Report Offers New Insight Into Increasing Rigor in Nation’s High Schools

And even then, they still may not be ready for college. Unless we improve the quality and content of the core, most students will need to take additional higher-level courses to learn what they should have learned from a rigorous core.

Action Steps

The report notes that states and schools need to ensure that their core course offerings focus squarely on the essential skills students must have to be prepared for postsecondary education, that more students need to be offered the opportunity to take rigorous core courses, and that teachers must be provided with the support they need to teach these rigorous courses.

The report recommends that states:

• Specify the number and kinds of courses that students need to take to graduate from high school ready for college and work. Graduation requirements must be ratcheted up to ensure that all students take rigorous core coursework as a prerequisite to high school graduation.
• Align high school course outcomes with state standards that are driven by the requirements of postsecondary education and work. Not only must the high school curriculum be aligned with the requirements of postsecondary education, but the junior high school curriculum must reflect what is needed to be successful in high school.
• Provide teacher support by hiring qualified teachers, training current teachers in need of professional development, and assigning teachers on the basis of their qualification to teach in their subject area.
• Expand access to high-quality, vertically aligned core courses so that all courses with the same name reach a common standard of quality. In addition, all courses within a discipline should vertically align with each other so the outcomes of one course serve as the prerequisites for the next course in the sequence. All high school students must be given a real, equal, and meaningful opportunity to become ready for the challenges of postsecondary education.
• Measure results at the course level to ensure students are gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to progress to postsecondary education. Such course-level monitoring is needed so the courses can be evaluated and strengthened as needed to ensure students are being taught essential content with the appropriate degree of rigor.

The Core Curriculum: An Unfulfilled Promise

Recent research shows that while taking core courses prepares students for college, the real key to their future success lies in increasing the rigor of those courses. Without increased rigor, students who are not sufficiently prepared for college are less likely to enroll in college, are more likely to need remedial coursework during their first year of college, are less likely to succeed in their college courses, and are less likely to earn a college degree.

Our research shows that far too many students who take a core curriculum are unprepared for the challenges of first-year college coursework.

• High school graduates who take more than a minimum core curriculum meet the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks in greater—sometimes substantially greater—percentages than do graduates who take only the core. ACT-tested 2006 high school graduates who took more than the recommended core (that is, graduates who took core courses plus additional higher-level courses) met Benchmarks in percentages greater than students who took only the recommended core.
• Despite the higher percentages of students who met the College Readiness Benchmarks and took more than the recommended core, still no more than 38 percent of these students are ready for first-year college science, no more than 60 percent are ready for first-year college social science, no more than 75 percent are ready for first-year college mathematics, and no more than 77 percent are ready for first-year college English. ACT defines college readiness as having a 75 percent chance of earning a course grade of C or better or a 50 percent chance of earning a B or better in a credit-bearing entry-level college course.
• While some students make progress toward college readiness in high school, a larger percentage of students are actually failing to meet College Readiness Benchmarks, and much of this loss of momentum appears to be occurring during the last two years of high school. We examined student progress from eighth to tenth to twelfth grade by studying students in three consecutive graduating classes who were tested using all three components of ACT’s EPAS^® (Educational Planning and Assessment System): EXPLORE^®, PLAN^®, and the ACT^® test. While there is a slow but steady increase in the percentage of students meeting all four Benchmarks (from 18 to 23 percent), there is a more significant increase in the percentage of students meeting no Benchmarks (14 to 21 percent).

A Rigorous Core: Aligning the Essentials

The rigor of core courses is at risk in today’s high schools unless we align a number of the essentials for college readiness.

• State Diploma Requirements: More than half the states do not require students to take specific core courses in mathematics or science in order to graduate from high school, even though these courses have been shown to have a dramatic impact on college readiness.
• State Standards: High school teachers and college faculty disagree about how well state standards are preparing their students for college as revealed in the most recent ACT National Curriculum Survey^®.
• Secondary and Postsecondary Alignment: High school teachers and college faculty also disagree about the depth and breadth of essential state standards needed to prepare students for college.
• Course Standards: Too often, state standards do not prescribe specific essential outcomes at the course level. Ideally, state standards should delineate what students ought to know and be able to do in their high school courses in each subject area so that students have a solid foundation on which to begin the next course.
• High School Readiness: Many eighth graders begin high school without the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. One reason that improving college readiness is such a challenge for high schools is because many eighth graders enter high school without having learned the skills needed to perform well in high school. Not surprisingly, students who are not prepared for high school are even less likely to be prepared for college by the time they graduate from high school.
• High School Course Grades: Students who earn good grades in their high school courses are led to believe they are ready for college; unfortunately, many are not. Whether as a result of grade inflation or a lack of challenging course content, it is clear that course grades are not accurately reflecting what is needed to meet the challenges of a college education.
• Teacher Quality: Teacher quality has a huge impact on high school students’ readiness for college. Schools need to determine whether they are assigning the right teachers to the right core courses—and to the students who need them most.

“The time has come to improve the quality of core courses so that all students have an equal chance to be prepared for postsecondary education and for work,” said Cynthia Schmeiser, president and chief operating officer, ACT education division.

The Impact of Rigor: Real Evidence of Progress

Research shows that high school courses can be made rigorous and that rigorous content can be effectively taught and learned. ACT analyzed nearly 400 schools across the United States that have recently shown greater-than-average increases in ACT Mathematics or Science Test scores. These increases are all associated with substantial numbers of students taking course sequences that include rigorous courses in mathematics and science (Algebra II and Chemistry, respectively).

• Students who took Algebra II or Chemistry at rigorous high schools made greater gains in ACT scores than all ACT-tested students who took these courses.
• Students who took Algebra II or Chemistry at rigorous high schools met or exceeded ACT College Readiness Benchmarks in greater percentages than all ACT-tested students who took these courses.
• Students who took such critical courses as Algebra II or Chemistry at rigorous high schools had higher rates of college enrollment and college retention than did all ACT-tested students nationwide who took Algebra II or Chemistry.
• More students at rigorous schools are meeting all four Benchmarks than is seen among all ACT-tested students nationally.

“While states have made progress in establishing core curriculum requirements, it’s important that all students are prepared for college and work by the time they graduate from high school,” said Schmeiser. “We can meet the challenge.”