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Jack Pecora
Mrs. Cramer
College Readiness
1/20/2017
How Prepared are High-Schoolers for College?

High-school students are not looking too promising, at least the ones

headed for higher-lever education such as college. This is a new trend we are

starting to see in American students. Many professionals and intelligent

individuals are seeing this trend occur within the youth of America. There are

many reasons that attribute to the massive amounts of unprepared and

undeveloped students heading for college. For starters, we are going to look

at how a recently retired high school teacher feels about the situation.

Kenneth Bernstein is an award-winning high school teacher who just

retired wants to warn college professors about the upcoming students. He

talks about how unprepared these college-bound students are for college. He

starts off by saying "I have some bad news for you. In case you do not

already see what is happening, I want to warn you of what to expect from the

students who will be arriving in your classroom, even if you teach in a highly

selective institution." The main point he pushes is that No Child Left Behind

messed up the whole student, and that it is the main reason for this lack of

excellence from students. The baseline testing scores that were imposed by

No Child Left Behind start in the third grade, and the new students coming to

college have been subject to the full extent of the law's requirements

(Strauss 1). Next, he talks about the lack of supplies and accessibility that

many schools do not have access to. He states this in a big way by saying "
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at the time of the teachers' strike last fall, 160 Chicago public schools had no

libraries (Strauss 2). Honestly, how are you going to learn if you can't even

get a book? Then again, most of these kids dont have the initiative in the

first place to read, because why would they when they have never been

subject to a true learning environment?

Next, we have short piece from the Hechinger Report. This article

discusses how high school standardized testing does not prepare student for

college and that it is an incorrect and obtuse baseline to judge someone off

of. They use Viktoria Mertiri, a Saint Agnes Academic High School graduate

for an example of this. "But Mertiri scored a 70 on the New York Regents

Examination, a state standardized test of core high school subjects. It was a

pleasant surprise: five pointes better than she needed to pass (Ostashevsky

1). "When she arrived at Queensborough Community College, however,

Mertiri, who is now 20, did poorly on the entrance tests and was put in

remedial classes (Ostashevsky 1)." This just goes to show that she mush

have been feeling confident after passing her state standardized test, just to

come and find that she gets put in multiple remedial classes her first

semester of college.

To me, that makes perfect sense. I know that I am not completely

prepared for college, but I am trying to do better and get ready to take it on.

I feel that the main reason why students are not prepared for college is that

schools are not strict enough, and that teachers dont teach enough.

Teachers seem like they dont care enough about the sudent's future, they
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give you a couple of sheets of paper, a couple of page numbers and all they

care about in the end is if a majority of the class passes so that they get

paid. I can see it even here in Bradford Area High School, teachers aren't as

involved with the students as they should be. They are called teachers

because they are supposed to teach, not chaperone and sit at their desk

texting. The best experience I had in high school by far was in Mr. Pattison's

Geometry class. I say this for a simple reason. He was a teacher, and a good

one at that. He would tell you what to do, when it's due and how to do it.

Straightforward and honest, he was such a great teacher and I felt like I

could actually learn in his class because he actually taught and helped his

students. This class prepared me for the rest of high school and for college

just because of the fact that I actually had the willpower to learn and

succeed under him.

My third and final point to wrap up this paper is a scientific one. Data

has shown that in recent times there is a decrease in math and reading

proficiency. The first thing I read that really hit home was the fact that only

1/3 of high school seniors are prepared for college in the areas of math and

reading (Camera 1). Statistics show that the lowest-achieving students in

American schools are performing worse than ever (Camera 2). Only 25

percent of students scored proficient or higher in math (Camera 3). The list

just goes on and on about all of the decreasing in proficiency in math and

writing. It is truly sad that these numbers are real. " a potential explanation

for the drop in scores among the poorest-achieving students is that the
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dropout rate has hit a historic low... (Camera 6). These numbers and these

facts are unbelievable, or its just the fact that I am in denial and I dont want

to believe in them.

In conclusion, high-school students are not looking too promising, at

least the ones headed for higher-lever education such as college. In the end,

its up to each and every one of us, students and teachers to band together.

We are in a time a time of embarrassment in our education system. In order

to see some change we need it to start with us. Teachers need to teach and

students need to learn. No ifs, ands, or buts. That is the way it has to be if we

want to turn this trend around and use the potential that we all have to its

full and true potential.

Bibliography

1. Strauss, Valerie. "A warning to college profs from a high school

teacher." Washingtonpost.com The Washington Post, February 9th,

2013. Web. January 18th, 2017 (Strauss)

2. Ostashevsky, Luba. "Many who pass state high school graduation tests

show up to college unprepared." Hetchinger Report. High School

Reform. February 18th, 2016. Web. January 18, 2017. (Ostashevsky)

3. Camera, Lauren. "High School Seniors Aren't College Ready."

Usnews.com U.S. News & World Report April 27th, 2016. Web. January

18th, 2017.
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