such as health science or business.
Students are meandering toward graduation, taking courses that expose them to a little of everything and not much of anything. And it’s taking a toll on the students themselves, their families, and their future employers.
The vast majority of high school graduates expect to earn a postsecondary degree. But according to a recent survey from Achieve Inc., an education reform organization, 78% of college instructors report that public high schools aren’t doing a good enough job preparing graduates to meet the expectations of college coursework. As a result, approximately one in four students who enter college the fall after high school graduation enroll in remedial coursework during their first year of college — costing their families a stunning $1.5 billion annually, according to a new report from Education Reform Now, a think tank and advocacy organization.
The news is not much better from employers, 62% of whom say that public high schools aren’t doing enough to prepare their graduates to meet the expectations of the workplace.
So what’s going on in high schools? Simply put, they’re treating graduation as the end goal, rather than ensuring students complete a cohesive curriculum that aligns with students’ future goals.
For example, large numbers of high school freshmen get locked into a math trajectory that all but precludes them from taking the advanced math courses that both colleges and many career fields demand. And too many students take a random smattering of career-prep courses — ranging from computers and engineering to trade courses in fields such as construction, architecture or manufacturing — rather than a series of courses aligned with any particular career field.
Of course, seat time itself is not enough. Once enrolled in college and career-prep classes, students need to master the content. Yet too few students — and in particular too few black and Latino students — have the grades that suggest they learned the course content.
This is not just about mastery. There are also problems with the level of day-to-day instruction. Students can rise no higher than the assignments they are given. In an in-depth a look at classroom assignments, we found that too many of those assignments failed to meet the college- and career-ready standard.
Perhaps the most damning feedback on our high schools come from young people themselves. Nearly nine out 10 of all recent high school graduates said they would have worked harder if their high schools had demanded more, set higher academic standards, and raised expectations of the coursework and studying necessary to earn a diploma.
Thankfully, this feedback also points the way forward. Students want — and deserve — high expectations, and the support they need to meet those expectations in the form of a coherent course of study and high-quality instruction in those courses.
Each spring, more than three million fresh graduates stream out of our schools, diplomas in hand and futures ahead. The America that our high schools need to prepare them for is not yesterday’s — but tomorrow’s. It’s time to ensure that all of our graduates leave with the skills and knowledge they need for college and career. Their futures — and America’s — are depending on it.
Kati Haycock is the CEO of The Education Trust, a national nonprofit advocacy organization that promotes high academic achievement for all students at all levels, particularly for students of color and low-income students.
OK, Kati, what I get out of your article is that a degree ain’t actually worth a shit, so you need to get a few more of them, particularly if you are a student of color or a low-income student.
Maybe I missed the whole point.
i always thought it strange that the high school graduation parties held in everybody’s back yard were the strangest things – lauding the simplest of accomplishments (high school graduation), while ignoring the same tradition when one graduates college.
I find the last few paragraphs a bit ridiculous. High school students, by and large, need to be pushed to do better. If they truly wanted more challenging work, they would not only ask for it, but work to be put into advanced placement courses.
This is coupled with the lack of drive by administration, who only want the numbers to line up with what the Feds want…and you end up leaving some “child behind” when you offer work that would actually prepare kids, not just churn them out so your school can keep getting federal funding and look good on paper.
Stop making excuses and look at whats really going on.
47% of High School grads can’t find their own state on a map of the US. Nuff said.
I tutor part time on the side and I can tell you business is good.
And I’d estimate half the students I see simply should not be in the program they’re in. I mean college students in the technical trades where fractions and negative numbers challenge them.
But they do pay my rent.
The problem needs to be viewed at the very root—PUBLIC education. The brightest and most talented are not challenged enough and have little to no options until high school for advanced placement or specialized courses. Those with struggles who need added attention and time cannot get it in classrooms of 35 to 40 students. They are often left, despondent, quiet and shameful or they act out and/or drop out.
Only privatization of our school system will fix all of this mess. Competition for students will ensure lowered costs, demand for more skilled and involved teachers and attention to individual students needs.
Alas, this will not happen until after a great reset. TPTB love controlling the curricula and teaching kids what to think and memorization in lieu of critical thinking skills, problem solving or independence ( libertarian) thought.
Dumbing down requirements has been a disaster
The idea that more than 20% of the population of any color is college material is a scam.
