Upgrade school curricula, experts say

Many grads unprepared for work, college

By CECILIA LE / The News Journal   04/27/2005

DOVER -- Delaware's high schools belong to another era.

The state's schools, and most around the nation, better suit an age when a high school diploma promised a solid job, it was acceptable to shunt lower-achieving students along an easy path and higher math skills were for the elite.

That was the warning of national education reformists who spoke Tuesday at a state Board of Education summit on improving Delaware's secondary schools.

"It's time to rethink what a high school should be," Joe DiMartino, director of the Secondary School Redesign Education Alliance at Brown University, told the gathering of about 260.

The state of high schools is dominating the national education agenda. Bill Gates recently told a gathering of state governors that high schools are "obsolete." President Bush wants to expand annual standardized testing to high school.

A report by Achieve Inc. says Delaware's standards and course requirements are inadequate to prepare students for work or college.

Delaware requires a student pass 22 credits to graduate, including four years of high school English, three years of math and three of science. But, like more than half of states, Delaware simply states the number of courses to take, not what they should be.

Delaware State University requires Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II, and the University of Delaware demands two lab courses in science.

Most vocational careers, such as tool and die making and sheet metal work, also require specific higher math skills. The market share of jobs that require only high school diplomas fell from 32 percent in 1973 to 9 percent in 2001, DiMartino said.

Therefore, thousands of students are emerging from high schools with diplomas in hand but without the skills needed to go on in life, said Michael Cohen of Achieve.

"The majority say if they knew then what they know now, they would have taken more rigorous courses," Cohen said. "Why aren't we telling them what they need to be taking? It's like we're keeping it a secret. Nobody's telling students what they really need to learn."

Achieve, a business-backed education group based in Washington, D.C., says all students need a college-prep curriculum that includes four years of grade-level English and three years of math including Algebra II.

Although the reform movement has met resistance from those who say not all children have the skills to do college-level work - and that forcing them along that track will cause only frustration and more dropouts - Delaware plans to toughen its graduation requirements. The Department of Education is working on a proposal that could possibly affect entering freshmen this fall.

Superintendents at the summit said some Delaware schools already are toughening their high schools.

In Milford, students need 27 credits to graduate instead of the state minimum of 22. Last year's graduates were the first to follow the tougher requirements. Specific math classes are required, but like in most districts, Algebra II is mandated only for "academic," or college-bound, students.

In Christina, the district is eliminating its basic-level courses next year and having all students take college-prep courses. At-risk students will be supported with extra seminar classes.

"This is about a war against low expectations for students," said Christina Superintendent Joseph Wise. "Who's going to decide who can do college-prep math and who can't do college-prep math? If some [teacher's] value system is that certain kids can't learn, guess how that teacher is going to perform with them?"

Parent leaders at the summit also met to brainstorm about how to improve parent-school communication.

"It seems like when you get to high school, it all drops off," said Merrie Pritchett, whose daughter is a freshman at A.I. du Pont High School.

Nelson Graciano, who has two daughters at Christiana High School, stressed the need for Spanish-speaking parent liaisons in each school.

"They want to get involved in the child's education, but they think, 'What am I going to do? If I go to the school, no one will speak the same language as me.' "

Contact Cecilia Le at 324-2794 or cle@delawareonline.com.

© 2005 delawareonline.com/The News Journal