Is 10th-grade graduation the answer to the dropout crisis?

• Author: Lybbert, Blair E.
• Position: Education

VOLUMES have been written discussing the critical need for improving the U.S. educational system. In 1983, "A Nation At Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" focused political decisionmakers on the necessity of reframing public education into an accountability model that would result in significant improvements. States, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, began to implement standardized testing accompanied by public reporting of school progress.

Few would argue that the accountability movement has not provided the momentum for school improvement over the past two decades. By 2001, No Child Left Behind legislation at the national level ensured that all states receiving Federal funds would meet requirements for standardized testing, teacher qualifications, and funding priorities.

Those of us who trace our educational careers back to the pre-accountability days of the 1970s can recall a time when students regularly failed multiple high school classes and still participated in sports and extracurricular activities. A number of students who graduated from high school barely could read or write. However, those days are behind us, as schools, districts, and state and Federal agencies continue to implement higher academic standards. In the past 20 years, the accountability movement has, without question, raised the bar for student achievement.

In addition to higher academic standards, the push for better schools has enlisted a wide array of other interventions, including, but not limited to, instructional strategies, curriculum alignment, effective leadership principles, better teacher preparation, the use of best practices, improved communication, parent/community involvement, and, of course, the overriding reliance on data driven decisionmaking. These efforts, combined with accountability, have made public education significantly improved, as well as much better than some critics would allow. Still, while it is true that education has gotten better, many students have not enjoyed high levels of success, or even remained in school.

All of these initiatives have one characteristic in common: they seek to implement reforms that will introduce positive change to the system without fundamentally redesigning the system to meet the needs of all students. For high-achieving students, the new standards and testing represent another opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities.

Higher standards, however, are a two-edged sword and, as academic rigor increases, more and more students find themselves unable to meet the new, and continually changing, requirements.

The obvious and unavoidable result...