If we raise standards in high school, wont students become more disengaged

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If we raise standards in high school, wont
students become more disengaged?

• Momentum is building among states to raise
  graduation requirements and increase rigor in
  high schools to better prepare students for
  college and careers.
• 30 states have aligned or plan to align their
  course requirements to the college- and
  career-ready level.
• As other states and communities consider this
  move, a concern commonly arises
• Will students be motivated to take harder
  courses?Or will raising standards alienate
  studentsand cause more of them to tune out?

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• What do students say?

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Students themselves want higher standards

• 64 percent of students believe high school would
  improve a great deal if there were more
  opportunities to take more challenging courses.
• Nine out of 10 (91 percent) students believe that
  providing opportunities to take more challenging
  courses would be an improvement.
• Four out of five (81 percent) say that their
  schools would be improved if they required
  students to pass exams in math and English to
  graduate.

Source The Horatio Alger Association of
Distinguished Americans, Inc., State of Our
Nations Youth, 20052006, 2005. Available at
http//www.horatioalger.com/pubmat/surpro.cfm.
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Students want advanced courses, but they often
are not available
Percentage of students
Source National Action Council for Minorities in
Engineering, Progress Toward Power A Follow-Up
Survey of Childrens and Parents Attitudes about
Math and Science, Research Letter, October 2001.
Survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 1999.
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Whos discouraging kids from taking advanced math?
Percentage of students
Source National Action Council for Minorities in
Engineering, Progress Toward Power A Follow-Up
Survey of Childrens and Parents Attitudes about
Math and Science, Research Letter, October 2001.
Survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 1999.
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Students would work harder if challenged
Percentage of students who say they would work
harder if high school offered more demanding and
interesting courses
Source National Governors Association, summary
of RateYourFuture.org survey findings, 2005.
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Majority of graduates would have taken harder
courses
Knowing what you know today about the
expectations of college/work
Science
English
Would have taken more challenging courses in at
least one area
Would have taken more challenging courses in
Math
Science
English
Source Peter D. Hart Research Associates/Public
Opinion Strategies, Rising to the Challenge Are
High School Graduates Prepared for College and
Work? prepared for Achieve, Inc., 2005.
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Knowing what they know today, graduates would
have worked harder
Knowing what you do today about the expectations
of college/the work world, if you were able to do
high school over again, would you have worked
harder and applied yourself more to your
coursework even if it meant less time for other
activities?
College students
Non-students
Source Peter D. Hart Research Associates/Public
Opinion Strategies, Rising to the Challenge Are
High School Graduates Prepared for College and
Work? prepared for Achieve, Inc., 2005.
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High school graduates strongly support efforts to
raise standards

• Only 24 percent of high school graduates say they
  faced high expectations and were challenged in
  high school.
• Those who faced high expectations in high school
  are much more likely to feel prepared for the
  expectations they now face.

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Challenging courses better prepared
Percentage of college students saying they were
extremely/very well prepared for college, by
number of high school-level math and science
courses they took
Nine or ten Eight Seven Five or six Four or
fewer
Source Peter D. Hart Research Associates/Public
Opinion Strategies, Rising to the Challenge Are
High School Graduates Prepared for College and
Work? prepared for Achieve, Inc., 2005.
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• When schools challenge students, they rise to
  meet higher expectations.

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Low-achieving students fail less often in
rigorous courses
9th grade English performance, by 9th grade
course and 8th grade reading achievement
Source Cooney, Sondra and Gene Bottoms, Southern
Regional Education Board, Middle Grades to High
School Mending a Weak Link, 2002, p. 9.
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Low-achieving students learn more in rigorous
courses
Gains of low-achieving students placed in
different tracks
Grades 812 test score gains based on 8th grade
achievement.
Source U.S. Department of Education, National
Center for Education Statistics, Vocational
Education in the United States Toward the Year
2000, in Issue Brief Students Who Prepare for
College and Vocation.
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Engaging students in rigorous classes

• When I learned the traditional formulas, it got
  kind of boring. But doing the project at the same
  time, I began to link the formulas with the
  actual construction. It inspired me to get deeper
  and deeper into the book. I was craving more,
  because I saw how some of these formulas could
  really boost the performance of the car.
• Charles, a student in a physics class tasked with
  building a sail-powered car

Source Cushman, Kathleen. Help Us Care Enough
To Learn, Educational Leadership, February 2006,
pp. 3437.
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• What are the consequences if students dont take
  more rigorous courses?

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Students want to go to college but they havent
taken the appropriate courses

• More than 80 percent of high school students say
  they plan on going to college.
• Nearly half of todays high school graduates
  complete a set of math courses that are college
  prep.
• About a third of students end up in remedial
  courses in college because they werent
  adequately prepared.

Source The Center for Evaluation and Education
Policy at the University of Indiana, High School
Survey of Student Engagement. Available at
http//www.indiana.edu/ceep/hssse/pdf/hssse_2005_
report.pdf. Source U.S. Department of
Education, National Center for Education
Statistics, The Condition of Education. Available
at http//nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/.
Source U.S. Department of Education, National
Center for Education Statistics, Postsecondary
Education Quick Information System, Survey on
Remedial Education in Higher Education
Institutions Fall 2000, 2001.
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Students want to go to college,but they arent
on track

• Among California students who are NOT on track to
  complete the A-G requirements, which are
  necessary for admission to four-year public
  institutions, 71 percent report that they want to
  go to college.
• One-third of 11th graders who fail at least one
  part of Californias high-stakes graduation exam
  (CAHSEE) report they want to go to college.

Source Warren, Paul. LAO Strategic Approach to
High School Report, 2005.
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Students understand that rigorous courses are
important

• The A-G requirements are good. They set you
  up, and they are the building blocks to get you
  prepared for college. I am surprised that not
  everybody offers that. Im glad they do it
  here. I think they should do it in all high
  schools.
• - Joshua Herrera, student at Lincoln High School,
  San Jose, CA

Source The Education TrustWest, Students Speak
Out Why the A-G Curriculum Is Important to
Students, June 2005.
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All students need is the opportunity

• You need a door or a window. The A-G curriculum
  gives you that opportunity. I cant imagine not
  having it. Students will find the motivation to
  do well in classes, they only need the
  opportunity.
• - Cesar Lopez, student at Lincoln High School,
  San Jose, CA

Source The Education TrustWest, Students Speak
Out Why the A-G Curriculum Is Important to
Students, June 2005.
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The bottom line

• No one believes that raising academic standards
  will be easy.
• But the conventional wisdom about American
  teenagers is wrong and misleading.
• When students see a clear connection between
  rigorous classes and future opportunities, they
  become strong supporters of higher standards.

Source Peter D. Hart Research Associates/Public
Opinion Strategies, Rising to the Challenge Are
High School Graduates Prepared for College and
Work? prepared for Achieve, Inc., 2005.