Nicholas W.R.

Haner

Cramer 6A

College Composition I

27 January 2017

College Readiness in High School

Every year, a growing rate of college students require remedial work to their courses.

With this remedial work also comes the delay of graduation into the next semester. This might be

due to the pure difficulty of college work, or maybe the advanced courses that many students

participate in. Upon closer examination, the root of the problem may lie in college preparedness

of graduating college students. Since 2002, students must comply with federal laws that institute

standardized testing. Many people believe that these tests take from the classroom experience

and force teachers to teach by the test. With pressure from No Child Left Behind, high school

students are academically ill-equipped to take on the burden of college-level work due to the

stressed false-importance of standardized testing.

In 1926, Carl C. Brigham invented the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Appointed by the

College Board, the test was to be used across the U.S. to determine scholarship eligibility and

college admissibility. The implementation was success and a record 1.7 million students took the

SAT in 2015. Even with a record number of participants, SAT scores are declining. 2015 proved

to be yet another disappointing year with 41.9 percent of test-takers meeting the College Boards

college and career readiness benchmark, compared to 42.6 percent in 2014. The same trend is

being observed in high school standardized testing (ASCD). A report by the Council of Great

City Schools found that students take, on average, more than 112 standardized tests between pre-

K and grade 12, with the average student taking about eight standardized tests per year. This
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number has only increased since the introduction of the federally sponsored tests. (Crowe) The

fact that these tests may be distracting from important instructional time isnt hard to imagine.

They push aside art, music, and science classes that could seriously benefit students. Social

studies and history classes also feel the effects of such testing. The tests themselves are built on

high-school guidelines. When this much time is allocated towards teaching by the test, are

lacking skills needed to succeed in college courses. After all, following a strict curriculum based

on high school level work fails to prepare any student college-level work. The two types are

drastically different; college also introduces a serious element of independence that high school

cannot. High schools across the U.S. are criticized based on the amount of their students who

graduate, not whether those students are ready for college. However, scoring "proficient" on a

states standardized tests required to receive high school diplomas does not necessarily equate to

the preparedness of students for college-level work.

Nearly three out of five students who show up at community colleges aren't ready to take

college-level courses in math or English, and immediately end up in remedial classes, per

Complete College America. At four-year public colleges and universities, it's 30 percent. In

Tennessee, only 17 percent of public high school students score at college-ready levels in

English, math, reading, and science on standardized tests. (Ostashevsky) Failure to prepare

students for college work is a problem that is not easily solved, for multiple reasons. The

standards put in place by the state must be agreed on, and these standards may vary from state to

state. Every student has different learning preferences, and unique learning effectiveness.

Targeting the students that need remedial help and those that do not is a challenging task. The

National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nations Report Card or NAEP,

published a report showing that 37 percent of students are prepared for college-level math and

reading, down 2 percentage points in math and 1 percentage point in reading since 2013. (Barry)
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There exists a gap between the top-performing students and the worst, with the students of lower

performance scoring lower on tests every year. This trend is frightening, but some of the data

may be due to an increasing number of students enrolling in advanced high-school courses. The

top students score higher and higher every year due to these advanced courses, and the lower

end remains stagnant. Along with a record low percentage of high school dropouts, the tests may

more likely be given to students who do not fairly represent a graduating high school student.

(Pliska)

Ultimately, we understand the higher college enrollment rates and the lower average

scores for college aptitude testing, but figuring out how to get past them in a way that benefits

everyone is a challenge. The current situation is almost ironic how high school in the U.S.

encourages all students to continue their education into college, but doesnt provide the proper

college learning environment that students need for success. The K12 system in the U.S. needs

an overhaul if any marketable improvement is to be expected. Any remediation, such as piling on

the remedial courses themselves, making college tuition free, or even providing support for the

students struggling in college does not seem to work. When a student arrives at college

unprepared, it is unlikely that he or she will be able to grasp and retain concepts essential for

college. Said concepts, like scholarly writing and analytical reading are meant to be introduced

early in high school. Furthermore, college preparedness rates have never been above 50%

(Riggs). Not only does this show that poor college preparedness in high school has been a long-

standing issue, but also that progress towards a better rate is all over the board. Money and time

go to waste when a student enrolls in college, only to need academic support or in some cases

dropout. The sheer number of graduating high school students that remain unprepared for college

is something that everybody, not just the students, should be concerned about.
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Works Cited

Ascd. "Special Report / Unprepared for College." Educational Leadership:Giving Students

Ownership of Learning:Unprepared for College. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.

Barry, Mary Nguyen. "The Cost of Bad High School Prep." U.S. News & World Report. U.S.

News & World Report, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.

Crowe, Aaron. "How Do so Many Top Students End up in Remedial Classes?" Parenting.

GreatSchools, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.

Ostashevsky, Luba. "Many Who Pass State High School Graduation Tests Show up to College

Unprepared." The Hechinger Report. N.p., 03 Mar. 2016. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.

Pliska, Jessica. "When Students Are Unprepared for College, the Solution Isn't Remedial

Classes." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.

Riggs, Liz. "First-Generation College-Goers: Unprepared and Behind." The Atlantic. Atlantic

Media Company, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.

Strauss, Valerie. "Are American Students Grossly Unprepared for College?" The Washington

Post. WP Company, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.