Article

Thursday, October 26, 2006 • BY JOHN MOONEY • Star-Ledger Staff

The numbers are sobering.

Only a quarter of New Jersey high school graduates who attend in-state colleges go on to get a degree in six years, and at least a third of them need remedial courses. At some colleges, almost every incoming student needs a remedial class or two.

Business leaders say high schools are not meeting the workforce needs of tomorrow, and politicians like Gov. Jon Corzine have joined the call to ramp up the rigor of high schools, including required math and science classes.

"Today's kindergartners, when they graduate, 84 percent of the jobs will require post-secondary education," said Dana Egreczky, vice president of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. "If only a quarter of our graduates are getting a degree, who is going to get those jobs?"

But as the sweeping national proposal known as the American Diploma Project gets rolled out in forums across New Jersey this month, the hurdles to reforming the system are becoming apparent.

Dover High School's principal, Elaine Simpson, attended one of the forums last week, and said she was supportive of the initiative. Simpson pointed to Dover's own partnership with County College of Morris to offer college-level biology and English composition classes.

But in this working-class community in Morris County, just half the eighth-graders pass the state's current math test and elevating those scores will require a lot of work long before high school. And, Simpson wondered, would there be enough hours in the day?

"We're up for the challenge, and certainly support the increase in rigor, absolutely," said Simpson. "But you can't just keep adding on. Something has to be sacrificed, and who's to say what should go?"

Now endorsed by New Jersey and 25 other states, the American Diploma Project is the brainchild of a group of business and political leaders who sought to lay out a prescribed formula for lifting the achievement of high school students.

Included are English and writing standards that range from learning about literature to mastering practical skills in communication and research. More noteworthy are a set of math and science standards that would be a big step up for many schools, including requirements for physics and chemistry and geometry.

A central premise is that whether a student is bound for college or a career, the needs are the same.

"We can't have a college track for some students and a lesser track for everyone else," said state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy, who was in Atlantic City yesterday making the pitch to school boards and administrators gathered for an annual convention. "The demands have really converged."

Traversing the state, the coalition of business and political leaders has met with educators to present the plan, with future forums also planned for the general public. The most recent session was held last week at the County College of Morris, and about 100 teachers, principals and administrators attended.

Few argued with the need for improvements, but how to achieve them was up for debate. Some asked where foreign languages or even social studies fit into the mix that appears to focus on science and math. Others worried about students with disabilities, and some asked if there would be added state funding to pay for the new teachers and training.

During a high school visit last week, Corzine said New Jersey doesn't have much time to waste. Pledging to commit an unspecified amount of funding to the effort -- part of a long list of promised education initiatives -- the governor cited a recent study that once again placed American students behind other industrialized nations in math and science.

"It is unacceptable for the future of the country, the future of the state," he said. "I hope that it is more than just an objective. We need to take seriously that we have to change the basic learning opportunities for our children."

But school officials from Morris Hills Regional Schools came with their own report, questioning the goal of mandating a standard set of skills and knowledge.

"Are we really saying that every student needs high school physics?" Morris Hills superintendent Ernest Palestis said in an interview. "It really seems a one-track system. ... Whatever happened to the rounded child?"

Palestis joined others in arguing that no high school reform will work without first reforming the middle and elementary systems.

"Recommending high school reform in a vacuum doesn't work," he said. "You talk to me about K-12 reform, and I'll jump on board."

State officials agree the reforms need to include the earlier grades and pledged no earthshaking timetable. A recent survey of high schools found only about 35 of the more than 350 schools reporting they already meet the model's requirements.

Davy said the state's standards would first be adjusted to meet the project's goals, and then state tests would change. She said she is leaning toward a system of end-of-course exams for each subject, as opposed to the state's current single test given in the spring of junior year.

"We're not going to move next year to testing children in Algebra II or else they don't get a diploma," Davy said. "It has to be done incrementally, and in a way that is reasonable and has some common sense attached to it."

The state already has a hefty task to get students up to current standards.

Last year, more than 13,200 students couldn't pass the standard high school exam and had to take a less rigorous alternative test known as the Special Review Assessment to get their diplomas, state officials said.

That is down from 14,000 the year before, but still far more than the handful that the SRA was initially intended to help. The state Board of Education has promised to end the SRA, starting with the Class of 2010, but not without some alternative and support for those students still falling short.

"The idea that 13,000 couldn't pass what is the equivalent of a middle school-level test should be frightening to all of us," Davy said.

State studies plan to bolster standards in high schools

Return to Articles page