Should We Prepare All Students for College?

In the 1970’s, the average public high school made relatively few academic demands on students. While they were required to take a full schedule (at least until their senior year), that schedule could, and often did, include a study hall period, classes in cooking, woodworking, bookkeeping, child care, sewing, typing, or shorthand.

It was not expected that all students would go to college and that was reflected in the offered classes. While college-bound students took two years of algebra, others took two years of “practical math” and learned to balance checkbooks, determine how much carpet a room needed and comparison shop. Lately though, “college for all” has become the mantra and most public school systems require at least a year of algebra and a year of geometry for all students, and if “Business English” is offered, it is in addition to regular English, not instead of it. Most private schools require four years of science, English, math, and history along with two years of foreign language.

Should we be preparing all students for college, or should we go back to allowing them to opt out of courses that will do them little good if they do not pursue further education? When was the last time you used the quadratic equation?

How Many People Graduate from College?

According to The National Center for Educational Statistics, in 2015 46% of 25–29 year-olds had completed at least an Associates degree and 36% had at least a Bachelors. Among Caucasians 43% had a Bachelors and among African-Americans, 21%. Comparing these figures to 1995, the gap between Caucasians and African-Americans grew.

How Many People Drop Out of College?

In 2009, over 40% of 18 to 24 year-olds were enrolled in college. 70% of Americans today take at least one college class within two years of high school graduation. 30% of college students will drop out after their first year. Today, among adults over 25, there are more college drop-outs than high school drop-outs. However, some believe these numbers are overly pessimistic, as they fail to count students who transfer to other colleges.

Why Do Students Drop Out?

While correlation does not prove causation, over 75% of students who enroll in remedial classes fail to get a degree.

Not only do a lower percentage of low-income students enroll in college compared to their wealthier peers, a lower percent of those who do enroll manage to graduate, and money is often given as the reason. Most dropouts report getting no financial help from parents.

While over 75% of students who attend college full time graduate within six years, only about 20% of those who attend part time graduate in six years. The question is whether part-time status makes it harder to finish school, or whether students who were more committed to school chose to go full time and those who preferred to work chose to go part time.

Far more Americans drop out of college than students in other wealthy countries, yet the percent of people who end up graduating is very similar. The major difference is that in most communities, all American students attend a high school open to all students, which is primarily focused on academics and college preparation whereas in other countries, secondary students are tracked to either a college-preparatory school or a vocational training school. Those on the vocational track are not encouraged to try college and are given viable options for career development that do not include college. In most American schools the vocational track, if it exists, is an afterthought and a place for kids who couldn’t make it in college preparatory classes.

I recently read an interview of an administrator at a charter school that serves low-income African-American children. The culture at that school is very college-oriented and every child in that school is constantly reminded that she or he is expected to go to college and succeed. The administrator was asked if that was a good thing–or would it be better for these kids to realize there were opportunities out there that did not involve college? She replied that no one asked the headmaster of the ritzy private school that question, and just as those rich parents expected their kids to go to college, she expected her students to go to college. If that is your attitude, then yes, all students should be prepared for college.

However, there are students who dislike academic work and have no desire to continue with it. All too often in today’s schools, these kids are left behind in dumbed-down versions of college preparatory classes rather than in classes that actually give them the skills they need to obtain and keep a well-paying job.

How many kids who are capable of finishing college, but who aren’t particularly interested in doing so, head to “thirteenth grade” at the local college because no one ever encouraged them to think about other choices? With no real goals and no real interest in school for school’s sake, is it any wonder they drop out?

What do you think? Should we prepare all students for college, or should we track some into a non-college career path, and encourage all students to consider all alternatives, not just college?

Ruth CURCURU — Classloom Blog Writer

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Originally published at blog.classloom.com on November 11, 2016.