What is the reason teenagers are leaving high school unprepared for both college and the work force?

Question

It's what it seems like, and it seems to be growing. Why is that? Personal experiance and observations are welcomed. Thank you!

Answer 1

First, let me add one caveat: there is often a tendency to claim that things were better "back then" and that things are getting worse today. Yet statistics show that students are not less prepared today than they were a decade ago. The problem, however, is that there still are many unprepared students, and performance a decade ago wasn't all that great, either.

There are several issues to consider:

-While there is a lot of grade inflation happening (which tends to artificialy prop up students' grades, diminishing the salience of underperformance), American students still underperform in math and science when compared to most other industrialized nations. These students lack basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills.

Some particularly salient issues are:

-Unfortunately, "Net-speak" is becoming more and more popular, and teachers are now encountering acronyms like "lol" in student essays. The GRE and SAT were modified a few years ago in order to weight writing and critical analysis more heavily. Some have criticized this as adding too much subjectivity to these college and university entrance exams. However, reading and writing abilities must remain keys to college and post-college life, even if programs like Word are making it easier to automate spell and grammar check.

-Less emphasis on actually understanding concepts, and more emphasis on rote probem-solving and memorization.
There is a great difference between knowing how to do something, and understanding how to do it. Most students today are forced to memorize a multitude of formulas which have no meaning to them. Without an understanding of "why" instead of just "what", students soon forget what they are learning. The effect of this is that, on the job, tomorrow's workers will rely more and more on calculators and computers to solve even the simplest programs. In the era of the abacus and simple calculators, engineers had to solve many problems by hand. It was tedious and slow to be sure, but it was very useful in allowing quick assessment of problems. Today, many professionals are "dead in the water" without a computer, having no ability to understand simple geometry equations like the Pythagorean Theorem or the Chain Rule that is essential to calculus. This may be a reason why cultures like China's which rely less on computers are more at an advantage: using the brain comes in handy, especially on tasks that require a quick visual evaluation.

-A culture that emphasizes "my way", and self indulgence, like America's, focuses less on the ideal of the well-prepared intellectual mind- the so-called Renaissance Man or polymath- and more on how a mind can be used functionally and for material gain. For example, the Classics, once heralded by the academic community as a basic requirement for high school graduation, are now largely disregarded in favor of math and science. While math and science are vital for the industrial workforce, an understanding of humanities has a value above and beyond that which can be measured by functional usefuness. For example, students today have a very limited understanding of literature, music, and art. This is helping shape our culture in ways which might have made Shakespeare, Michelangelo or Verdi shudder. Students are becoming more and more limited in their understanding of historical and human relevance, and in part because of that, a forgetfulness of history is helping set the stage for a repeat of the mistakes of our predecessors.

Answer 2

High schools often to teach to exams, not to learn, and Bush's administration is making it worse. Plus, schools are pushed to graduate kids even if they aren't reading about a 5th grade level or haven't managed to pass a single math class in four years. A few years ago, LA made it a requirement for the first time that you had to pass algebra before graduating - and the graduation rate dropped more than 20%. I thought that was ridiculous- these kids from other states who can't do algebra show up in astronomy and physics classes completely unprepared to do the slightest amount of math - but need to pass the course to graduate. It's not going to happen. And so they fail out of college instead.

Answer 3

There are many reasons for this, and the reasons are specific to schools and regions of the country. This is not a one-size-fits-all problem, so what's failing kids in your area may not be the problem elsewhere. here are some reasons, though:

1. Jobs are more technical--the amount of information available has increased exponentially since schools began in this country, and the technical knowhow required for some of the most mundane jobs has also increased. As a result, you need more than just the basics that high school provides in order to go into jobs that were previously less technical.

2. Social promotion--I teach 8th grade, and am disappointed each year at how many students arrive with a 1st or 2nd grade reading level. They were socially promoted through elementary school, and many will be socially promoted to high school despite their teachers' protests. It's frustrating to see these students move up because we know that they will always be behind and will never develop the skills they need to survive. But, schools are under immense pressure from the government and from parents to graduate a high percentage of their entering freshmen. It is shameful, but many schools promote rather than stand up to that pressure.

3. perception--Everyone alive has been through the schools, so everyone alive thinks they are an expert on schools (at least it seems like that sometimes). So, talk show hosts, politicians, etc all like to talk about how awful our schools are to gain the sympathies of viewers/listeners. Yet, I would be curious how many of those people have been in a school to see how the environment has changed. Many students leave schools well-prepared for college and careers--but these students make poor sound-bites so we don't hear about them.

