Illinois’s new school report cards underscore more of what matters for students, parents, and schools, the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board writes.
Since the state has received a waiver from the US Department of Education for some of the most onerous demands of the No Child Left Behind law, school officials have revamped the report cards to show
- The percentage of freshmen at a high school who are “on track” to graduate
- The percentage of high school graduates who are enrolled in college after 12 months and after 16 months
The reports still show other data, such as test scores, graduation rates, and financial information, but many feel the new format emphasizes the importance of post-secondary schooling.
“Students who don’t go to a post-secondary institution after high school tend to struggle in the job market and ultimately decide they need to go back for more advanced training and education,” the paper quoted state school Superintendent Christopher A Koch as saying.
The editors go on to suggest that students who aren’t on track to graduate or be ready for college by their senior year need special attention, such as tutoring. That’s true, I believe, but the Tribune stops short of pointing out that tutoring will cost money, money the editors ignore in addressing this problem.
The Tribune does correctly mention the wide variation within Illinois in terms of college attendance. While many selective schools in Chicago and in the suburbs send 90 percent of their graduates to college, some schools in the city and elsewhere send only half.
About a decade ago, scholars began noting the erosion of America’s middle class and tying it to post-secondary education attendance and completion. In the 2004 book Social Contracts Under Stress: The Middle Classes of America, Europe & Japan at the Turn of the Century, edited by Olivier Zunz, for instance, University of California, Berkeley, professor Margaret Weir wrote:
The expansion of higher education helped to blur class lines in several ways. By promoting occupational mobility, higher education made the life chances of children from different backgrounds more similar. Access to higher education meant that fewer children followed in their parents’ occupational footsteps. As one study of American occupational mobility concluded, “a college degree cancels the effect of [social] origins on [occupational] destinations.”
A friend asked me today, “What’s the greatest thing about America?”
I have several answers, but I suppose, for me, it boils down to opportunity. Each child in the US has the opportunity to choose his outcome, which is why we need to invest evenly in all our public schools to guarantee that should a child in one school choose a particular course for his life, we do what we can to allow him or her to chart a proper course.
Compare, for example, Phillips Academy High School in Chicago, where 94 percent of students live below the poverty line and only 6 percent are described as ready for college and their opponent in the Class 4A semifinal football game this weekend, Coal City High School, where 27 percent of students are classified as low-income and 46 percent are described as ready for college. We note that the college readiness benchmark is an ACT score of 21, which may or may not be a valid way to determine college readiness and is, ultimately, a score on a standardized test. However, this comparison highlights some of the variation within the state.
There are states that have no waiver like Illinois’s, such as Washington, where schools still struggle with the NCLB designations of failing and turnaround schools, the New York Times reported last month.
How have tutors helped you or your friends prepare for college? See Common Core speaking and listening standard SL.11-12.1.C for more information.