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Ian Sauter

Pd. 3

5/3/17

The Negative Pressures of High School on American Students

Introduction

The modern American educational system has reached a point at which it only prepares

students for one thing: a four year University. This is a problem as it leaves many students who

either can’t attend a University, or don’t want to, with few alternatives after high school. This

system also puts immense pressure on children which may lead to negative effects on them.

Factors such as course requirements, school curriculum, and educators’ attitudes lead to a system

that pressures children into seeing college as the only appropriate post-high school option, which

can lead to repercussions such as excessive cheating, severe stress, and mental illness.

College or Bust

The whole system and structure of high school is the problem, but one of the main

aspects that reinforces the problem is school curriculums. These usually offer and require

students to take classes that will benefit them in the eyes of colleges, but not much else. For

example, students in Maryland are required to have four English credits, four math credits, three

social studies credits, and three Science credits (Maryland High School Graduation

Requirements). Some of these classes after the basic level become of less and less use to students

who won’t attend college. Some may argue that students need a basic foundation of education

that should be required. However, this argument only reaches a certain point. While students

should be required to take certain basic education classes like English, things like calculus and

chemistry are usually not useful to a non college bound student’s life.
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Another important thing to consider are the jobs available for non college graduates. The

top five highest paying jobs in order of income for people with only a high school diploma are

distribution manager, elevator installer, detective, commercial pilot, and power plant operator

(Kent and Serenbetz). These jobs generally do not require an advanced knowledge of the

subjects we learn in school. Knowing how to write an essay or do a calculus problem is generally

not going to benefit someone pursuing these jobs. While people should learn the basic levels of

education, they should not be required to learn these less relevant classes. These jobs are skill-

based positions that require special training and expertise to do, training that is rarely offered or

required in high schools across the United States.

Another part of this overall problem that leads to much more stress for students is over-

testing. Students are made to take a plethora of local, state, and even national assessments. In

2015, the average 10th grader in the United States spent 23.9 hours taking standardized tests

(Layton). The numbers were similar for all high schoolers, and this is not even including tests

that aren’t categorized as standardized. If high school is needed for providing people with a basic

means of education that will “help” them in the workforce, then students should not be being

subjected to so much test time. Tests are not for learning, they are for assessing a student and the

overall system, which is certainly not going to benefit someone going into the workforce after

high school. Tests also put a tremendous amount of pressure on students, causing things like test

anxiety. A large amount of modern standardized tests were brought upon by a new curriculum:

common core.

The new Common Core curriculum further reinforces this “college or bust” mindset

across American high schools. To put it simply,“higher education is an ultimate goal of the
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Common Core standards” (Nelson). These same standards force kids into excessive standardized

testing and do not prepare them with the basic life and job skills they need to enter the workforce

after high school. Common Core was introduced in 2009 under the Obama administration to help

boost the number of American children who would attend college. The curriculum has been

adopted by 45 states nationwide, and it hasn’t shown much success. After seven years of the

program’s implementation,“the average performance of high school seniors dropped in math and

failed to improve in reading from 2013 to 2015. Performance was also down on both tests from

1992, the first year that similar tests were used” (Singer). This further proves the uselessness of

Common Core as it has actually worsened students’ so called “college readiness” and it leaves

children even less prepared for college alternatives. The implementation of Common Core

curriculum has actually caused this problem to grow.

The final part of this problem is educators’ attitudes to post-high school alternatives.

Teachers across the United States are required to have bachelor degrees and encouraged to

pursue a master’s degree (The Beginner’s Guide on How to Become a Teacher). This means that

every single public high school teacher in America attended college in some sort of way. This

causes teachers to have their own predisposed attitudes and to have the goal of making all their

students reach college. Teachers themselves can assign a large workload of assignments and

usually teach to the curriculum. Teachers trying to ready their students for college isn’t a bad

thing by itself, but it does have negative repercussions. While people with a college degree are

more likely to have a higher income than those without, this is not the path for everyone.

Students who may just not be financially able or even academically able should not be led to this

false goal of college. While all people do want to make money, it’s not always worth the student
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loans if you can’t afford college. Some students have to fill different jobs, and only preparing

them for a college-bound life is not always the way to go.

Repercussions

Required classes, school curriculums, and educators’ attitudes pressure children into

pursuing college. This pressure causes many consequences, one of them being excessive

cheating among high school students. A group of Stanford professors “linked cheating to the

social pressure put on students to prize high grades over education and other values, including

creativity and imagination” (Palmer). This same panel determined that this sort of pressure can

begin in Elementary school and continually increase into high school, leading to even more

cheating. In a survey of 43,000 high schoolers in 2010, 59% of the students admitted to cheating

on a test, 34% admitted to cheating more than once, and one third of all participants admitted to

plagiarizing an assignment off the internet (Academic Integrity in High School). These numbers

may already seem high, but they’re only the ones from kids who are willing to admit their

cheating. Another 2010 survey of 24,000 high schoolers done by Rutgers University found that

95% of all high schoolers had “participated in some form of cheating, whether it was on a test,

plagiarism or copying homework” (Meyer). This is a ridiculous number and one can’t just blame

students’ laziness for this trend. All through a student’s academic life they are pressured to get

good grades and are made to take standardized tests that they are told might decide their entire

future. This pressure continues to build into high school where students get a larger workload

than they’ve ever had before. They’re taught to believe that if they don’t get this grade in this

class then they won’t be able to attend college and get a good job. This mindset is instilled by the

first three parts of the problem, and its pressure also has large implications on students’ mental

health.
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The culture of pressure that is built from required classes, school curriculums, and

educator’s attitude also has a negative effect on students’ mental health. The expectation and

primary goal of college, established by the educational system, causes students to feel immense

stress throughout high school. In an APA poll of high school stress, the surveyors found that

teenagers experience even more stress than adults during the school year (Bethune). The intense

workload and standardized tests have a huge effect on students’ mental states. Chronic stress can

start to damage the brain’s structure and connectivity as cortisol, the brain’s stress hormone,

causes changes in the brain’s stem cells (Bergland). The changing in the stem cells has been

linked to anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses (Bergland). Therefore, the chronic stress

put on by school can actually contribute to teen anxiety and depression. This further exhibits how

the overall culture of high school education has an extremely negative effect on students’ mental

health.

