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To Graduate from College, Take Calculus in High School

         Academic intensity in high school provides momentum for students to successfully complete college. That’s what Clifford Adelman found in his groundbreaking and influential “Answers in the Toolbox” study of 1999, which followed a cohort of students who were scheduled to graduate from high school in 1982. He drew the same conclusion in his just-released “The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to Degree Completion from High School through College,” which followed students in the high school class of 1992 who attended college.
            The core of what he found was that “what one learns is what one studies” and that students who take complex academic work – especially those who take mathematics through calculus – are more likely to successfully complete their bachelor’s degree within eight-and-a-half years of high school graduation.
            Some of the other interesting findings: students who take longer than four years to graduate from high school have very low rates of bachelor’s degree completion within eight-and-a-half years; and students who earn a GED instead of a high school diploma often attend college, but rarely attain even a two-year associate’s degree within eight-and-a-half years.

To see the full report, published by the U.S. Department of Education, click here.

Achievement Gap Update

The nation is making some real strides in the elementary grades but is not making the same gains in the secondary grades, according to the latest report by the Education Trust (one of the founders of The Achievement Alliance). The report, “Primary Progress, Secondary Challenge,” looks at how students are scoring on state tests and finds that in most of the states that have three years of comparable data (that is, they haven’t changed the tests or the cut scores), students are doing better in elementary school and achievement gaps are narrowing. However, although there’s been some progress in middle school and high school math, for the most part secondary scores are flat and there’s even been some widening of achievement gaps at the secondary level.

To see the full report, go here.

Emerging Title I Issue

Comparability is emerging as a major issue in terms of Title I funding. Comparability has to do with the fact that the $13 billion the federal government provides in Title I money to states and districts to help them educate their poor kids is supposed to be above and beyond the normal amount spent by the state and local jurisdiction on all their kids. Recent research has made it clear that that isn’t always the case. Even when jurisdictions seem to be doing everything on the up-and-up, they often have wide disparities in how much they are spending on salaries in different schools. This has to do with the fact that in many cases schools with high concentrations of poor children are “training” schools where new teachers go, get trained, and then leave for more affluent schools. That leaves the poor schools with inexperienced and cheaper teachers and the wealthier schools with the more experienced and more expensive teachers. The highly respected Title I Monitor has been following this story carefully. Although its articles are normally only available to subscribers, it has made some of its comparability coverage available for free. To read a story about how the comparability issue is playing out in different states and nationally, and a piece by researcher Marguerite Roza on why all this matters, click here.

High Schools Don't Assign Sophisticated Reading

Students lose momentum in terms of their ability to read college-level material from 10th grade to 12th grade, according to a new study by ACT. The reason for that loss of momentum? “One reason may be that they “are not being asked to meet specific, rigorous reading standards during their high school years – a time when it is crucial for them to continue refining their reading skills,” the study says. The study, "Reading Between the Lines: What the ACT Reveals About College Readiness in Reading,” seems to validate what college dropouts say about their high school years (see above).
            The report faults states for not having “grade-specific standards that define the expectations for reading achievement in high school.”
            ACT, a nonprofit organization that provides college admissions and workplace testing, called on states to raise their reading standards and provide training to high school teachers to help them incorporate sophisticated reading instruction into their classes. It also advised students to take what is often considered to be a college-preparatory curriculum: four years of English; at least three years of mathematics including Algebra I, Algebra II, and geometry; at least three years of social studies; and at least three years of science. ACT says that that coursework best prepares students not only for college but for the workplace as well.
            The study also cites research that says that high school teachers who think their students will be going on to college are more likely to work on “higher-level critical reading skills” than teachers who think their students will not be going to college. “These practices are simply not acceptable,” the report says.

Dropout Say High School Was Boring

Many high school dropouts say they left high school because they found the work boring and unchallenging and because of a lack of personal connection to their schools. Others say external factors, such as the need to make money to support their families and the need to take care of babies or other family members also played a part in their dropping out. But almost half say they dropped out because the classes were not challenging.
This information emerged from a study done by Peter G. Hart Research Associates for Civic Enterprises that included focus groups with high school dropouts to try to explain the “silent epidemic” of low high school graduation rates, particularly among African-American and low-income students. Many dropouts say dropping out was a mistake and that they would go back to get their high school diplomas if there were a program geared to dropouts. The full report, “The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts,” which was underwritten by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, can be found here.

dropouts

Source: Civic Enterprises, in partnership with Peter D. Hart Research Associates

New NCLB Commission

The No Child Left Behind Commission, which is being housed at the Aspen Institute, has named thirteen commissioners. Chaired by former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson and former Georgia Governor Roy E. Barnes, the commission is charged with taking a hard look at the No Child Left Behind law and what its effect has been on its goal of closing the achievement gap.
The members who have been announced have a wide range of experience, and include educators and business leaders. They are:

Craig Barrett, chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation

Christopher Edley, Jr., dean and professor at University of California Berkeley School of Law

Eugene Garcia, dean and professor at Arizona State University’s College of Education

Judith E. Heumann, former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education and co-founder of the World Institute on Disability

Thomas Y. Hobart, Jr., former president of the New York State United Teachers

Jaymie Reeber Kosa, National Board Certified Teacher

Andrea Messina, vice chairman of the Charlotte County School Board in Florida

J. Michael Ortiz, president of California State Polytechnic University

James Pughsley, former superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

Edward B. Rust, Jr., chairman and CEO of State Farm Insurance Companies

John Theodore Sanders, former chairman of the Education Commission of the States and co-chair of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future

Jennifer Smith,executive director, Principal’s Leadership Institute, District of Columbia Public Schools

Ed Sontag, acting deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities

The commission will hold its first hearing, focused on teacher quality, in late March or early April in Los Angeles. It will hold at least three other hearings that will focus on assessments, accountability, and turning around struggling schools. Locations for those hearings will be announced in the future. For more information, click here.

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