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BY LISA TREI High school seniors beware: A diploma may not be enough to prepare for college because graduation requirements are often lower than the academic standards demanded by higher education institutions. A nationwide lack of coordination in the transition from secondary to post-secondary education is a key finding by university researchers in a report released March 4 titled Betraying the College Dream: How Disconnected K-12 and Postsecondary Education Systems Undermine Student Aspirations. "We expected to see inequalities but we didn't expect it to be so stark," said Stanford researcher Andrea Venezia, a report co-author. The report, published by the Bridge Project of the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research, is based on six years of research in six states -- California, Illinois, Georgia, Maryland, Oregon and Texas. The project concludes that more students than ever plan to enter college but many are set up to fail because they lack basic information about the standards required. "Our K-12 and college systems currently move in separate orbits," said education Professor Michael Kirst, a co-author of the report. "This research clearly shows that it's the students who are being left behind. And primarily, it's the students at broad-access institutions who fare the worst." Broad-access institutions, which include state universities and community colleges, enroll about 80 percent of the nation's students. Unlike selective universities such as Stanford, broad-access institutions have few admission requirements. But they still demand that entering freshmen have solid academic skills to qualify for college-level classes -- a fact that catches many first-year students unaware. For example, in California, high school students must complete a minimum of three years of English and two years of mathematics to graduate. But the state's four-year schools require applicants to have finished four years of English and three years of mathematics. "K-12 schools say their primary mission is to get students to graduate," said education Assistant Professor Anthony Lising Antonio, a report co-author. "The more economically strapped districts and schools talk about the difficulties of just keeping kids in school, let alone preparing them for college." But lack of preparation forces students to take remedial courses at college and contributes to poor completion rates as students become frustrated and drop out, the report states. Low-income and minority students are most affected by the lack of coordination between the two education systems, the report found. But students and parents from all socioeconomic groups can be confused by issues related to college preparation. "Many honors and college prep courses in high school are not enough for college," Venezia said. A disconnected system exists because higher education and K-12 schools traditionally developed autonomously from one another, Venezia said. "This is a legacy left over from times past when we used to have a very elitist postsecondary system," she said. "But when you have 90 percent of students say they want to go to college, it doesn't make sense." About 70 percent of high school graduates actually go to college within two years of graduating, the researchers found. "We are in a society where attending college is the norm," Antonio said. "Aspirations are very high but students are finding themselves ill prepared." The 60-page report lists student misconceptions about college. For example, many students believe that getting into college is the hardest aspect of pursuing a higher education, whereas, for the majority of students, the most challenging part is actually graduating. Another myth is that it is better to take easier classes in high school and get better grades. In fact, one of the best predictors of college success is taking rigorous high school classes, the report found. According to Kirst, education reformers want reauthorization of the Higher Education Act -- which funds the federal government's major student aid programs -- amended to include some kind of accountability system strengthening the connection between students transitioning from K-12 schools to college. Outreach programs, which mainly recruit for selective institutions, should be expanded to include community colleges, Kirst added. The Bridge Project's website at http://bridgeproject.stanford.edu includes a "toolkit" to help states not included in the study to analyze their high school graduation and college entry-level policies. The researchers also plan to publish a handbook in 2004 that will help parents and students with college preparation.
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Michael Kirst
Andrea Venezia
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Stanford Report, March 12, 2003
