Beyond the Grade. Robert Lynn Canady

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Now schools are tasked with making more students college and career ready. Why? Because across all age, sex, and ethnicity categories, students who do not complete high school have a poorer chance of securing employment than those who complete high school or receive a college degree; students, along with the families they create, who never receive a high school diploma that prepares them for a career or college are almost guaranteed a life of poverty (NCES, 2008). Undereducated members of our society often suffer from poverty and many require social and health supports; and if they spend time in the justice system, the personal and societal costs are even greater (Greenberg, Dunleavy, & Kutner, 2007; NCES, 2008). That’s why it’s not an exaggeration to say that success in school is perhaps the most important factor enabling citizens to lead financially secure lives, unlike in the past. Educators are living and teaching in a time that demands adjustment. See table 1.1.

      You can see in table 1.1 that there is a 26 percent difference in the employment rates for ages twenty to twenty-four between students who do not finish high school (51.5 percent) and those who earn a bachelor’s degree or higher (77.5 percent). Even completing high school significantly improves students’ chances of securing employment, giving them a 16.6 percent advantage over students who do not complete high school.

       *Expressed as percentages of the U.S. civilian population, excluding military personnel.

      Source: NCES, 2008.

      Table 1.2 illustrates conditions in earnings and unemployment rates according to levels of educational attainment among those twenty-five and older working full time. A person is defined as unemployed if he or she does “not have a job, [has] actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and [is] currently available for work” (United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014).

Education Attained Unemployment Rate in 2015 (Percent) Median Weekly Earnings in 2015 in U.S. Dollars
Doctoral degree 1.7 1,623
Professional degree* 1.5 1,730
Master’s degree 2.4 1,341
Bachelor’s degree 2.8 1,137
Associate’s degree 3.8 798
Some college, no degree 5.0 738
High school diploma 5.4 678
Less than a high school diploma 8.0 493
All workers 4.3 860

       *Per the U.S. Department of Labor, a professional degree applies to students who have attended school full time three or more years post-bachelor’s degree.

      Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015a.

      These tables illustrate the importance of helping students complete high school and become college or career ready, since the impact of education on their employment potential and earnings is so very dramatic.

      The connection between education and employment also has an alarming effect on the U.S. economy. Education policy experts Tabitha Grossman, Ryan Reyna, and Stephanie Shipton (2011) observe the following:

      By 2018, it is expected that the United States will need 22 million new college degrees and at least 4.7 million new workers with postsecondary certificates but will produce 3 million fewer degrees than needed. Unfortunately, there is evidence to suggest that significant portions of the student population in the U.S. are insufficiently prepared for postsecondary education…. In 2011, just 25 percent of high school graduates nationwide who took the ACT standardized test scored at a level that indicates readiness for entry-level, credit-bearing college coursework without remediation in all four core subject areas. A higher percentage, about 28 percent of the U.S. students who took the ACT test met none of the readiness benchmarks. (p. 4)

      Grossman et al. (2011) have contrasted the growing demand for an educated workforce with disappointing data regarding student achievement. U.S. students’ low ranking on the ACT sounds a national alarm to educators, as well as to parents, since employment and earnings have connections to levels of educational attainment. The United States’ traditional social mobility has declined dramatically. Niall Ferguson (2011) reports the significance of these conditions in detail:

      A compelling explanation for our increasingly rigid social system is that American public education is failing poor kids. One way it does this is by stopping them from getting to college. If your parents are in the bottom quintile, you have a 19 percent chance of getting into the top quintile with a college degree—but a miserable 5 percent chance without one.

      The Benchmarking for Success report sounds similar warnings (NGA, CCSSO, & Achieve, 2008):

      The United States is falling behind other countries in the resource that matters most in the new global economy: human capital…. The U.S. ranked high in inequity, with the third largest gap in science scores between students from different socioeconomic groups. The U.S. is rapidly losing its historic edge in educational attainment as well. As recently as 1995, America still tied for first in college and university graduation rates, but by 2006 had dropped to 14th. That same year it had the second-highest college dropout rate of 27 countries. (pp. 5–6)

      According to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, “The U.S. has one of the highest college dropout rates in the industrialized world” (as cited in NGA et al., 2008, p. 11). That same report calls on state leaders to:

      Tackle “the equity imperative” by creating strategies for closing the achievement gap between students from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds in each of the action steps…. Reducing inequality in education is not only socially just, it’s essential for ensuring that the United States retain a competitive edge. (p. 6)

      It is clear that we, as educators, parents, and citizens, face new challenges in our efforts to recapture our former high rankings in educational attainment, employment opportunities, and economic stability. A critical piece of this equity imperative is adopting grading practices that are fair and clear and that give hope to students who are willing to work until their work is acceptable.

      As you’ve seen, educational attainment is closely connected to earning potential. Grades that students earn in high school are important not only for graduation rates but

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