Des Moines Register
08-26-07
Poor college readiness a wake-up call
Require rich, rigorous curriculum to better prepare students.
Iowa is failing to prepare most youngsters for college.
The proof? Recent news from ACT that just 28 percent of Iowa students scored
high enough on the college-entrance exam to be considered ready to handle
college classes in all four basic subjects.
This is the breakdown: 78 percent are likely to be prepared for English
composition and 61 percent for social sciences. Only 50 percent understand
algebra well enough. Thirty-six percent have gotten biology down.
And, again, less than a third are prepared in all four subjects.
So it's ill-advised to be too proud of Iowa's second-in-the-nation ranking, behind
Minnesota, for average composite ACT scores among states where more than
half of students take the test.
Not when the reality is that many of our kids graduate from high school lacking
some of the knowledge and skills to do well in college. That limits their career
choices and hurts their potential to be competitive in a global economy.
It also assures Iowa will turn out too few engineers and scientists, who are key to
a thriving state work force.
Iowa's elected officials, educators, business leaders and parents need to pay far
more attention to this crisis. Iowa collectively has taken some steps, but not with
urgency.
The 2006 Legislature for the first time mandated broad high school graduation
requirements. And the state has been developing a model core curriculum. The
catch: School districts aren't required to use it.
Numerous other efforts are under way, some statewide, some local, to figure out
how to better prepare Iowa's high school students. It adds up to lots of wheels
spinning, but with no assurance that all Iowa students will benefit no matter
where they live.
To guarantee equity, the single most important change needed is for the state to
adopt a rich, rigorous required core curriculum for all primary and secondary
grades, with matching assessments. The standards this curriculum is designed to
meet must be aligned with what colleges expect. Another key: providing ample
training for teachers.
It's also critical to attract more top math and science teachers, who are in short
supply.
University of Northern Iowa President Ben Allen, who is overseeing a new math
and science education initiative by the three state universities, said, "We need
to somehow increase the awareness of the magnitude of this issue."
"A change in how we pay and reward math and science teachers, the number of
school districts we should have, and quite honestly, how we prepare math and
science teachers ... is also clearly needed," Allen said.
He convened an Iowa Mathematics and Science Education Summit July 11 in
Cedar Falls. It produced a consensus call for a "uniform, challenging curriculum."
Iowans also should watch for a breakdown of ACT scores by school, expected
next month. It's essential to learn from districts having the most success.
Said ACT's Ed Colby: "Our data suggest that Iowa college-bound students by
and large are better prepared than the national average, but at the same time
many students still lack the skills they need to succeed, particularly in math and
science. It's a very serious problem."
ACT's recommendation: Specify not only the number of core courses high school
students must take, but which courses.
Iowa's overall ACT score was up slightly over 2006, but that's not terribly
encouraging when so many students aren't ready for college. And college-bound
or not, all students deserve an education that is the envy of the world. They're not
getting one now.