Achievement Gap: Students in the US are not prepared for college
Go to college to get a good job is the main message high school students are taught. With today’s competitive economy students feel pressured to attend college in order to achieve their “American Dream”. The large majority of high school students fantasize of pursuing higher education, but once inside the “Promised Land” called college, the dream is far from picturesque. Students are graduating from high school, but they are not always prepared for college level courses. First year college students learn that despite being accepted into college, they are not ready for postsecondary studies. According to a YouthTruth survey, only fifty percent out of 55,000 U.S. high school students felt prepared for college. They discover they must take remedial courses, which do not count as college credits. To increase college completion, improving college readiness needs to be a top priority on national and state levels. A growing difficulty the United States faces is a large achievement gap, which mostly affects minorities. The African American and Hispanic community are affected tremendously. Unequal levels of funding, cultural barriers, standardized tests, and poor common core curriculum are all factors that contribute to the achievement gaps existence. The imbalance in academic performance between groups of students, the achievement gap, is a major reason on why students do not feel prepared to enter college.
Unequal levels of funding promotes disparity in the education system. “In many places in the U.S. school funding is based mainly on local property taxes. Thus schools in districts with a large number of well-to-do people have more funds per student than schools in districts with a large number of people in poverty,” according to Alfinio Flores author of Examining Disparities in Education in Education: Achievement Gap or Opportunity Gap. Most states educational programs do not incorporate methods of adequate funding. “Funding differences in the United States generate huge disparities in the quality of school buildings, facilities, curriculum, equipment for instruction, teacher experience and qualifications, class sizes, presence of auxiliary professionals, and other resources”(Biddle, Berliner). The U.S. should implement how other successful nations fund their school systems which is by providing equal per student funding from tax revenues. Since low income districts do not get equal opportunities like resources, teachers, curriculum, and etc. they are less likely to succeed in college.
Budget cuts in secondary schools is another contributor to the achievement gap and why students feel unprepared for college. State funding decreased significantly during the 2008 Great Recession, despite the ten year comeback, most states are continuing to spend less than they did during the recession. “At least 31 states provides less state funding per student in the 2014 school year than in the 2008 school year, before the recession took hold”(Leachman).These budget cuts are negatively affecting secondary school districts like underpaying teachers, cutting programs like PE and art, and increasing class sizes. Budget cuts affect the quality of secondary school education, which later negatively impacts the success of students.
Cultural barriers is another disadvantage contributing to the achievement gap. Every student learns differently, yet teachers continue to teach the same “uniformity” without considering diversity.“Multicultural education research suggests that learning styles may be related to ethnicity in multiple ways”(Benson). Social encounters, linguistic, and cognitive styles are different from culture to culture. For example, many Mexican-American children experience language difficulty which affects the learning process unfavorably (Dunn, Griggs, &Price, 1993,p.240). Like the language barrier, understanding cultural differences is vital to give every child an opportunity to succeed. Sadly, many of Black and Hispanic students have reported barriers relating to discrimination. “Department of Education statistics show that black children are almost four times as likely to be suspended from school as white children, and are almost twice as likely to be expelled”(Kirk). This problem leads to dropout rates increasing for minorities affecting the outcome of their future. Barriers in intercultural communication and subconscious prejudices are to blame for this problem.
Standardized tests have been used to measure students academic preparation for higher education since the 1800s. Opponents blame standardized tests for one of the reasons the education system is failing. Many teachers believe using standardized tests is unfair and encourages teachers to “teach to the test”, which reduces core curriculum. Teachers feel pressured to cover mostly test topics rather than covering core curriculum. As a result, students are less ready to enter the next grade prepared for its coursework and expectations. “But now, federal funding hinges on test results. It started with President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, which requires states to rate schools based on test results in order to receive federal funds”(Kastenbaum).With that said, students in low scoring districts receive less funding than high scoring districts contributing to educational inequalities. Receiving funding due to high test scores is one-sided because standardized tests do not accurately measure intelligence or abilities. In 2013, Secretary of Education said, “State assessments in Mathematics and English often fail to capture the full spectrum of what students know and can do.” There are more efficient ways to calculate performance than just standardized tests.
