Two-fifths of high school graduates are unprepared for college or the workforce, according to a study (pdf) by Johns Hopkins and University of Arizona researchers.
One-third of high school students complete a rigorous college-prep track that increasingly includes Advanced Placement courses, the study finds. One-quarter take advantage of career-prep programs. The remaining 40 percent are “a virtual underclass” with little chance of success in college or job training, the researchers write.
Workers in high-demand fields can earn more than the average four-year graduate, notes Daniel de Vise on College Inc. Career-prep students are prepared to earn a vocational certificate or associate degree at a community or career college, preparing them for a decent job.
But the structure of American high schools is trapped, the authors write, in a culture that “blindly advocate(s) bachelor’s degrees as the only valuable option and the cure for all social ills.”
“Underclass” students often take courses with college-prep labels that demand very little, the study concludes. Even AP classes may lack the rigor needed to prepare students for college. (If nobody passes the AP exam, that’s a bad sign.)
The solution, the authors write, is to abolish tracking altogether and to reimagine high school as a tool to prepare all students for both college and careers.
The ideal high school curriculum, they argue, would incorporate the best aspects of both tracks: academic rigor and cutting-edge career preparation. Students might choose one of several academic “pathways” that “include both academically rigorous, college-preparatory requirements and challenging professional and technical knowledge grounded in industry standards,” they write.
Many high schools “steer students into various career-oriented pathways that also (in theory) immerse students in rigorous college-preparatory academics,” writes de Vise. While some are rigorous enough to prepare students for college, most are not.
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at 7:45 am
[...] Two-fifths of high school graduates are unprepared for college or the workforce, according to a new study. One third of graduates are ready for college and one fourth are ready for job training. The rest, who typically passed lightweight, faux college-prep classes, make up a “virtual underclass” with a bleak future. [...]