Diploma Disconnect
Thousands of high school students graduate every year. But are they prepared?
Schools Leave Thousands of Students Underprepared
Report also examines school tax burden, declining enrollments
NEWBURGH, August 28, 2015 – As students across the region get ready to go back to school, Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress releases a new report that examines how well schools are preparing students for college and career.
The report, “Diploma Disconnect,” looks at graduation rates and Regents exam scores and notes that only 38% of students across the state, and 44% across the Hudson Valley, are considered college and career ready when they graduate. The report notes that graduation rates – 76% statewide – are much higher than rates of readiness, a fact that calls into question the meaning of a high school diploma.
“Because of the high level of investment in public education made by New Yorkers and residents of the Hudson Valley, we have been looking at school performance measurements,” said Jonathan Drapkin, president and CEO of Pattern for Progress. “We chose to focus on college and career readiness numbers because these outcomes have such far-reaching effects. If we hand students a diploma, yet they are not prepared to succeed, then it is not fair to them and it also places a burden on many other aspects of society.”
College and career readiness does not get enough attention, said Barbara Gref, vice president for education research at Pattern. The measurement in its current form has been around for five years and, across the state, the readiness rate among all New York state students has risen very little, from 37% to 38%. “As a former community college instructor,” Gref added, “I can tell you what a disservice it is to send students into the world without the skills and knowledge they need.”
As school begins once again – and as school tax bills arrive in the mail – attention is turned to this all-important public service. The report points out that New York state spends $63 billion a year on public education, which is the largest single area of expense in the state budget and that translates to the highest amount of spending per pupil in the nation. Part of the new Pattern report focuses on spending and on the property tax burden in the Hudson Valley in particular. A second section of the report provides an update on the continued decline of school enrollment in the Hudson Valley’s 112 public school districts, an issue that is tracked regularly by Pattern for Progress as part of its work on the shifting demographics of the region.