High school is a rollercoaster for most students. In the midst of trying to balance classes and extra-curricular activities, students are trying to find ourselves and where they belong. By the time senior year comes around most students have already been longing for the day they finally walk across the stage and leave their high school experience behind. Unfortunately, many students who walk off that graduation stage are not walking toward a future in higher learning. The gap between high school graduates and college freshmen has always been an alarming issue. Unfortunately, many of those who actually make it into college only come to encounter an environment they were ill prepared for. In order to address these issues, legislators passed the
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How can we begin to break down the number of unprepared high school graduates for college? Many of the individuals I graduated with believe obtaining a high school diploma is among their highest accomplishments in life, mostly because they are the first in their family to achieve a diploma of some sort. As a result, they believe it is okay to stop there, but it is not. Educating students from an early age may positively influence a larger pool of students to strive for college. It is said that those with a college degree make over $400 more a week than someone with only a high school diploma (GreatSchools). Introducing young students with information like this may encourage a path toward seeking higher learning in the future. Schools with specialized programs produce students more engaged and driven toward institutions of higher learning than your average public schools. The Education Commission of the States says that these schools with specialized programs help facilitate interactions between students and teachers. The issue with these schools is that they do not cater to students who come from low-income families (The Education Commission of the States). Introducing similar programs like this to high schools would present more students the opportunity to engage in activities geared toward higher learning. The No Child Left Behind Act was unsuccessful in achieving its main goal of placing all students in a level of proficiency by 2014. Although the intentions were positive, the real issue remains to be the gap between students graduating high school and students getting into college. Lawmakers should not be focused on pushing new curriculums into schools to obtain better scores as much as they should be focused on presenting students with programs that will interest them in learning and achieving higher education. An Irish poet by the name of William Yeats once
How can we begin to break down the number of unprepared high school graduates for college? Many of the individuals I graduated with believe obtaining a high school diploma is among their highest accomplishments in life, mostly because they are the first in their family to achieve a diploma of some sort. As a result, they believe it is okay to stop there, but it is not. Educating students from an early age may positively influence a larger pool of students to strive for college. It is said that those with a college degree make over $400 more a week than someone with only a high school diploma (GreatSchools). Introducing young students with information like this may encourage a path toward seeking higher learning in the future. Schools with specialized programs produce students more engaged and driven toward institutions of higher learning than your average public schools. The Education Commission of the States says that these schools with specialized programs help facilitate interactions between students and teachers. The issue with these schools is that they do not cater to students who come from low-income families (The Education Commission of the States). Introducing similar programs like this to high schools would present more students the opportunity to engage in activities geared toward higher learning. The No Child Left Behind Act was unsuccessful in achieving its main goal of placing all students in a level of proficiency by 2014. Although the intentions were positive, the real issue remains to be the gap between students graduating high school and students getting into college. Lawmakers should not be focused on pushing new curriculums into schools to obtain better scores as much as they should be focused on presenting students with programs that will interest them in learning and achieving higher education. An Irish poet by the name of William Yeats once