Let’s Do Something About High Schools � The Quick and the Ed

Let’s Do Something About High Schools � The Quick and the Ed

Let’s Do Something About High Schools

by Chad Aldeman

Bedford High School, located in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in 2006 while graduating 240 students, more than 90 percent of entering freshmen. According to all existing accountability systems, this was a successful school. Of their 2006 graduates 56 percent (13 percent higher than the state average) entered an Ohio college or university right out of high school, but once there they averaged just a 2.38 GPA in their first term. A whopping 73 percent were required to take remedial, not-for-credit courses. This was considered a successful school despite publicly available data suggesting its graduates were not prepared for success in college.
At the other end of the spectrum were schools that failed to meet federal accountability rules, typically because one or more subgroups could not meet performance targets, but that, on the whole, graduated students that earned high first-term college GPAs and required few remedial needs. Lakota West High School, located in a suburb of Cincinnati, graduated a higher percentage of students than Bedford, but it failed to make AYP in 2006 because its students with disabilities were unable to meet the state’s standards. The school should be held accountable for these students, to be sure, but Lakota West should also be acknowledged for getting large numbers of students into and ready for college. It sent 56 percent of its graduating class on to an Ohio college or university (the same as the AYP-meeting Bedford). Unlike Bedford though, only 13 percent of the 320 Lakota West graduates required remedial coursework upon entering college, and 91 percent returned for their second year. They earned an average first-term GPA of 2.98, compared to the 2.38 accumulated by Lakota West