Professor of economics and education Henry Levin (2006) identifies links between high school graduation and quality of life. While analyzing the effects of failing to complete high school, he finds that minority students and students of poverty have much lower graduation rates than the U.S. average. In fact, African American and Latino students graduate from high school at a rate slightly above 50 percent (compared to the national graduation rate of 70 percent), while economically disadvantaged students graduate at a rate of 63 percent. He finds that adults without a high school diploma are twice as likely to be unemployed as high school graduates. The life expectancy of a high school dropout as compared to a graduate is 9.2 years lower, and the average sixty-five-year-old high school graduate is in better health than the average forty-five-year-old high school dropout. Finally, a 2014 Brookings Institution report finds that 70 percent of those sitting in U.S. prisons are high school dropouts (Kearney & Harris, 2014). In the words of the crew aboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft, “Houston, we have a problem!” The youth who need education most to provide a catalyst for creating positive change in their lives are those who persistently achieve at the lowest levels in our schools.
Trends have shown that student academic outcomes have not improved for society’s most vulnerable students. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a report in March of 2014 that delivers somber news. The report, Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2013–14 School Year, includes findings from every U.S. public school, totaling about forty-nine million students (OCR, 2014a). Following are some of the key findings.
• Among high schools serving the highest percentage of African American and Latino students, one in three do not offer a single chemistry course, and one in four do not offer a course more advanced than algebra 1.
• In schools that offer “gifted and talented” programs, African American and Latino students represent 40 percent of students but only 26 percent of those enrolled in such programs.
• African American, Latino, and impoverished students attend schools with higher concentrations of first-year teachers than do white students.
• Students with disabilities are more than twice as likely to be suspended from school as those without disabilities.
• African American students are suspended and expelled from school at a rate more than three times as high as white students (16 percent versus 5 percent).
Student performance in mathematics and reading has always been an acceptable measure of student progress in school. One measure, which has been widely accepted as objective, is the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which it administers to students in grades 4, 8, and 12 from a random selection of students in all fifty states. It is also known as the Nation’s Report Card because it provides scholars, practitioners, and lawmakers with a broad picture of educational trends in the United States. The assessment shows that the academic achievement of African American, Latino, and impoverished students has steadily improved over a twenty-year period of time (Lee, 2014). But, the assessment also shows that the gains are not outpacing the growth of other student groups, so the gaps are still very large. The 2011 NAEP results reveal that the average score of African American and Latino students in fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics and reading compared to white students is over twenty points lower, equivalent to performing over two grade levels behind. The twelfth-grade scores reveal a gap of over forty points in mathematics and reading, equivalent to over four grade levels behind, resulting in what is popularly called the four-year gap—meaning that the average African American and Latino high school senior has mathematics and reading skills equivalent to the skills of an average white eighth grader (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2015).
Challenges of the 21st Century
As journalist and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman (2005) acknowledges in his book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, the 21st century landscape has changed. Foreign competition, especially in the areas of technology and science, has increased substantially. As corporations struggle to find educated and skilled workers, they are looking to the shores of foreign nations more and more. Friedman (2005) points to the increase in technology worldwide as a catalyst for a world without borders. The Internet, satellites, and global technology have made it possible for workers to utilize their talents from a foreign shore without ever setting foot in the United States.
What does this mean for the American economy? Corporations, by nature, seek to be profitable. They want to maximize productivity and minimize expenses. The days of industrial plants filled with high-paying, low-skill jobs are over. The safety net for those who occupy the lowest space on the educational and societal bell curve is gone. Companies are seeking employees who have academic skills, common sense, and social skills, and if they have to recruit overseas to accomplish this, they are willing to do so. Nations like India and China are providing workers who have the kind of skills that companies want, and they are increasing their recruitment efforts globally in order to fill this need (Majumdar, 2013).
This is especially bad news for the United States’ poor and disenfranchised. With more skilled workers making their entrance into the global workforce, education is more critical than ever. As the data show, opportunities are already limited for poor and minority citizens in the United States, and globalization signifies more of the same. By the year 2020, 65 percent of American jobs will require some form of postsecondary education (Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2010).
We should never consider education a luxury; it is a necessity, especially for children in poor and minority communities. It may be their only chance at a better life. So why are the schools that serve these students, on average, in the worst condition, and why do they have the lowest levels of funding and academic achievement? School funding for the typical urban public school is on average 30 percent less than suburban schools that serve primarily white middle-class students. In fact, a group of students from the Chicago Public Schools boycotted the first day of school in protest of the huge funding disparity between the per-pupil funding in Chicago ($10,400) and the nearby suburban district of New Trier Township ($17,000) (Sadovi, 2008).
So what does all this mean for American schools? It means that they have to respond like never before. Michael Fullan (2003) writes in The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, “The best case for public education has always been that it is a common good. Everyone, ultimately has a stake in the caliber of schools, and education is everyone’s business” (p. 14). The United States built its reputation and status worldwide on the backs of its citizens’ ingenuity and work ethic. With other nations now seeking to distinguish themselves among the world’s elite, how will our schools respond? Do we simply believe that we are entitled to world admiration, or will our schools and our society rise to the occasion and produce better results—more skilled and focused students?
If the United States is to maintain its position in the world, the quality of education and academic skills of its students must improve. In addition, more students—not just white, middle-class, and affluent students—have to develop educationally so that America can continue to compete and be a viable force in our new global economy. Racism and class bias cannot be obstacles that interfere with education but unfortunately, they are. “Education for all” is not just a liberal rant; it is a matter of survival for everyone, but especially those groups that have been pushed into the margins of society.
There are examples of societies that have accepted the challenge to improve the educational experiences of their students and achieved great success. Finland, a northern European nation, moved from relative educational obscurity in the 1980s, to an educational powerhouse. Pasi Sahlberg (2011), an official with