1 in 3 Unprepared for Life After High School

This just goes to show that an emphasis on sitting at desks absorbing information, instead of learning creative skills and collaborative thinking, is beginning to show where it counts: in college and beyond. Art education (music, visual, theater, etc.) is one area that is being cut like never before, and I think it leaves children deficient in creative thinking and performance, the most important things in a job environment.

I don't believe that this problem arises from sitting at desks absorbing information.  In fact, as a high school teacher, I see far too little sitting at desks absorbing information.  Students are allowed to work together "collaboratively" on most asssignments given in classrooms these days.  When this happens, there is generally one student who does the work and the rest copy from him/her without contributing at all.  It doesn't surprise me at all that only one in three are prepared for life, because that is about how many are actually doing work in high school.  What is needed is a great deal more individual effort and accountability from students.

There is a program in Tampa that has been addressing some of these issues.  Da' Place: A Career & Educational Training Center does motivational sessions with students, teachers, and parents.  It's goal is to create a "team" that will assist those students to become more involved in whats truly important; thier own education! It is a network effort that will change these results.

Thank God, my last child just graduated from H.S.; unfortunately, this article only reinforces my belief of the sad situation concerning America's H.S. education and our politicians lack of concern for the problem!

I'm not sure that the problem is actually within the school system itself.  I have no statistical evidence to prove my thoughts, but I feel that much of the "failure" experienced by the 33% of graduating seniors could have been alleviated by increased vigilance and behavior modification by parents.  Parents could be the second line of defense behind our teachers in identifying and correcting deficient skills, by perhaps observing work ethic and collaborative skills in the chores kids do.  Critical thinking and writing go hand in hand and I would think that parents/guardians would know right off the bat whether or not his charge was falling short by reading a simple support/defend essay.   I would also challenge that in addition to shortcomings in communication and collaboration skills, kids also fall short in self sufficiency skills such as financial management, not to mention simpler life skills such as doing laundry which aren't taught in schools.  

High schoolers in Ca have to take a high school exit exam. If you have ever seen it, you would laugh. It is so basic, they should change it to a high school ENTRANCE exam. It is no wonder why they are coming out of high school unprepared, the standards are too low! We need to expect more from our youth.

I think that a large part of why students end up unprepared out of high school is because the majority of kids go to public high schools where there are thousands of students and a lot of them don't take too much of an interest for school because they feel like their teachers don't care about the education that they are providing.  In many ways, I feel as though private high schools are more beneficial to students because the student, teacher ratio is smaller so each of the students are able to get the attention that they deserve.

Whether it was at a small coffee business (my first job), at a medium size construction company, or all the temporary jobs I held in between, all my managers seem to be pleased with precise spoken and written communications

I think that parents are relying too much on the school to educate their children and therefore don't have any time to complain about what they learn. Teachers can only do so much. Parents if you want to know what your kids are learning and how they are preparing for college, get involved with your kids!

When I had to transfer from a small college prep school to a larger (though not huge) Catholic hs I was shocked to discover that even my English Lit teachers administered multiple choice examinations! There were usually one or two short answer essay questions, but that was all. At the college prep school we had been expected to answer four or five essay questions on ALL examinations with the exception of math and the lower level foriegn language classes. (Imagine what a different world it would be if all of our students were not only expected to write well in English, but also achieve the basics of expressing themselves in another language!) As you might suspect, the English tests were essay exams from start to finish; we felt gratitude when the teacher allowed us a handful of multiple choice questions. There is a very teachable, easy to grasp and apply five paragraph formula to writing an expository essay that we were taught in the 8th grade. I. Tell me what you are going to discuss, II - III. Discuss the subject with examples, IV Tell me what you told me, V Draw a conclusion. I plan on teaching this to my kids when the time is right. For now, I'm pleased that my son's 1st grade homework includes nightly reading because that is where good writing starts.

parents should be more involved with their child educate.at home if the parent need to taking classed them self.Teachers can not do it all parents need to get involved that is the answer to the problem

Except for some things like math basics that require practice, laboratory courses, some art & music, & PE, I've always assumed that my kids' schools are mostly for socialization, not only with friends, but learning to take direction from different people, work as a team, etc.  They read at home, & get help with whatever else is necessary.  The schools' standards for writing are far below mine &, as our youngest daughter discovered to her dismay, even her "college prep" writing class did not come close to preparing her for what her professors actually expected--it was mom the editor to the rescue once again. (To be clear, I did not do it for her--actually just read it out loud to her & she caught almost all her own errors!)
 
Obviously I think parents need to be aware of & involved with their children's learning--the older 4 of our 5, all adopted from foster care at ages between 8 & 14, all now have at least some college & will probably go on when they decide they need more.
Our 16-year-old is reading at college level, although his math still needs some work.  These are all kids with major issues in their past lives--multiple placements, fetal alcohol & drug exposure, an assortment of mental health diagnoses.  They are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, but also to the power of expectations--we expected them to go to school, to read, to learn what they needed to be productive adults, & they have done & are doing it.  
 
I look at a lot of the other kids in their schools, with stable families, too much stuff, & expectations that they will goof off unless micro-managed, & I see those expectations fulfilled too.