Hiring, even people with freshly minted degrees is still a crapshoot.
‘knowledge based society’
right………….
Knowledge without WISDOM spells doom for a society !!
p.s. katie…..you glossed over the fact that even many stem grads are having an extremely difficult time trying to land jobs in their chosen fields in the current economic clusterfuck we all find ourselves subjected to……..
@polecat-it’s unlikely that high school grads have much wisdom.
However, you are correct w/regard to STEM grads’ inability to find work after graduation from college. I only hope when my son graduates next year with a Computer Science degree, he can find a decent paying job in that field.
Vote for Vouchers.
That 20% earlier…they will get a job that pays…that leaves
the 80% to flounder, regardless. Of the 80%? Only the ones
that can read and write and know essential math will have a
chance at all. I am guess 1/2. That may be optimistic.
sorry, the 20% mentioned, that qualify for advanced learning/Marco
@Javelin: Your suggestion is wrong-headed for many reasons. Why not BAN private schools altogether, then the rich fucks who want to send their special snowflake to private school will instead use their money and influence to make damn sure the public school is efficient and actually teaches the kids something.
And what happened to vocational training at the HS level? When I went to a consolidated school back in the 60’s the kids who didn’t intend to go on to college had a choice of auto mechanics, agriculture, metal shop, etc. It was good enough that many landed part-time jobs after school and then were hired full-time post graduation.
Westy, forcing Whites to do this and that to benefit Blacks is obviously STUPID. No amount of liberal such ideas will ever make the average Black as smart. We must accept that some people of every race are not smart and forcing in some more Whites and Asians will NOT solve the Blacks problems.
Westcoaster: ” Why not BAN private schools altogether…..”
Spoken like a good little goose-stepping, fascist collectivist. Exactly! Why should people have a choice? People don’t need choices. One type of deodorant is all the lumpenproletariat needs! One type of shoe! Choices-schmoices! They get what we give them, and they will like it! Or else!
What makes one group of people think they can escape the long arm of government indoctrination at government run schools? Who do they think they are? Part of the government? And those that believe that they can start their own school and charge admission should meet with a firing-squad! Capitalist pigs! What makes these domestic terrorists believe that they can send their child to any school that they wish to? Do they not understand that the child belongs to the collective, NOT to them! Remind them: All your children are berong to us!! Indoctrination camp/school uniforms are mandatory or parents will face severe punishment for inciting individuality!
Ban private school? Really, Westie? For the collective good? Whatever, you Bernie Suckosaurus
Westcoaster – whilst your comments will be none to well received here, you are correct. In Australia, there have been “more than a few” cases where the oh-so-expensive private system has not provided the education needed, but HAS provided the CONNECTIONS.
Whilst “everyone” here continually bemoans “The System” where the corrupt-but-connected continue to hold power (and influence), it seems we’re none to bright in connecting the dots. The connected ensure the continuation of the very selective Private system, NOT to provide a “better education” (although that can be the case), rather, to ensure the right connections (families) are made at an early stage, and that the real education – learning how to make and maintain these connections) is obtained.
So, to paraphrase your point, if “we” are serious about destroying the oligarchic system, the Private Schools MUST be a target, since (like School Zones), lessons learned early (how we’re “superior”, how to exploit others) are lessons remembered.
Westcoaster, you aren’t even worth a reply but I will reply, just this one time.
You stated “Your suggestion is wrong-headed for many reasons. Why not BAN private schools altogether, then the rich fucks who want to send their special snowflake to private school will instead use their money and influence to make damn sure the public school is efficient and actually teaches the kids something.”
You said wrongheaded for many reasons and then you only give one asinine reason. You only give insight to the stupidity of the collectivist mentality. To paraphrase you, ” if the public school system sucks and poorly educates the general masses, let’s force the kids of the rich to become stupid robots also”–Perfect, then we truly could evolve into an “Idiocracy” society where everyone is equally inept–even the controllers in your master/proletariat society.
Public school graduate as well as advocate I see………..
After seeing the decrepit state of college education nowadays, I think a more fitting topic would be “Most College Grads Aren’t Ready for High School”
@Westcoaster
I agree with you on this in that we should have either 100% private/home schooling or 100% public schooling.
In the late ’90’s, I was teaching in a public school that had lost a full third of its students to charter schools. Now, you might think that in this competitive environment, standards would be raised and we would compete to keep our students but the exact opposite happened. Here is what went down.
