What will it take to succeed in the 21st century?
Since 2012, educators across Colorado have been establishing what a high school graduate in 2021 should be able to do, with an eye to preparing them for college and the workforce. In September, the Colorado Board of Education lowered the requirement levels for several assessment tools, leading to some questions.
“It’s confusing, after this wave of reform to increase standards, it seems to be being dismantled,” said Superintendent Dan Snowberger of Durango School District 9-R. “Colorado had been watched by the rest of the country for setting high standards, and now they see what we’re doing.”
Durango’s school board is planning to reach higher, Snowberger said. The district’s target is graduating high school seniors who are remediation-free, whether they elect to attend college or vocational training or enter the workforce or the military. That was the original goal of the 2021 standards for students who enter high school in 2017.
The lower state standards were a bit of a surprise, leaving Snowberger particularly concerned about the future of students in rural and poorer school districts.
In 2013, the board had originally approved the standards it thought would achieve the readiness goal. As recently as July, it was still holding to those standards. In the meantime, seven different working groups had met with stakeholders from numerous interested groups – educators, students, military representatives, state departments of Labor and Higher Education, and employers – to further evaluate the standards, said Misti Ruthven, director of post-secondary readiness for the CDE.
School districts are required to only meet the standards for graduation but may elect to set higher goals for their individual districts, she said.
“The standards are a floor, not a ceiling,” Board President Steve Durham said at the Sept. 9 meeting where the lower standards were approved.
That may not be enough, Snowberger said.
“There are no incentives to get districts to raise the standards,” he said. “If you set the bar low, they’ll hit the low. If you set the bar high, they’ll hit it high.”
What has changed?
The state board eliminated the science standard. It wasn’t because board members think graduates don’t need scientific knowledge and thinking skills, Ruthven said. The board asked Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman to review the statute that gives the board the authority to set standards, and she advised them that they only have authority over English and math. She did not know if the board would set a legislative priority for trying to get authority for science and social studies standards.
The board lowered the acceptable score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery from 50 to 31, the minimum allowed for entrance into the military. For many students, the military can provide a career, but it can also, for short-term enlistments, provide experience, training and education. Ruthven said a working group talked to military officials about the scores, and they were told a 50 is the minimum for people qualifying to train to be an officer.
That’s a little different from what was said by 1st Sgt. Jeremy Ansell, center leader at the Army Recruiting Center in Durango.
The overall ASVAB score covers only English and math, he said, measuring basic abilities needed for all enlistees. Composite line scores on other sections of the test measure aptitudes such as electrical, mechanical and information technology.
“I only had a 32 on the ASVAB when I enlisted,” Ansell said. “I tested well on mechanical and came in as a mechanic-wheel. I took a study course to raise my ASVAB because I wanted to change my job.”
Ansell raised his score to 77, which first allowed him to work on highly technical Patriot missile systems and was also high enough to allow him to reach his ultimate goal of becoming a recruiter.
“Students who score a 31 on the ASVAB will only be qualified for the infantry,” Snowberger said more bluntly. “That’s not enough if they want to learn a skill.”
The board lowered the acceptable Advanced Placement Score from 3+ in English, math, science and social studies to a 2 in English and math. A 2, Ruthven said, shows they’re ready to succeed in college.
Ruthven’s not wrong on that front, Fort Lewis College Provost Barbara Morris said.
“Generally, students who have been enrolled in AP classes are more successful students in college,” she said. “Even if they only got a 2 or didn’t even take the test, typically, they’re more successful.”
But an acceptable score of 2 eliminates one of the main reasons many high school students take AP courses. Most colleges require at least a score of 3 to award college credit for a subject, which can save tuition and time at the college level, Snowberger said.
abutler@durangoherald.com
9-R draft graduation standards (PDF)
By the numbers
Currently happening with high school students in Colorado:
76.9 percent graduate.
10,664 drop out of high school every year, which will cost them an estimated total of $3.8 billion in lifetime earnings.
Not only will they earn less, high school dropouts cost society an average of $300,000 each in support services over their lifetime, about $3.2 billion for those 10,664 students.
37 percent need remedial classes in college.
38 percent participate in career and technical education classes.
By 2020, three out of four jobs in Colorado will require education or training beyond high school, about 3 million jobs Colorado employers are already unable to find enough workers to fill in some manufacturing, health, technology and science-based industries because graduating students are not prepared to be successful in those jobs.