A weak common core curriculum system is another reason why students are not prepared for college. The common core was created to help American high school students graduate better prepared for career and college, but there seems to be many flaws in the system. The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) found that there has been little to no improvement in test scores from states that have implemented the common core program. According to NAEP, the most common problems are it follows a “one size fits all” approach, it is state centered not student centered, and it forgets about the basics. While the common core had good intentions it failed to understand all the logistics involved in creating a universal core curriculum.
I was personally drawn to this topic after tutoring high school students my first two years of college at San Rafael High School. I would help students both in the classroom and after school. One of the first things I noticed was that every classroom was filled with more than twenty college banners. I could tell that going to college was the main message being promoted. So many students asked me questions about college like if college was hard or how I prepared for college. Most San Rafael students future goals included attending college. One thing I found interesting is that when I asked ten students why they wanted to go to college eight out of ten said “to make more money”. I hoped more would say they were attending college because they were passionate about a career path or that they enjoyed learning. Another thing that surprised me was that most of my students looked down at other alternatives like trade school or community college. I specifically remember one student telling me he had to go to college because he didn’t want to be a loser. This made me a little upset because not every student is college material.
Coming from a college preparatory high school that was constantly challenging me I found it startling how behind most of my students were. Unfortunately, I noticed that most of the students struggling were Hispanic American. One of my jobs was editing papers and I was shocked by the common grammatical errors like the incorrect spelling on basic words like “because” and the incorrect usage of“their” and “there”. According to Mrs. Hartland, the teacher I was working with, more than half of her students were not at high school level. Mrs. Hartland said most students were at fifth or sixth grade reading and writing level. She believed it was because the government kept changing the curriculum and that the freshman and sophomore classes felt the changes the most. One positive change in curriculum for San Rafael High School has been the introduction of the AVID program. “(AVID) or Advancement Via Individual Determination is a non-profit organization that provides professional learning for educators to improve readiness for all students, especially those traditionally underrepresented in higher education”(Pannoni). San Rafael High School has seen college acceptance rates improve as well as high school completion since AVID was introduced. After seeing the achievement gap firsthand I wondered how many other high school students felt unprepared. I knew that students are not properly being prepared for college after doing research and finding out only 50 percent of U.S. students feel prepared.
My time tutoring at San Rafael High school impacted me on a more personal level than I expected. As a child learning was difficult for me. Reading and math was a constant struggle. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to come from a family that could afford years of tutoring and seeing a learning disabilities specialist. Like many kids I based my worth off of my academics. I know what it feels like to be behind and wanting to succeed academically like everyone else. Every student I tutored wanted to succeed but just didn’t have the same resources due to socioeconomic reasons I became really passionate about educational equality because I want everyone to be able to have resources like I did to academically succeed in school.
Several changes need to be made in order for the achievement gap to start closing. Additional learning opportunities is one strategy that I believe will be beneficial. Like after school tutoring programs and peer support. Another strategy is to offer students extensive support. For example, identifying which students are struggling and offering additional help. By monitoring students performance regularly students can get the help they need before falling too far behind. Also, using different teaching styles will help accommodate to all diverse learning styles. These are easy strategies that can be easily implemented to improve the gap.
According to The National Education Association, assess to qualified staff, adequate resources, and enhancing cultural competence are more difficult strategies for closing the achievement gap. Access to qualified staff would mean improving teacher education programs and hiring high quality staff. Accessing adequate resources is the most difficult strategy, which would involve seeking federal, state, and private funding. Lastly enhancing cultural competence would mean increasing faculty’s understanding of students different cultures and abilities. Fixing the gap will take more time and research. Each year I hope education equality becomes more achievable. A better education makes for a better tomorrow.
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