4. Environment---Schools have been called on to take on more and more of the responsibilities of the community and parents. For example, our school feeds children 3 meals (breakfast, late breakfast, and lunch) because many of our parents can't. Our school has 7 counsellors to deal with truancy, support groups, homeless children, mentally ill children, and foster families. We hold evening community sessions, parenting classes, and every day we deal with the fall out from drug and alcohol abuse. this includes previous abuse in the form of children with fetal alcohol syndrome, and current abuse in the form of kids with horrible home lives. Even though more of this responsibility is placed on schools, we still see the children for the same amount of time.

These are not excuses, although they may sound this way. These are things we need to overcome and work on if we want to get kids ready for college and life.

Answer 4

This is a problem with a myriad of causes and no one of them by themselves is at fault. This problem started in the late '70's and continues rampant. Our teachers have so many things to cover that have nothing to do with teaching but with revamping cultural standards that they never get around to reading, writing, and math. This is from the government and from the NEA.

The second and just as major if not more so, is that parents neither care what happens at school or want to know. Send the kids and get them out of our hair is the attitude. Tied with this as a problem contributing to our lack of education is society's resentment of responsibility and discipline. The teachers cannot maintain a learning environment and when they try to correct a child they have parents all over them threatening to sue and worse. Without a classroom environment suited to learn teaching cannot occur.

Lastly, we have had since the mid-80's had children who are determined not to learn. Their is no motivation, no desire, and no eagerness to want to know. This key missing there is little hope to teach. Where it comes from I can only speculate and that is the home life and pair that with the fact the television is primary contact for most of our children it is no wonder they are dull in wanting to learn.

With all of this going on is it any wonder that our children are graduating unable to read, to write, and to do basic math and not to mention being good citizens and community members.

I agree with many of the things said in other statements but these are the things I see as the major influences to where the state of our education has come.

Answer 5

The quick and easy answer would be that they don't realize school is meant to prepare you for the future. Highscool is just one big party which is also how they view life in general. Ever hear of the phrase, "Live life to the fullest?" Sadly, to many that means to throw caution and responsibility to the wind...... "Whatever happens, happens."
I've also heard many say that they'll just go to the military.... so, who needs school? Or they have rich parents or will go into the family business. There are as many reasons as there are teens that are unprepared. Bottom line is that they are all LAZY!!!
If I stepped on any toes with this answer, PROVE ME WRONG!!!

Answer 6

The answer to this question is complex. In no particular order:
Teachers and education do not receive the respect they once had;
Statistically, teachers are coming from the lower echelons of college students;
Students have too many distractions--e.g. cell phones, computer games, sex;
Compared with computer games, school is boring and sometimes difficult, so why bother with it;
Many parents don't want their children to have too much stress; after all, he/she is an exceptional and sensitive child blah, blah, blah;
Discipline in many schools has gone down the drain;
The kids have grown up being told that they are special and wonderful, so they don't feel they have to put much energy into excelling;
Families are falling apart at a greater rate;
More teenage girls are having one or more babies--pretty hard to pay attention to school;
etc., etc, etc........

Answer 7

I feel the problem is parents and teachers are not doing their part to educate these teens. For example a lot of parents feel it is a teachers job to educate their children. Some parents don't even ask their kids what did they learn in school or do they have any homework? While teachers know whether a child pass or fail they will get paid regardless. Some teachers pass a child just to get rid of them.

Answer 8

Grade Inflation!
Parents are pressuring the schools for good grades so the materials keep getting watered down so everyone can have the GPA it takes to get into college. In my state, you get free tuition with a certain GPA and high schools try to get their kids there. However, they lose the scholarship in college for poor grades which happens way to often for these high school "honor roll" kids.

Answer 9

They don't teach you much in High School that's actually applicable outside of the classroom and nobody knows how to use it outside of school. If high schools had more field trips, that might not be as much of an issue.

My high school has only 1 field trip and it's only for those taking Physics (and you get to go to an amusement park - because of the roller coasters).

Answer 10

because no one told them the right thing to do or talked to them

they continue with the common misconception that their parents will ALWAYS take care of things for them because they spoil them instead of teaching the true lessons of life. then they get this skewed reality that they dont break from until its too late. which is a real shame because there is so much potential. parents arent spending enough time with their kids and explaining this to them so they rely on the media which is a BAD example because it reinforces the idea that playing and having fun is great and thats all you need in life. they fail to realize that there needs to be hard work... then you can play

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also schools arent teaching anymore. its all about how many facts you can cram into your brain. and AP AP AP classes and SAT and ACT!!! i mean seriously.. once you get into college what are you gonna do now? i mean in college they except you to think instead of cramcramcram. honors teachers are only stressing exams instead of creative thought so they kids get stuck with this mindframe that they HAVE to know this and they have to know that and they HAVE to take latin to help for the SAT so they dont think or get to realize themselves or their true personality and potentail.. there are smart kids who memorize but the inteligent ones know and apply that knowlegde and are prepared for life

there is too much stress on things that dont really matter and kids are suffering because of this. the focus has been shifted to only how much money you can make.. no one really values the thinkers of today anymore