The Seattle Times reports on the increasing disconnect between high-school and college expectations. Even the good students find themselves over their heads in college work:
Leah Belisle just assumed she was prepared. She had, after all, graduated second in her class. She took the most difficult classes at Meridian High School, a rural school near Bellingham, from which few of her peers went on to four-year colleges...
But in her first semester at the University of Washington, Belisle was stunned. The pace, the intensity, the fact she was expected to read 200 pages of a psychology textbook in one week — all of it felt overwhelming.
"I worked hard in high school, but they could have worked me harder," said Belisle, now a sophomore. "Not only was I adjusting to new people, a new place to live and a new city, but I was adjusting to a new way of learning."
From the U.S. Department of Education to the company that designs the Advanced Placement (AP) program, experts have described a growing problem: High-school and college expectations rarely connect. Most high-school graduates are not prepared to enter college, studies show. And when they do enroll, many are not prepared to succeed.
The article then lists the "Top 10" myths about preparing for college, three of which are directly related to the quality of college-prep education in the K-12 system:
• Meeting high-school-graduation requirements will prepare me for college. Adequate preparation for college usually requires a more demanding curriculum than is reflected in minimum high-school-graduation requirements, sometimes even if that curriculum is termed "college prep."
• It's better to take easier classes in high school and get better grades. One of the best predictors of college success is taking rigorous high-school classes. Getting good grades in lower-level classes will not prepare students for college-level work.
• My senior year in high school doesn't matter. The classes students take in their senior year will often determine the classes they are able to take in college and how well-prepared they are for those classes.
One estimate is that a quarter of all freshmen at four-year colleges don't return for their second year. Why aren't these students well-prepared upon finishing high school? One reason is the change in attitude towards higher ed. College has become a given, not a privilege or rare occurence, for many students, for many reasons. But high schools are still geared towards teaching the majority of their students non-college-prep skills, as though it were still the day of factory workers, when a living wage could be made with a high school diploma.
One example: Washington's students are required to take only two maths in high school, yet the public higher education system in that state requires three maths for admission.
The necessary "basic skills" change when 75% of graduates intend to head to college:
The best college preparation is a curriculum that increases in rigor and sophistication as students advance, according to the Standards for Success Project, an initiative of the Association of American Universities. Before graduation, students should know how to think analytically, solve problems, form opinions and conduct research.
The new movement is the "K-16 movement,", which is intended to help all students prepare for college. Many low-income high school students are unlikely to take more courses than required by their high schools, yet their ability to climb out of the pit of poverty may depend on the quality of their college educations.
The quality of the K-12 education affects students across the board:
The biggest predictor of whether a student will go to college, and succeed there, is the "quality and intensity" of the school's curriculum, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Students from low-income families who took a more rigorous curriculum nearly doubled their chances of completing college, according to a 1999 study.
What obstacles does the K-16 movement face? Low expectations, of course.
Society has not yet agreed to raise its expectations for all students.
A national survey in 2000 showed that although 71 percent of students planned to attend a four-year college, only 52 percent of parents thought their children would make it. And high-school teachers expected only one-third of their students to go to four-year colleges.
Not every student is "college material," the argument goes, and forcing all students to take a rigorous curriculum will only set up some for failure and humiliation.
That was the argument last year in Bellevue, when Riley introduced a proposal to require all students to take a college-level course in each of the four "core" disciplines before graduation. More than 300 people packed a forum on the topic, saying the district was moving too far, too fast...
But it is the district's responsibility to prepare every student for college, Riley said. They might not make finish college. They might not choose to go. But at least, he said, we will have them ready.
Posted by kswygert at December 9, 2003 12:13 PM