Slate – Laura Moser
“High-school graduation rates continue to tick upward, reaching a high of 82 percent in the 2013–2014 school year, though there’s plenty of reason to question what exactly is behind those record numbers. Are more kids finishing high school because they’re ready to take on the proverbial real world, or are they finishing high school because their schools are under pressure to hand out more diplomas? A study released Tuesday by the Education Trust, a civil rights organization that focuses on equity in education…found that while more kids are graduating, only a small fraction of those graduates are leaving school adequately prepared for whatever comes next. According to the study, only 8 percent of recent graduates have taken a “foundational set of courses they’d need to be both college- and career-ready.”…as more and more states adopt official “college and career-ready standards,” high schools must work harder to meet those standards. This report does a fine job of showing just how far we have to go on this front.”(more)