For Immediate Release
October 4, 2001
Contact: Rusty Cheuvront or Channell Barbour (502) 564-2611
Governor Issues Final National
Commission on the High School Senior Year Report
Frankfort, KY – Governor Paul Patton joined members of
the National Commission on the High School Senior Year in Washington, D.C. today
to release the Commissions recommendations making the high school years more
successful and productive.
The report, Raising Our Sights: No High School Senior
Left Behind, illustrates that demands of the economy now require all U.S.
students to take at least two additional years of formal education and training
after high school. The report
continues with accusations that high schools are not preparing enough students
for postsecondary learning or careers after college, and the U.S. in slipping
behind other nations as the world leader in the percentage of young people who
graduate from college.
Governor Patton, who was named chair of the commission by
former U.S. Education Secretary Riley in September 2000, and the other
commission members have examined the high school senior year and the transition
to college, work, and adulthood, and made their recommendations public.
“Too many students are being left behind,” said
Governor Patton. “Too many leave high school unprepared for further study or
work, that’s why it is very important that school systems raise the level of
academic quality so that high school graduation becomes meaningful evidence of
skills and knowledge.”
Besides implementing higher standards for student
performance, the Commission urges more attention to the prior preparation, as
well as individual needs, of every student.
The report has outlined some key findings and recommendations, however
the full report can be found on the National Commission on the Senior Year web
site: http://www.commissiononthesenioryear.org/Report/report.html,
or http://www.commissiononthesenioryear.org/Report/FINAL_PDF_REPORT.pdf
The 30-member group is a public-private partnership that
includes the U.S. Department of Education, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
and the Carnegie Corporation.
KEY FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS
Key recommendations are presented as part of the
Commission’s "Triple A Plan", which calls for increased alignment
between all levels of education, higher achievement through
college-preparatory study, and expanded and more rigorous alternatives to
the traditional senior year, so students can explore options and prove their
knowledge and skills through a capstone project, internship or other means.
ALIGNMENT
While more than 70 percent of today’s graduates continue
on to postsecondary education, only half of those who enroll on a four-year
campus leave with a degree, largely due to inadequate preparation in secondary
school. Exams taken at one level
are largely ignored at the next, and postsecondary institutions frequently admit
students without the background to handle college-level work as high
To address these challenges, the report recommends the
creation of a seamless “P-16” system, from preschool to postsecondary
education, in which standards, curriculum and assessment efforts are aligned and
integrated. The report specifically
urges the creation of state P-16 councils to increase student access to (and
success in) postsecondary education by creating significant and systematic
linkages between the different levels of education and aligning standards
together. It also would address
teacher standards, recruitment, and training. This would raise the sights of
everyone at every level of the system to take into account new requirements,
challenges, and expectations. Already 24 states have begun work on such a
“seamless system.” Maryland, Georgia, and Oregon are among the most widely
acclaimed models of the 18 states that have an aligned “P-16” system.
ACHIEVEMENT
American high schools prepare too few students to master
the unknown future. While 90
percent of freshmen say they expect to complete college, only about two in five
(44 percent) take the college preparatory curriculum that equips them for high
achievement. High schools
traditionally act as sorting machines, rationing top-level academics like a
limited resource and determining who will receive the knowledge necessary for
success. Fewer than half of
teachers (38 percent) say that helping all students prepare for college is very
important. What President Bush
calls “the soft bigotry of low expectations” devastates the life chances of
students who “receive algebra without equations, science without laboratories,
and literature without reading.” Yet
high schools (and parents and students) wrongly continue to act as though making
it through the weaker “general studies” curriculum provides sufficient
preparation for college or work.
To address
these challenges, the Commission urges states to require schools to give all
students “college-preparatory” courses as the default, establish a demanding
and rigorous curriculum, ensure that elementary and middle schools prepare their
graduates for demanding work on the next level, and improve teacher training
institutions to prepare their graduates to teach all children to meet these
higher standards. State P-16
councils can increase awareness about the need for education beyond high school
and the importance of reshaping high school from an institution that sorts
students into one that helps all of them succeed.
At the same time, they must provide additional support to those at risk
of not succeeding in demanding courses and a formal “learning plan” for what
each student hopes to accomplish.
ALTERNATIVES
Many seniors find their last year boring and repetitious,
especially once they have been accepted into college, the goal for which they
had worked throughout school. Education’s
new emphasis on standards and accountability provides an opportunity to replace
“seat time” in the senior year with more demanding options.
The report says, “Educators should work to provide the widest possible
array of demanding educational alternatives for all students” ranging from
vocational internships to enrolling in college courses.
The Commission recommends that young people finish school
at their own pace, moving on as they complete required standards including a
portfolio of work and a “capstone” senior project. This would help solve the problem of duplication that leads
high schools to offer college-level Advanced Placement courses while colleges
offer basic secondary-level remedial courses. It also recommends that state and
local educators reshape the senior year around sound alternative paths to
provide credit toward graduation and ease students’ transition from high
school to college and work. Flexible
use of time should greatly expand the opportunities for high school students to
experience the challenges of college-level work while providing options for
service- and work-based learning for credit.
In the process, schools should connect students to adults who can help
them explore their options.
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