Rising to the Challenge

It is Time to Raise Our Expectations

As President Obama has noted, the United States used to be first in the world in college graduation rates. We are now 14th—and slipping. Yet, most well-paying jobs require some amount of postsecondary training, and the skills required for success in further schooling and in the world of work are converging.29 Our expectations of students, however, and our supports to help teachers educate students to the highest levels, have not kept up. Nationally respected organizations across the political spectrum have given Illinois mediocre and failing grades for the quality of our academic standards in core subject areas.30

Such reviews are underscored on the state’s assessments. While student scores on the Illinois Student Achievement Test (ISAT) show a rising trend, that success has not extended to more rigorous national tests, which place Illinois eights graders in the bottom half of the nation in both reading and math, and show that fewer than one-third of fourth and eighth graders demonstrate “proficiency” in math and science.31

This gap underscores an ongoing mismatch between our state’s expectations and objective measures of college and work readiness. We’ve been pretending that kids who score “proficient” on state tests are doing just fine. But “meeting standards” on our state tests—at all grade levels—does not mean that kids will be prepared for college or careers. Ultimately, our flawed standards and low expectations boil down to a deplorable reality: Students who do well on the ISAT more often than not find they are unprepared for college-level courses and for a workplace that requires higher skill levels than ever before.32

But if our students are falling short, it’s because our expectations have been too low.

What it takes to earn a high school diploma in Illinois falls short of what is needed to succeed in postsecondary education or on most job sites. Many Illinoisans would likely be surprised to learn that the state’s current graduation requirements don’t match up with the enrollment requirements of many public institutions of higher learning.

While the average state requires students to take more than 20 credits to receive a standard diploma, Illinois only requires 16. In science alone, Illinois requires fewer than half the credits of the average state.33

The result: Too many young people graduate from high school without taking advanced courses in key subjects. Students pay twice and lose time when they go on to post-secondary programs only to take classes covering material that should have been taught in high school. Research shows that students who take enough of the right courses in high school are not only more likely to go on to postsecondary education, but to finish.34

This is especially true for disadvantaged students. Low-income and students of color who take a rigorous curriculum in high school graduate from postsecondary programs at nearly the same rates as their more wealthy counterparts. In other words, taking rigorous courses in high school, especially math and science, nearly erases the achievement gap.35

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