The Solution

The combination of factors that lead to these repercussions is a large problem, with no

definitive solution in sight, but the first thing that should be done is to eliminate parts of the

problem. The first thing that would help fix this problem would be a change in required classes.

As opposed to simply requiring the four main classes, school systems across the country could

start mandating one “skill based” credit. This change could allow students who won’t attend

college to have some skills that would allow them to enter the workforce.

Another one of main issues is that students are not presented or prepared for alternatives

to college, which is caused by things like school curriculums and class requirements. Therefore,

one of the best solutions to this problem is to create an educational system that causes less

pressure and presents more alternatives to college. There are already career and technical
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Schools across the country, one of them being Thomas Edison High School right here in

Montgomery County. Career and technical schools, “are effective in preparing students for

success because they provide a hands-on and engaging environment for learning. In 2013, at

least three-quarters of the school's 11th-grade students scored as proficient in reading, writing,

mathematics and social studies on the state graduation test” (Bidwell). These high schools teach

students skills and are able to give them a basic educational knowledge, as shown by the

statistics from an Ohio career and technical school. Implementing more of these high schools for

students who are likely not to reach college would be a great start.

Another thing that may allow more alternatives to be presented would be eliminating

common core. Three quarters of 700 surveyed psychologists said that state/nationally mandated

common core tests caused more stress than local assessments (Spector). By eliminating the

propensity of national assessments, schools wouldn’t have to be “teaching to the test” as much.

This would allow students to have less stress about a make or break test for college and their

future. Some may argue that these types of tests are necessary in assessing student’s knowledge

of what they learn in school, so they should not be eliminated completely. The first step is to just

decrease the absurd number of standardized tests that students have to take. Fixing this problem

would take changes to curriculum and required classes, but it’s definitely not impossible.

Conclusion

The American education system has a serious problem. Required classes, common core

curriculum, and educators’ attitudes have all helped develop a culture that presents college as the

only viable post high school option. This pressure has resulted in excessive cheating and mental

stress and illnesses. The American educational system needs a change, especially at the high

school level. More classes where students can learn skills need to be offered, whether it’s at
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secondary high schools, or part of the required curriculum. Students are subjected to a plethora

of required assessments and assignments which leads to pressure resulting in cheating and severe

mental stress. The American educational system needs a change, and it could come in a change

of curriculum and mainly providing an education that doesn’t just prepare and test students for

college readiness.
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Works Cited

“Academic Integrity in High School.” Plagiarism.org,

www.plagiarism.org/resources/facts-and-stats/.

Bergland, Christopher. “Chronic Stress Can Damage Brain Structure and Connectivity.”

Psychology Today, 12 Feb. 2014, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-

way/201402/chronic-stress-can-damage-brain-structure-and-connectivity.

Bethune, Sophie. “Teen stress rivals that of adults.” American Psychological Association,

Apr. 2014, www.apa.org/monitor/2014/04/teen-stress.aspx.

Bidwell, Allie. “Vocational High Schools: Career Path or Kiss of Death?” US News, 2

May 2014, www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/05/02/the-return-of-vocational-high-

schools-more-options-or-the-kiss-of-death.

Kent, Alexander, and Robert Serenbetz. “10 best-paying jobs for high school graduates.”

USA Today, 31 Aug. 2014, www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/08/31/24-7-

wall-st-high-school-graduates-jobs/14808119/.

Layton, Lindsey. “n Study says standardized testing is overwhelming nation’s public

schools.” Washington Post, 24 Oct. 2015, goo.gl/jyHTct.

“Maryland High School Graduation Requirements.” Maryland public schools, Maryland

State Department of Education,

www.marylandpublicschools.org/programs/Documents/Testing/MDHSGR.pdf.

Meyer, Jeremy P. “Students’ cheating takes a high-tech turn.” The Denver Post,

www.denverpost.com/2010/05/26/students-cheating-takes-a-high-tech-turn/.
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Nelson, Libby A. “The Common Core on Campus.” Inside Higher Ed, 3 May 2013,

www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/03/common-core-curriculum-k-12-could-have-

far-reaching-effects-higher-education.

Palmer, Barbara. “Pressure for good grades often leads to high stress, cheating, professors

say.” Stanford News, Standford University, 23 Feb. 2005,

news.stanford.edu/news/2005/february23/cheat-022305.html.

Singer, Alan. “Results Are in: Common Core Fails Tests and Kids.” Huffington Post, 3

May 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/results-are-in--common-

co_b_9819736.html.

Spector, Joseph. “Common Core tests giving kids anxiety, psychologists say.” Lohud,

USA Today, 20 Nov. 2015, www.lohud.com/story/news/education/2015/11/20/common-

core-anxiety/76114566/.

“The Beginner’s Guide on How to Become a Teacher.” Teacher Certification Degrees,

www.teachercertificationdegrees.com/become/.