1. Fearful of losing any more money. . . I mean students, we threw all disciplinary standards right out of the window. You could act like a feral animal without any fear of ever having to face any consequences for your actions. In this environment, all learning ceased.
2. A lot of these charter schools had snowflake special learning programs that, in so far as I could tell, allowed the kids to just play video games all day long. To compete with this, we let our students do whatever the hell they wanted as well.
3. Strangely enough, the charter schools were paying teachers even less than the public schools so even though charter schools were supposed to be “all amazing”, the better teachers remained in the public school system where they sat reading newspapers and doing crossword puzzles while the kids ran wild.
In the end, we do not have competing Marine Corps but just one group that calls itself Marines and they seem to do an extremely efficient job of kicking the crap out of everyone. I, for one, would abolish the public school system tomorrow but if everyone were force into it then we would see some mediocre improvement as Westcoaster suggests.
“. Why not BAN private schools altogether, then the rich fucks who want to send their special snowflake to private school will instead use their money and influence to make damn sure the public school is efficient and actually teaches the kids something.”
West, you keep telling us that you’re not a socialist, but every time you post something like this, full of hatred towards people for being “rich”, you reveal that you really are a dyed-in-the-wool socialist.
Why do you care if others are willing to sacrifice their money, talent and energy to provide private schooling for their kids? How does it hurt you? How did it get to be your business?
Wake up, son. That desire to control others is evil. That resentment towards people who have more than you is called envy. It will eat your soul away and make you a heartless asshole.
This is a bullshit article, the author might as well claim that 47% of life graduates aren’t prepared for heaven while the vast majority expect to go to heaven.
The bar just keeps getting higher while pay scales level off to the point where a high school dropout makes as much as a college graduate.
High school graduates today are modern Invisible Men, with a staggering student loan guaranteed to keep them running forever.
“. Why not BAN private schools altogether, then the rich fucks who want to send their special snowflake to private school will instead use their money and influence to make damn sure the public school is efficient and actually teaches the kids something.”
Any freedom-loving person, me included, will strongly oppose this idea, but I will say this… I DO wish there was a mechanism for subjecting liberals (and ONLY liberals) to their own messed-up ideas of equality in education. For example, Obama’s kids don’t eat the kind of slop that’s mandated by Moochelle’s school lunch guidelines. Meanwhile, rich liberals insist that middle- and working-class white kids experience the “joys of diversity”, even as their own kids attend private schools, where there’s not a low-IQ feral “youth” in sight.
As a parent, I’m getting pretty damn tired of these rich liberals telling me what’s good for my family, even as they exclude themselves from the consequences of their own twisted ideas of justice and equality.
So much is wrong with this article, so let me say just this: kids are shortchanged in public schools starting in kindergarten. It’s not just a high school problem. Simply put, the curriculum in today’s schools sucks, is of extremely low quality, and the teachers who were themselves educated to a low standard, simply don’t know what a high quality curriculum is. Likely, the teachers themselves would struggle with a good curriculum.
Let’s cut the bullshit in public education – return to the curriculum of the 1940s, specifically and foremost bring back a phonics first reading curriculum and tracking starting in 4th grade, enforce discipline or kick the kids out, add back in recess at all grades and vo-tech in high school, and after a few short years you’d see a major difference.
For the bozo who thinks rich kids are getting a better deal in private school; they are not. Common core has infected all schools – public, private and parochial. Within 10 years, if this isn’t reversed. we are all going to be living in idiocracy-land.
47% of high school grads never were prepared for college. In fact, in a more sensible past, 80% were considered to be unqualified to attend college.
If we still had the same standards for college admission that applied in, say, 1970, 99% of today’s high school grads would be considered unqualified.
Thank you, Chicago. I didn’t make my point clear but I think it is bullshit to start with a flawed premise that college is the natural progression of high school. High school was supposed to prepare a kid for adulthood.
Today, adulthood is postponed indefinitely with so-called lifelong learning. If you want people to grow up, you have to treat them as adults. If you want kids to stay immatue, you hobble them with a backpack full of textbooks and life-long schooling.
“Today, adulthood is postponed indefinitely with so-called lifelong learning.”
Yep, progressive assholes like John Dewey wanted it to go on forever:
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
― John Dewey