Most U.S. Grads Not Ready For College

I think most of us would like to think that our nation's high schools are doing a pretty good job -- especially the schools in our own community (it's just those other schools that are failing). But if ACT test scores are any indicator, and I believe they are, then the failure of our nation's high schools may be much more widespread that we believe.

The ACT test, like the SAT test, is used by colleges as a predictor of a student's probable success in college (assuming that once they get there they'll study at least as much as they party). The ACT tests in four basic areas (science, math, reading, English) and a well-educated high school senior shouldn't have much trouble meeting the benchmark score set by ACT. Meeting that benchmark score generally means the student would have a 50% chance of getting a B in a college level class in that area (or a 75% chance of getting a C).

But the problem is that out of the 1.6 million students who took the ACT test this year (49% of the nation's graduates), only 25% of them were able to reach the benchmark scores in all four areas of the test, and that was a 1% improvement over last year. An incredible 28% could not reach the benchmark score in any of the four areas, and an additional 15% reached the benchmark in only one area. Those are some pretty pathetic numbers.

At this point you may be telling yourself that's not so bad because not all students are cut out for college. But while that is a true sentiment, this is not a test that is given to all students. It is only taken by the students who are considering going to college. That means 75% of the students who graduate and are considering going to college (which probably means they had some pretty good grades in high school) cannot pass all four areas of the ACT test -- and 43% of them could not pass more than one area.

This tells me that our high schools are not truly preparing our students to be successful in college. In my opinion, a much higher percentage of students who make grades good enough to consider college should be passing all four areas of the ACT test.

I'm not trying to put teachers on the chopping block here. I think the vast majority of our high school teachers are competent and dedicated professionals who do their best to educate the young people (although I'm sure there are a few who are not good teachers -- there are failures in every profession).

I feel that much more of the blame must go to parents (at least the ones who don't seem to care) and the politicians -- especially the politicians. We are not going to fix this problem by cutting school budgets, laying off teachers, and increasing class sizes. Those things will only make things worse -- but that is what's currently happening in most states right now. Too many politicians think low taxes for the rich and for corporations are more important than educating our children -- a short-sighted view that endangers the future of this country.

We are also not going to fix the problem by injecting religion and political ideology into our classrooms. That may make the right-wingers and religious nuts happy, but it dumbs-down our schools and hurts students. And we are not going to fix the problem by refusing to set and follow adequate national education standards in favor of a local-standard approach. That will just allow too many districts to remain sub-par.

Finally, we are not going to fix this problem by "teaching the test". While a certain amount of testing may be a good thing, putting so much investment in having students do well of a standardized national (or state) test that we make teachers teach the test instead of teaching students to think is nothing short of a prescription for failure (of the entire educational system).

We can do better. When are we going to start doing it?