Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Achieve, Inc.
February 2005
A survey of recent high school grads, employers and college instructors, released this week by Achieve, Inc., provides compelling statistics to back up the proposition that standards in U.S. public high schools are distressingly low and that they are inadequately preparing students for success in college and the workplace. According to the Achieve survey, "fewer than one-quarter of high school graduates feel that they were significantly challenged and faced high expectations in order to graduate from high school" and "an overwhelming majority of graduates say that they would have worked harder if their high school demanded more of them and set higher academic standards" - findings that take wind out of the sails of critics who believe students can't possibly rise to the expectation of higher standards and stricter accountability. Further, more than half of college students say that "high school left them unprepared for the work and study habits expected in college," and an astonishing 31 percent of students who think they were extremely well prepared for college level work nevertheless took at least one remedial course. Worse still, 41 percent of employers are "dissatisfied with graduates' ability to read and understand complicated materials," 42 percent are dissatisfied with graduates' ability to think analytically, 39 percent with their ability to apply what they learn to solve real-world problems, and 34 percent with their communications skills. A meager 18 percent of college professors "feel that most of their students come to college extremely or very well prepared." In fact, "even at colleges with competitive admissions policies that only let in high-performing students, only 30 percent of instructors say that most of their students come to college well prepared." In all, a severe indictment of the success of today's high schools in preparing students for what follows. You can find it at www.achieve.org.