My experience with school was hellish, by the time I entered 3rd grade I was ready to drop out. I was an A student in school. Unfortunately for me my sister who is 1 year older than me, was held back in 2nd grade. That year we were both in 2nd grade and my teacher decided to hold me back and move her up to 3rd grade at the end of the school year, they did not think it was a good idea to have us together again. Even though I was a small child I was devastated, for some reason I valued being a good student. My parents were immigrants from
Mexico and they didn't really think much of school. It was a huge expense to them, we were a large family. They couldn't speak the language so the school did what they wanted with us kids. It was a small counrty town and one year the State threatened to close the school down because enrollment was to low in High School. They moved my older brother who was in grade school and put him in the 9th grade to help boost the enrollment, they may have done this to other children, I don't know. My brother was a tall kid and maybe thats why they chose him, I believe he had also been held back at one point and this made him a good candidate for 9th grade, never mind that he was academically deficent. My brother was tourmented daily in school and picked on by older kids. He was a dark complected hispanic kid and all through High School they called him Black Man. There were only two hispanic families in the whole town and no blacks. As children in an all white school we were ridiculed constantly. I didn't learn how to read much over 8th grade level. By the time I was in High School I dropped out. The boys who were ugly to me now wanted to use me, they were from well to do Christian homes but you wouldn't have known it. I moved to Austin, Tx and joined a program called Man Power. I recieved my GED, and then I got a Drafting Certificate. School was a place where teachers were disrespected by students, and students were humiliated and even degrated by some teachers. We are an evil bunch of murderers at any age, it doesn't matter, you can just as easily kill someones self-esteem at the age of 6, as you can at the age of 30. I am now a teacher of pre-school children, I know my words have the power of life or death; I choice life.    

I enjoyed reading this article regarding life fater high school.  It is so sad to know that with the funding that is available to our youths, it is not being put in the right resources.  The statistics are alarming that the number of high school and even college students graduate with more challenges than what it takes to actually be enrolled in schools.

This is one reason I homeschool/unschool- there are so many reasons not to be institutionalized for 12 yrs without any guarantee that the process "works"- much better to let kids learn how and will they want to and not get in their way

There are so many factors we have to consider in the deteriorating quality of our high school graduates in this generation. Those aspects must be analyzed according to the culture we have established inside our homes, the school, the community, even the church and the govenrment. The bottom line is when we recognized those factors and no one still make an action (I mean, consistent actions) the problem will not be solved. To parents, I advised you to start now getting involved with the education of your child till he reach college.You lazy government officials, don't be blind...support the schools in your community to achieve their goals.I am a teacher here in the Philippines and I have seen many of us pointing fingers at each other and doing nothing for the kids. My advise to all, start now and be busy. Education is all we can give to our kids and even the fate of this planet!

I received an above average score on the SAT on the Reading section, but I did not receive an above average score on the placement test given by California State University of Bakersfield - I was off by one point - so they required me to take developmental classes, even though I am prepared for college level coursework, they determined that based solely on one test that I took under difficult conditions, i.e. the room was extremely cold and I was sick.  

I think that not very important because we life in this world just a few minutes, so we must get something that make us happy

Our schools were ranked 24th among developed countries when we sent our best and brightest students to compete internationally (only Cypress and South Africa scored lower). We have graduation rates that vary from 25% to 50% to 75% (in our best schools). As pathetic as the results reported in this article are, at LEAST these students graduated.
If they can't function, how do you think the drop-outs are doing?
 
Education is in a sad state in the entire USA. And, for some reason, people are hesitant to face the facts.
 
We need a complete reform of our educational system, and it can be accomplished.
 
Go to: www.thekingslandplan.com and learn about a book "Set Our Teachers FREE! A Plan to Save Public Education" and the simple, yet workable plan for straightening-out our public schools across the USA.
 
 

What I don't understand is that this article make statements and cites percentages and I can't see what study this information is taken from. How large was the sample. What kind of employers were they talking to. Are these colleges in one area or across the country.
 
the second thing that bugs me is the implication that it is the schools fault that children are unprepared there is more time and effort plus research going into the education that children are receiving now compared to back when we were in school. There was a day when a teacher could sit in a class and not teach a thing but those days are over with assessments and all the district and state oversight it is not the teachers or the schools.
 
No one thing is the cause in my opinion and observation. I see kids that won't do homework not just a few but 3/4's of a class of 30. The only repercussion a teacher can give is an F which is not an effective motivator. Instead the class has to be slowed down so the kids can absorb the information as the teacher has to present learning in many different ways that don't involve homework or too much studying. As for sitting around like  the other teacher there is very little sitting around at desks in High School anymore. None of this is going to be answered in some quick fix and attacking the school system is not going to help. You want it fixed get involved. If you are an employer go to the schools give them samples of what you expect future employees to read and write. If you are part of a college talk to the junior high and high schools about what you are seeing.    

I am a public school teacher who is very concerned about the students in our schools.  Many special needs students are blended wiith the average students , so the average students are not challenged.  Yoiu cannot teach all your average students adequately if your time is spent with behavioral, emotional, and mental issues of the special kids.  Parents expect to send  chilkdren to school and do not help their students to succeed.  Many schools don't bother with homework because the students refuse to do it.  Whose fault is this?