U.S. high schools bearing down, Achieve survey finds
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/146653/
One year after Microsoft chief Bill Gates and other business executives told the nation’s governors and educators that high schools were failing to produce graduates ready for college and employment, 44 states including Arkansas are making concerted efforts to close that expectation gap, according to the results of a survey done by Achieve Inc.
That work has included raising graduation requirements and ensuring rigor of the high school courses, Michael Cohen, president of the bipartisan, nonprofit organization that works with states to improve education systems, said Wednesday in a teleconference with reporters.
Other efforts that are not quite so far along in their development include building data bases to track student achievement from kindergarten through college and establishing a streamlined high school exam system that accurately signals whether soon-to-be graduates are truly prepared for college.
Achieve organized last year’s summit where the governors, educators and business leaders gathered.
“We’ve seen widespread action in the states in the space of a year,” Cohen said. “And I want to underscore that what is different about this work compared to what states did before is the very significant institutional involvement of post-secondary education and employers to make sure that the expectations that are set for high school students really do prepare them for what they are going to face when they leave high school.”
Arkansas and Texas at the time of the summit were the only states in the nation to require students to take four years of high school math, including Algebra II. Beginning with this year’s eighth-graders, an Arkansas student will have to take four units of math including Algebra II to graduate from high school unless the parents specifically ask that their child be exempt from the requirement.
In the past year, six other states have similarly raised requirements. “We are proud to be leading the nation in that area,” Arkansas Education Commissioner Ken James said Wednesday.
He added that more work is under way with assistance from Achieve’s High School Diploma Network to ensure that high school courses in the Natural State align with college and work-force demands. “I’m very happy about where we are,” James said. “But we still have a lot of work to do.”
Since the summit the state has formed a policy group of education and business leaders to oversee aligning high school standards with the expectations of universities and employers. That policy group is meeting with stakeholders statewide, telling them of what is being done and seeking further advice on strengthening high schools.
Achieve also collects data about state school systems as a way to stress the need for reforms.
According to the Achieve data, 74 percent of Arkansas students graduate from high school on time, a number above the national average of 68 percent.
Forty-two percent of the Arkansas graduates immediately enter college, compared with 40 percent nationally. Twenty-seven percent of the Arkansas students are still enrolled in their sophomore year, which matches the national average.
Arkansas falls below the national average when it comes to college completion.
Only 15 percent of the Arkansas students graduate from college on time, down from the national average of 18 percent. Massachusetts had the highest college graduation rate of 29 percent.
The report and Arkansas ’ work plan is available at http: // www. achieve. org /