Joan I noticed your post where you said, "Keep in mind, these are just the
kids who are in college at CSU - itdoesn't include all the kids that never
even apply, or who go to two year colleges first. As we get deeper into
the information age, our primary and high schools are failing us. Who
will we have to hire in 10 years? Thoughts?"
The condition and future of our society concerns me. For me, some
questions that lend perspective to the percentages of freshmen "not ready
for college" include: What are comparable figures for 60s, 70s, and 80s?
Were these students attempting to attend college in previous decades?
For me, a key issue is all of the factors in our society is the growing
numbers of students who come from families and homes with limited incomes.
The number of low socio-economic students (free & reduced lunch
qualifiers) is increasing dramatically in urban school districts - not
just in the huge cities.
Most of these students start school behind. For society, to what extent
are willing to invest in education to bring these students to level of
others by the time they leave school.
More important, to me, is not the question of whether are schools are
failing us, but can our democratic society continue to exist with a large,
growing "underclass." For me, what is happening in education is a
symptom, not the underlying cause of a shortage of students well-prepared
for work.
David Wilkinson, School Improvement Specialist, email - Davidwilk@aol.com
"Des Moines Public Schools - A Tradition of Excellence"
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>