Is Your Child Ready for Life After High School: College and Career Readiness?

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I want to share some startling statistics that I believe every responsible parent should know when it comes to educating their child.  These figures come from the National Center for Education Statistics, the national database for tracking all things education in our country.  

➢ In the 2008-09 school year, the freshman graduation rate (students who graduated from high school in 4 years) in the U.S. was 75.5%.
➢ In 2010, 68% of students who graduated made the immediate transition from high school to some form of post-secondary education.
➢ In 2009, 49.9% of students who began a post-secondary college experience in 2003 actually earned some form of a degree (Bachelor’s, Associate’s) or certificate.  

Here is another way to consider these statistics.  In 2005, 100 students begin high school and in 2009, 76 of these students graduate.  Of these 76 graduates, 52 pursue some form of post-secondary education.  Of these 52, six years later, 26 will complete post-secondary education from a 4-year institution with some sort of degree.  This means that 74 of the original 100 children will enter the workforce without a college degree.  While it is accurate that some will have completed work at a technical school/college, the % of students who typically have earned some form of post-secondary degree hovers around 40%.  By the way, I do not know the statistics for our school district because these figures are not kept; my guess is that we match up to the average.

Everyone in our community needs to wrap their heads around these statistics because it has a profound impact on our children and on every single person counting on a productive citizenry to be the taxpayers of the future.  Parents, if there is one question I can ask of you right now it is this, “Will your child be one of the 40% with some sort of a degree or one of the 60% who does not have a post-secondary degree/certificate or any sort?”  

Let me share another set of statistics with you to illustrate why this is so important to your children.  They may be too young to get it but parents should understand this immediately.

Unemployment Rate in                   Level of Education                     Median Weekly Earnings
        2012 (%)                                                                                     (2012) ($) Gross

    2.5                                               Doctorate Degree                                 1,624
    2.1                                               Professional Degree                             1,735
    3.5                                               Master’s Degree                                   1,300
    4.5                                               Bachelor’s Degree                                1,066
    6.2                                               Associate’s Degree                                 785
    7.7                                               Some College, No Degree                        727
    8.3                                               High School Degree                                 652
    12.4                                             Less Than High School Degree                471

* Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm

Basically, this is what College and Career Readiness is all about.  How can schools restructure to help our children become prepared for a successful transition to post secondary life, whatever that may be?  Helping children to know what they want to do, in terms of work, for the rest of their life is not the goal here.  Most people will change jobs during their lifetime.  However, preparing them with the skills to be qualified for changing jobs is critical in today’s labor market.  What is also critical is graduating students with a plan for a path to work.  What would be even better is having students well on this path as they graduate from high school.

The College and Career Readiness initiative is designed to help get students on a pathway.  There will be changes that will start to show up in subsequent years regarding the process to helping children find a pathway of interest.  This should help but the truth is that the statistics that I shared at the top of this article have been the same for over 15 years.  Schools can, and will, map out a plan to help improve these statistics but what will ultimately make the difference for your child is how you approach your child’s education and what your expectations are for your child’s future.  This approach and set of expectations have to start as early as you can begin reading to your child and does not end until your child has reached her/his goals.  I will write more on this in my next article.

(This is the 3rd in a series of 3 articles.)

By - Mr. Doug Conwell Superintendent