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Britani Carriveau
D. Borowiak
English 111
09 December 2014
High School: Working Hard or Hardly Working?
In todays world, a college education seems to be the only way to succeed in life. It
doesnt quite matter as much what you study or what you learn, but what you get out of it--a
degree. However; according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, in 2013,
unfortunately only 56% of students of the students who began college in 2007 finished their
education, and that number is predicted to continue to drop. One of the major problems I see in
todays education system is the fact that students are being sent off to college when they are
not fully prepared for the long, challenging road ahead of them. As a student in my senior year
of high school, Im already terrified and worried about what lifes going to be like for me after Im
handed my diploma in May and get ready to attend college next fall. To be aware of the rates of
colleges students who drop-out, fail classes, and dont return after their first year is nerveracking and alarming. I dont believe high schools across the country are ensuring students are
prepared enough as they should be to adapt to college life so that these types of problems can
be prevented. I believe in this situation, both the education system and the students contribute
to the problem.
One of the contributions to this lack of preparation is the students unwillingness to
participate and the teachers who allow them to continue to do so. Ive had a number of classes
where an absolute minimal amount of work has been required in order for me to achieve an A. If
I was tested now on the material I learned from that class, I would fail without a doubt. This is
due to the fact that all year in those classes I was able to cram, take a quiz, cram new material,
take a test, cram some more, and then take an exam and be done with the class. But in the end,
how much information had I really gotten out of those long hours spent in those classrooms? Im

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sure mine and my classmates tactics were perfectly clear to our teachers, yet they passed us
along anyway, and we were able to continue floating along the lazy river of our high school
lives.
Even though America is geographically and sociologically diverse, students conception
of high school is remarkably uniform, according to Theodore Sizer, former dean at Harvard
University. In Sizers What High School Is, he accurately depicts the average day for a student
in high school, complete with all the boring details that seem to be present in every high school
students life. The focus of Sizers essay is that the public education system is really lacking true
substance. This quick peek into students daily lives leads many to question if high schools are
really doing all they should to ensure the success of all students. Prize-winning, veteran
journalist Katti Gray believes that high schools arent providing enough real life scenarios that
will replicate a college-like situation and prime students for what lies beyond the double doors of
high school.
Gray suggests that one fault high schools have is that not enough homework is being
assigned. And by homework, Gray isnt referring to the fill in the blank study guides or copying
definitions out of the book (which is always a personal favorite of mine and my classmates).
Gray and other educators believe that high schools should be assigning students more work
that really requires them to think more actively. High schools should offer courses with a
curriculum that prepare students for college-level work and should ensure students understand
what constitutes a college-ready curriculum by 9th grade. Another interesting proposal that
Harvard Business educator Stacey Childress has is that high schools should offer assessments
throughout a students education so that the students are aware of how prepared they are for
college and what areas need more focus and attention. Both of these ideas are being used in
some high schools across the country, but not as thoroughly developed as they should be. If
enacted and enforced, I believe that both of these techniques could be widely beneficial for
students. If students had more practice from a younger age and knew what was expected of

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them in their future at college, I feel as though less students would get overwhelmed by their
college experience and push to succeed.
Drop out rates arent the only thing thats escalating. The actual number of high school
students enrolling in college is swelling. The saddest part is, of all the students heading off to
college every year, very few will actually graduate. Reeves College Isnt For Everybody states
that approximately 15 million students are enrolled in college, but about half of them shouldnt
be. The truth is that the average student isnt prepared well enough to succeed in a college level
setting. About 40% of students test well enough on the ACT to earn a passing grade in college
level classes and every year average ACT scores are declining (Reeves). Where is the fault
here? High school preparation.
The problem is deciding who is at fault here--the educational system or the students
themselves. Do we blame the board who decides on the curriculum that is to be taught, the
teachers who teach it, or the students who are supposed to learn it? Personally, I believe the
blame cannot be pinned on one certain group.

Works Cited
Childress, Stacey, and Scott Benson. "Personalized Learning for Every Student Every Day:
The Best Hope for Accelerating Student Achievement is by Using a Range of
Pedagogical and Technological Innovations that Deliver Personalized Learning to

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Each Student." Phi Delta

Kappan 95.8 (2014): 33. Academic OneFile. Web. 10 Oct.

2014.

Gray, Katti. "Starting From Behind: Community Colleges Create Pathways to Assist Students
Who Aren't Prepared for the Work." Diverse Issues in Higher Education 19 Dec. 2013:
34+. Academic OneFile. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.

Petrilli, Michael J. "College isn't for everyone--but school is: how can we make school more
valuable for students who aren't college-bound?" Hoover Digest 3 (2014):
95+.Academic OneFile. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
Reeves, W.J. "College Isnt For Everyone." Exploring Relationships: Globalization and
Learning in the 21st Century. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2013. 341-345.
Print.

Reeves, Thomas. "College Isn't for Everybody, and It's a Scandal That We Think It Is."
Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. Boston:
Pearson Learning Solutions, 2013. 346-348. Print.

Sizer, Theodore. "What High School Is." Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning
in the 21st Century. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2013. 259-267. Print.