Preparing Students To Succeed In College

Klein with a spot-on article in Forbes saying that just increasing the high school graduation rate isn't enough and calling for higher standards:

In New York City, where I have served as schools chancellor since 2002, Mayor Bloomberg and I are well aware of this fact. A high school diploma alone won't cut it: To prepare our students for an increasingly sophisticated set of challenges, and to keep up with the pace of developing industry, college readiness must be our top priority.

Indeed, after decades of stagnation our high school graduation rates have risen steadily, from far below 50% in 2002 to 63% in 2009. And our college-going rate has followed suit: Today 74% of graduates from our public schools enroll in college within the first year and a half of graduating--up from 66% eight years ago.

Many of these students, for whom college might have been out of reach just years ago, are now attending community colleges: At the City University of New York (CUNY), for instance, nearly 9,000 more graduates of New York City public schools are enrolled than there were in 2002. Of those students, more than 70% are black and Hispanic.

Despite these accomplishments, more work needs to be done not just to improve high school graduation rates, but also to prepare our students better for the rigor of college material. Each fall, at colleges across the country, many students are making an unsettling discovery--while they have completed all the requirements for a high school diploma, they find themselves unprepared to compete at a college level. To address this gap, we need new, tougher, more rigorous standards--not just in high school, but at all levels.

 

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Preparing Students To Succeed In College
Joel Klein, 08.11.10, 6:00 PM ET

Forbes

www.forbes.com/2010/08/01/high-school-grad-rates-success-opinions-best-colleges-10-klein_print.html