Governor Taft's most recent education advisory commission (his fifth) is looking to make Ohio's high school graduates better prepared for college and the 21st century workforce. He is getting good advice from people in business and in education and significant financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which granted $2.75 million to support the governor's efforts.
To be sure, high school education needs to be strengthened, and graduates need to be better prepared for life after the "Glory days." Over one-third of the state's high school graduates, according to the Partnership for Continued Learning, the group of business and education leaders convened by the governor, require remedial courses in English and math when they reach college. Learning unlearned K-12 lessons at college credit-hour prices is a monumental waste of time, effort, and resources, and Taft is right to point out the severe impact it will have on the future workforce and economy in Ohio.
Experts say at least 75 percent of new jobs created in the U.S. will require at least a four-year degree, and probably more-advanced degrees. At present, only 23 percent of Ohioans over the age of 25 hold four-year college degrees, which is behind the national average by five percent. And young people today are not just competing for jobs with other Americans, but with students in China and India as well.
But the Governor's proposal does not address the more serious problem that lurks just below the surface. While many high school students in Ohio are graduating unready for college, far, far too many are not graduating at all.
Only 74 percent of Ohio students, counting rich, poor, and middle class districts alike, graduate from high school. Among minorities the numbers are worse, with only 55 percent of African-Americans graduating. Statewide, this translates to over 27,000 dropouts a year.
Schools in Dayton paint a clear picture of where things stand. During the 2004-05 school year, the state reported a 69.7 percent graduation rate for the Dayton Public Schools. External analysts say this is far too high an estimate. Out of the roughly 7,300 high-school aged students, fully 1,900 were enrolled in a dropout recovery programs. That's more than a quarter of all high school students. Moreover, the fastest growing segment of Dayton's charter school sector is focused on these students. In 2005, Dayton saw eight charter schools opening that are dedicated to serving students at-risk of dropping out of high school.
As state officials consider even tougher high school standards, such as raising from three to four the number of required courses in math and science, it is likely that even more students will opt for schools geared towards remedial education and dropouts. (The good news here is that evidence from other states indicates that this need not happen IF suitable steps are taken to help kids gear up for the higher standards.)
Such steps need to begin well before high school. Would-be dropouts are set on their course in the elementary years. And while we should applaud raising standards for high school students, we must not forget that education must improve for all students—pre-K through high school.
The depth of the problem cannot be fixed with a program here or a program there, much less a commission to jawbone program ideas, but only by the urgency created by a permanent education reform movement in the state that worries about what happens to children from birth through high school. Taft's proposals have the state moving in the right direction, but not far enough, fast enough, or deep enough.
Dale Patrick Dempsey is a writer and editor for the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation