High schools skip over basics in rush to college classes

In high schools, the fastest-growing courses offered are Advanced Placement classes, which give students a chance to earn college credit. Increasingly, students and their parents see these academically challenging courses as an admission ticket to the nation's top colleges. In the past 10 years, the number of students taking AP exams has risen from 400,000 to more than 1 million.
In college, however, the fastest-growing courses are remedial math and English classes. The courses are for students who need to make up for basics they didn't learn in high school. In the California State University system, for example, 37% of incoming freshmen last fall needed to take remedial math and 48% remedial English. Nationwide, 53% of college students take at least one remedial course.

In other words, high schools are taking on colleges' work while colleges are forced to do the high schools' job. Obviously, something is wrong with this picture.

The warped system puts a financial burden on students and colleges. Remedial courses cost colleges about $2 billion a year, according to the Institute for Higher Education Policy. And students must pay tuition for the courses, which offer no college credit.

The problem stems from the failure of high schools to ensure that students are prepared for the academic challenges of college. While AP classes are a proven success at exposing high school students to challenging college-level material, only 15% of students take them, while more than 70% of high school graduates go on to college.

In fact, the value of a high school diploma has plummeted, according to a report this month by Achieve, a non-profit education-reform group, and two other like-minded organizations. Poor preparation is the main reason why fewer than half of those entering college graduate, the report concludes.

Universities and students are not the only ones paying for high schools' failings. A Michigan study estimated that employers in that state pay about $40 million a year for the remedial training of the students they hire right out of high school. In surveys, 60% of employers give low ratings to the writing and math skills of new hires.

Helping all students prepare for college or work requires more than AP courses:

Strict graduation requirements. Most states have vague requirements, such as three years of math, without specifying which courses. That allows students to take simple math courses that don't teach the algebra, geometry and higher-level skills needed after graduation. Mandating specific courses — and ensuring their mastery through exams required for graduation — could sharpen students' skills.

High school-co llege coordination. A promising experiment unfolds this year in the California State University system. Officials will start using students' performance on the state's 11th-grade tests to determine who needs remedial classes in college. The change will help ensure that skills taught, and tested for, in high school are linked to the knowledge needed in college.

Many high school principals and superintendents say they stress AP courses to motivate all students. In the process, though, they overlook the fact that many students can't even handle high school-level work.

Before rushing to take over colleges' job, high schools have a more pressing task: providing students the basic skills needed for the challenges beyond high school.

AP courses lift entire school
By Michael N. Riley
The dramatic growth of the College Board's Advanced Placement Program is the best thing that has happened in America's schools in my lifetime. A unique blend of high standards and hard work, AP has shown us that effort — not IQ — carries the day. For students who aim for college, taking challenging courses in high school all but guarantees success.
These are important lessons for a nation where 90% of America's middle-school students say they want to attend college, but neither parents nor educators believe that anywhere near this number are qualified. Unfortunately, the academic programs we often provide students mirror the adults' biases, not the children's aspirations.

Three-quarters of America's high school grads head to college, but only half of these students have had the benefit of a genuine college-preparatory curriculum. So, it is no surprise that nearly half of our students who enter college find themselves in non-credit remedial courses learning what they should have learned in high school. If we want to correct this wasteful practice, we will require more demanding courses — such as AP — for any student who is college bound.

The fears that AP is spreading too fast and that too many students are struggling in these classes are misplaced. Most educators have the good sense to make sure that students are prepared for the rigor of AP classes. Moreover, what we are finding in Bellevue, Wash., is the same as what educators from districts as different as rural Hobbs, N.M., and urban Dallas are finding: AP builds a ladder to the lower grades and lifts a school's entire learning environment.

As a result, traditionally underserved minority and low-income students now are succeeding in AP in greater numbers than ever before. A good example is Chicago public schools, where participation in AP has increased by 200% among minority students and 400% among low-income students during the past five years.

Still, in America's class of 2003, only 15% of students took an AP exam. That's not many kids. So let's give our students room to grow. Let's give them more opportunity and challenge. Let's give them more AP, not less.

Michael N. Riley is superintendent of the Bellevue (Wash.) School District.