Editorial on High School Graduation Rates & Schools’ Grades

Part II: New High School Graduation Requirements… a Recipe for Disaster

(These articles ran in the Citrus County Chronicle on January 12th and 14th, 2013)

In Part I of my rebuttal I shared how Florida, through the Department of Education and the federal government, entirely changed how they determine high school dropout rates and how they used school grading methods that are illogical and unfair.

When describing the causes of dropout rates and the lack of job/career ready skills, people often point to it being a teacher, teaching, or curriculum problem, which it is not! In a recent editorial the Chronicle shared findings from a study, “Addressing the Skills Gap” by Workforce Connection and Thomas P. Miller and Associates  that suggests students have a “skills gap” of skills needed in the local job market;  yet,  it is the State through its passage and blind support of 2010’s Senate Bill 4 (SB4) and other legislation that has taken away schools’ and districts’ abilities to offer “real world and job/career ready skill building” classes and opportunities in school.  How?  Because SB4 put in Florida statue that all high school students must demonstrate through standardized testing that they are college eligible in order to receive a basic high school diploma accredited from the Florida Department of Education.  I might also add the private schools, private charter schools and some virtual schools are not required by Florida law to meet the SB4 graduation requirements. These requirements only pertain to public high schools and public charter schools in Florida.

Florida House Representative Jimmie T. Smith created a Task Force for Career and Technical Education of which I am honored to be the Chairman. Dr. James R. Stone III, Ed.D, Director of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education spoke to our Task Force recently. Dr. Stone considered the nation’s leading expert on career education and job readiness has focused on strategies that improve the capacity of programs to improve the engagement, and achievement.  Dr. Stone expressed concern about the challenges Florida will face due to the flawed mandate that ALL high school graduates must be college ready in order to officially graduate from high school.  Dr. Stone ‘s  research indicates that the higher math classes–classes which are currently required courses in Florida for high school graduation, — do not necessarily mean that upon completion a student is career or job ready .   A score of approximately ‘22’ on the ACT Exam is generally an indication that the student has acquired the basic skills needed to be job/career ready.  Dr. Stone explained that in more than one study, only 13% of students that took and passed Algebra I, Algebra II and Geometry, scored a ‘22’ on the ACT.  If the same students went as far as taking Trigonometry, the percentile of those scoring ‘22’ only increased to 37%. Interestingly, when they broke down the studies and data, researchers found that the skills and standards needed in order to be presently classified as “job/career ready”, were often taught in basic Algebra I and a little in Geometry.  Findings further showed that better proficiency in those specific mathematical skills and standards were more important in career and job readiness than higher level math standards.

Why do I explain this?  Because in order for the  Freshman class of 2013  to graduate, they will have to pass FCAT Reading  along with  Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Biology, Chemistry and/or Physics. They also must pass another science course that is equally as rigorous as Chemistry or Physics, and pass at least one online high school course.  Due to the phasing in process that began in 2011, students currently in high school will need to meet many of these requirements, none of the student’s daily work counts towards their passing requirement, only the score on the End of Course (EOC) exams.  This is forcing our schools to simply become PASS or FAIL educational  programs!

Dr. Stone explained that in a 2010 study by Carnevale on the “Florida Future Labor Market by Education Requirements”, Florida’s labor market will require that 9%  have some high school education;  27% be educated at a minimum level of high school;  11%  have  post-secondary industry training/certification;  21% possess an Associate’s degree; 22%  hold a  Baccalaureate degree;  and  9%  have  a Master’s degree or higher.  This means that 47% of the Florida’s labor force needs to have some high school education at worst and a high school diploma or industry certification at best. Yet the Legislators have put into Florida Law the most rigorous graduation requirements that mandate ALL students to be college ready in order to review a basic high school diploma.   College-eligibility is not a prerequisite for employment as this the Carnevale research shows; a good thing, since in reality, not every student is ready for college at 18. Forcing them to attempt to be so will only result in more drop outs from high school.

Our School Board and Superintendent have been working with legislators and other school board members around the state of Florida to bring reasonable and common sense changes to the new Florida graduation.  Recommendations, that  I also support are providing alternative course requirements in lieu of Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry and the sciences; multiple testing options/ alternatives to EOC testing requirements; Career Pathway options which may include an additional high school diploma option which have equal value in the job place; and State Representative Jimmie T. Smith’s HB 133 – “High School Course Options” bill.

The new and somewhat unattainable mandates are unacceptable.  What if a decade’s worth of high school students will suffer for their lifetime because of decisions are made now in regard to these high graduation requirements which offer little to no evidence in making students job/career ready. It is time for individuals, groups, and organizations to stop using Florida public schools as a political football. They must provide realistic and/or additional career pathways for our high school students.  This is not simply an issue about local school grades or dropout rates; this is an issue about stopping political agendas from being placed ahead of what is best for our students’ lives—and  the future of our state and country.

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