From to 8 as the high school graduation rate increased 6. This shows that states have been able improve other academic outcomes and postsecondary readiness as graduation rates have increased. In fact: Analysis of recent data from the U. Hispanic and Black students have more than doubled their postsecondary enrollment rates. The Plan identifies 22 states for accelerated action—19 states with some of the highest numbers of non-graduates, plus an additional three states with graduation rates below the national average.
Distilling the data further, half of the non- graduates in these states are found in just school districts and high schools. This marks an 11 percent increase over the previous year and an all-time high , which in part could be due to school and districts better identifying students experiencing homelessness.
For the first time in 6 years, the graduation rate for students with disabilities did not increase from to , remaining at This lack of access disproportionately impacts students experiencing homelessness and students of color, especially American Indian and Alaska Native students. Yet, the challenge is more daunting elsewhere, as 5 states will each need to graduate more than 10, additional students. During the presidential election, 4 percent of people who left high school without graduating voted compared to 24 percent of youth with only a high school diploma and 37 percent with a college degree.
In the United States, a high school diploma represents the satisfactory completion of education from kindergarten through 12th grade. The diploma typically represents the completion of coursework for grades nine through 12 in math, reading, social studies, science, and a range of elective subjects such as fine arts and physical education. A high school diploma can also, but less frequently, represent the completion of specific tests, so-called capstone—or culminating projects, internships, and other work required to complete high school.
The diploma is so important that most jobs in the United States require at least this credential as a basic prerequisite for employment. The sole requirement regarding uniformity in high school graduation is the method by which to calculate how many students receive a diploma within four—or more—years.
However, due to significant flexibility in determining who counts as a first-time ninth-grade student—which students count as transfers leaving the cohort—and what counts as graduation, there is still wide variation in what this number represents state-to-state. It is important to emphasize that this rate represents the achievement of very different requirements from one state to the next, as graduation requirements are set by each state and are sometimes even determined by the district.
The amount of study required in each high-school subject to result in the receipt of a standard diploma should meet or exceed what is required for admission to public state university systems. Since every state public university system in the United States requires a diploma from an accredited high school, having academic alignment between these systems would send a consistent signal about what it means to be college-ready. The next section of this report analyzes the amount and type of coursework and extracurricular activities needed to graduate high school with a standard high school diploma, compared with what is required for entry to the state university.
For this report, the authors only reviewed state-level high school coursework requirements needed to receive a basic, nonadvanced high school diploma. In some states, these may be the sole requirements that exist, while in others, these may be in addition to what the local school district requires. Additionally, states may have more than one pathway to the nonadvanced diploma—one for the general student population and another for students with disabilities who may need modifications in the coursework requirements.
This analysis excludes the latter. Each state administers a public university system, usually with more than one campus. The authors selected a single public, four-year university located in a major urban center in states with multiple campuses. This analysis also does not address subject-specific study pathways, a practice that includes enrolling students in specific subjects that are aligned and relevant to their chosen program of study and career goals.
Finally, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are considered states, bringing the total potential number of states to be included in this analysis to 52, though for reasons described in the methods for the amount of course study and course type analysis, several states are excluded. Coursework requirements for both high school graduation and college admissions fall into two areas: years of study required and type of coursework, or course sequence.
This section focuses on years of study. The authors organize results into three categories: less than, meets, and exceeds college expectations. To calculate the amount of study required, the authors used Carnegie units.
One Carnegie unit equals hours of class time over the course of a year. Most states already use this method, so no conversion was required. Any states not using Carnegie units were converted to the Carnegie method for this analysis.
Such states used a different numbering system to refer to hours of class time, for example, 2 units to represent hours rather than 1 or 10 units rather than 1. The years of study analysis includes all states except the following: Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. New Hampshire students are required to demonstrate mastery of specific academic subjects and courses in order to be awarded credit; for this reason, this state is included in this analysis.
While both the high school and college systems use Carnegie units to measure learning time, the number of units required varies by subject for each system.
Each state received its state data compiled for this report to review for accuracy. Years of study captures how much study students must complete in a school subject area.
Although high school from entry through graduation is typically a four-year process, students do not always have to complete four years of study in every subject to graduate. To be sure, this metric alone does not measure academic readiness because it does not account for content mastery. This is especially true when students complete courses with low grades or the academic standards on which the courses are based are not rigorous.
