Dive Brief:
- A blog post for the Brookings Institution explores data that shows high schools may be focusing on the wrong metrics when it comes to preparing students for college.
- A 2009 review by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Science found low evidence that academic preparation of students in high school — with advanced placement classes or aligned curricula to college courses — was effective at improving classroom outcomes in college, according to the post.
- In a study of the relationship between college grades in introductory courses and high school exposure to physics, calculus, psychology, sociology, and economics, calculus was the only subject in which students’ grades mildly benefitted if they had taken the course in high school.
Dive Insight:
High schools across the country have been steering more students into Advanced Placement classes with the understanding that exposure to more rigorous coursework would eventually help students when faced with college-level classes. The International Baccalaureate foundation recently came out with data about how students who take IB courses in high school, even if just one, are more likely to graduate from high school and go to college.
The problem with data collection like this, as evidenced by the Brookings post, is that the metric of success stops with college enrollment. With national student loan debt topping $1.2 trillion and widespread recognition that debt and no degree is worse than no college at all, perhaps high schools nationwide should think harder about what it means to adequately prepare students for success in college.
The authors of the Brookings blog post recommend better tracking of student outcomes from high school to college to facilitate an analysis of what works, and they argue dropping a focus on advanced placement classes in favor of more innovative coursework could actually help students in the long run.