SOURCE: CNN.com
Coalition: High school diplomas losing meaning
Tuesday, February 10, 2004 Posted: 10:10 AM EST (1510 GMT)
Only comprehensive change, including more rigorous English and math requirements for all students, would restore the significance of a high school graduation, according to a nearly two-year review by the American Diploma Project.
The organization is an alliance of three groups whose leaders include top education officials in the administrations of former presidents Clinton and Reagan. Its report is based on comments from more than 300 educators and employers and an analysis of employment trends.
Project leaders, anticipating resistance to a stinging call for action, say they hope to spur gradual change among states. Lack of change, they say, will keep huge numbers of students heading for remedial college work or jobs for which they're unprepared.
"We haven't believed that the purpose of high school was to ensure every kid who graduated was ready to do college-level work. That is the big sea change that we're signaling here," said Michael Cohen, the former Clinton adviser and current president of Achieve, a nonprofit dedicated to helping states raise academic standards.
"Whether, as a parent, you think your kid is going to college or the workplace, those kids face the same rigorous demands, and they need to leave with the same core set of skills," he said.
That means all students should learn geometry, data analysis, statistics and advanced algebra, the report says. They also should show strong written and oral communication skills, plus analytic and reasoning ability typically linked with honors courses, it says.
No state requires the standards called for in the report, its authors say.
The report offers a series of skill expectations, or benchmarks, as a means for school leaders to review the content of their schools' courses -- not just in high school but also in the grades that precede it, so students are on pace for the last years before graduation.
David Bloome, past president of the National Council of Teachers of English, said the report is...
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