Thirty-eight to 39 percent of 12th graders are prepared for college reading and math, according to NAEP, yet 66 percent will enroll in college. We’re motivating more young people to enroll in college without preparing more to earn a degree, write Mike Petrilli and Checker Finn on Flypaper.
Over recent years, college readiness has remained flat, more or less, while more students are reaching 12th grade.
Even now, not everyone goes straight to college. Of those who do, 58 to 59 percent have the reading and math skills needed to pass college-level courses, based on NAEP scores. Readiness improved after a low of 51 percent in 2005, Petrilli and Finn write, because college enrollment dipped.
For more than 20 years, college readiness hasn’t exceeded 40 percent. If Common Core standards, efforts to improve teacher effectiveness and no-excuses charter schools are wildly successful, it’s unlikely that more than 50 percent of U.S. high school graduates would be college ready “any time soon,” Petrilli and Finn write.
We need to get serious about the “career” half of “college- and career-ready,” they conclude.
What are the reading and math skills needed to train for a skilled job? Does a would-be electrician need the same skills as a prospective legal secretary? Would more students be ready for success if high schools told them about the demand for welders, plumbers and medical techs?