The continuous effort to better prepare students for college is facing a hurdle in the state of Oregon.
A report
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published this month examining how well colleges and high schools coordinate to prepare students for post-secondary education placed Oregon near the bottom of the pack.
“Closing the Expectations Gap,” the 2008 edition of the annual report, focused primarily on alignment, the process of high school standards and graduation requirements coordinating with college and workplace expectations.
In-state University freshmen reported feeling unprepared for the dramatic academic difference between high school and college, but don’t place all the blame on high school curricula.
“The shock of coming here and actually having to go to class and do all my homework – it was incredibly hard for me to do that,” said freshman Ruth Murphy. “But it was partially my fault because you get what you want out of school.”
Murphy graduated last year from Woodrow Wilson High School in Portland. Although she took Advanced Placement classes and tests, college preparation isn’t something Murphy spent a lot of time thinking about – she was able to “skate through” high school.
“Wilson stepping it up at all probably would have helped, but (alignment) sounds like it would help to get kids prepared for the amount of work you have when you come here,” Murphy said.
The national non-profit organization Achieve publishes the annual alignment report. Each edition reports on individual state progress and projected policy implementations for the coming years. Oregon, along with 18 other states, has put no policies in place since 2006. It is, however, in the planning stages of two key areas: aligning high school graduation requirements with college expectations, and implementing college readiness tests – exams testing students on more advanced material than normal high school tests. Readiness tests would ideally give students a feel for whether they are prepared for college.
Freshman Rebecca Dunn strongly opposes the readiness tests; she said all they will do is increase students’ anxiety during an already stressful time.
“I think it could discourage a lot of kids from trying to go to college,” Dunn said.
Oregon schools anticipate official coordination of high school standards with college expectations by next year, which would involve the K-12 and post-secondary education systems formally collaborating in order for states “to anchor their K-12 standards in the skills necessary for success after graduation,” according to the report.
Virginia Farkas, co-coordinator of the College/Career Center at South Eugene High School, strongly supports a universal alignment policy in Oregon.
“I think colleges and high schools can only benefit if they work together, but it needs to be a partnership, not colleges telling high school what to do,” said Farkas. “In order to be successful you need to articulate up and down.”
University freshman Maija Teppola, a Newberg High School graduate, thought the transition from high school was easy: Her first term grades were all A’s and a B-plus. But Teppola admitted she is a “weird case”; she said her high school classes were more difficult than the ones she’s taking now.
“It’s the choice of how hard you want the good grades,” she said. “I wanted them enough to not spend every second with my friends. It’s your attitude when you go into college.”
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