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Though at this point there’s no reason to think the situation is much better in other states.
Apparently less than 40 percent of high school students in New York State are prepared for college. According to an article by Paul Riede in the Syracuse Post-Standard:
Statewide, 73.4 percent of the students who entered ninth grade in 2006 graduated four years later, in June 2010 — a slight gain from the previous year’s graduation rate of 71.8 percent. But the statewide “college- and career-ready” rate for the same cohort of students was only 37 percent.
This comes from a report issued by the state Education Department, which determined the college readiness rate by calculating the number of students who graduate from high school and have earned at least a 75 on the state’s English Regents Examination and an 80 on the math Regents. The New York State Regents are statewide examinations that rate student preparedness in various subjects.
Because of this, of course, it’s impossible to compare New York’s college readiness to that of other states.
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Texas Aggie on June 16, 2011 6:47 PM:
I'm not sure exactly what this article says. At first it looked like only 40% of the graduating high school seniors are college material. That isn't a bad number at all. But then later in the article it implied that job-ready was also covered. In that case, 40% is not at all good.
Washington Monthly on June 16, 2011 7:43 PM:
The New York definition treats "college ready" and "job ready" as the same thing.
Nathan on June 17, 2011 8:42 AM:
So why should all students be college ready? This insane focus on everyone being educated in the liberal arts is ruining secondary education.
Everyone should be able to read, do arithmetic, study scientific method, have a basic understanding of history and government, etc., but many people do not need to go on to college.
Being gainfully employed, managing a household finances, participating in civil society, starting a business, having specific labor skills are all more important for a large percentage of people graduating high school.
But because we insist on preparing 100% of the student body for college we wind up making school unimportant to many, and so they leave not only without being ready for college but without being ready to be adults.
That is the massive failure on our part as a society.
Kiweagle on June 17, 2011 2:31 PM:
This news is utterly horrifying and I despair for the handicap today's youth suffer from when either entering the incredibly tough job market or skyrocketing tuition fees for their university of choice.
Don't despair however, politicians already have the solution well in hand:
1. Force the teachers to give up their unions so that they can be made to work for less money, fewer benefits and less job security. That will be sure to attract the best and the brightest to the profession.
2. Cut funding to the schools and transfer the savings to tax cuts so that the wealthy can then, if they so choose to bless us, hire the uneducated for lower wages because of their diminished qualifications (of course, they'll be more likely to outsource the jobs to countries who do actually place a value on educating their children).
3. Increase the burden on schools to "teach to the test" by demanding that a set of pass/ fail standards be met without providing any funds for them to do so.
4. Drive public schools out of business so that children from poor families can't afford to attend and ensure that those which do stay open aren't able to purchase the resources needed.
Round and round it goes, where it ends no-one knows... except that we do now.