This analysis acknowledges that completing required units of study is just one aspect of academic learning, although it is one of the primary measures of academic attainment used by the broader U.
Table 1 provides an overview of the number of years of study required for math, English, science, social studies, foreign language, physical education, and electives to earn a basic high school diploma. Across each category of comparison—less than, meets, exceeds college expectations—select high-level results follow. There is the least alignment for the number of units required in the foreign language subject area. Almost half of states require less than college expectations when it comes to the foreign language requirement, usually two years of study.
In math, while a large majority of states meet or exceed college expectations, still nearly 1 in 5 states require less than college expectations.
It is important to note that while there seems to be a high degree of alignment in the years of study for science, there is potentially a high degree of misalignment in course type, which is further explained in the course type analysis. There is most agreement in the units required for English, where 44 states meet college expectations, usually four years of study. Finally, a majority of states exceed expectations for physical education units. Within each subject, the results are as follows for unit count alignment between high school and state college organized by the following categories: less than, meets, and exceeds college expectations.
Table 2 provides a comparison of high school graduation and state four-year public university coursework admissions requirements in math, English, science, social studies, foreign language, physical education PE , art, and electives. Table 2 shows that eight states require less units of math than their respective state four-year public university. The California and Montana public university systems require three years of math, one year more than what is required for a high school diploma.
The remaining states in this category all require four years of math for their respective public university systems while high schools in these states only require three or three and a half years of study for a high school diploma. The number of units of high school math required to earn a diploma in 29 states meet college expectations.
Nineteen of these states require three years of math for both the high school and public university systems; the remainder require four years. Finally, the number of high school math units required by 11 states exceed college expectations.
Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D. Of course, the types of math courses and the sequence in which those courses are taken matters in high school graduation and college admissions. The course type analysis below discusses these specifics. Table 2 shows that one state—California—fails to meet college expectation in years of study in English. Forty-four states meet expectations in years of English study. For these states, both the public university and high school systems require four years of English.
Finally, three states exceed college expectations in years of study of English: Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D. According to Table 2, four states require less than the number of units required of science for high school graduation than for college admissions. These four states require one full year less of science to receive a high school diploma than is required for their respective public university system admissions. Thirty-four states meet expectations of number of years of study in high school science for both systems.
Most of these states require three years of study for both the public university and high school systems. A handful of states require two or four years for both systems. Ten states exceed expectations in the number of years of study of high school science. Most of these states require one more year of science to receive a high school diploma than needed to qualify for public university admissions.
The public university systems in Alaska and Washington, D. Importantly, science requirements span three component parts: years of study, subject, and course type. State high school graduation requirements can be misaligned in any of these areas.
Later analysis in this report deals with subject and course type alignment. Table 2 shows that four states fail to meet college expectations in the years of study of high school social studies, while 24 meet those expectations and 20 exceed them. Those with less than college expectations in social studies are Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin. All of these states with the exception of New Hampshire require one year fewer for a high school diploma than is required for public university admission.
New Hampshire requires one fewer semester. Most of the states meeting college expectations require three years of study; a handful require two, two and a half, or four years for both the high school and public university systems.
Most of the states exceeding college expectations require one year more of social studies for a high school diploma than is required for public university admissions. A few states require one more semester. A few states—Alaska, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico—also require three more years than is required by the public university system.
As noted earlier, these states do not include social studies in its college admissions criteria. Twenty-three states require less than college expectations in the number of years of foreign language study. Another 23 states require the same number of years of study in foreign language for both the high school diploma and college admissions. Almost all of the states not meeting college expectations do not require or make optional any study of foreign language to receive a high school diploma.
The state public university systems in all but one state, Alabama, require two years of study in this subject. Two states—Puerto Rico and Washington, D. C—exceed these expectations since their public university systems set no specific coursework requirements.
While states do not differentiate on the particular language of study for high school or college, colleges often require students to study the same language to get credit for this requirement. The extent to which states require study of the same foreign language will be assessed in the course type analysis section below.
The following subjects—physical education, art, and electives—are overall required to a lesser degree for college admissions than for high school graduation compared with other subjects.
As a result, most states exceed college expectations in these areas. No state requires less than expected for college admissions in years of study for physical education and health. Nine states require the same number of years of study to earn a high school diploma and meet the threshold for state public college admissions. For all of these nine states, the study of physical education is not required for the high school or public university systems. The remaining 39 states exceed college expectations in years of study required in physical education and health.
This means that 48 states in total meet or exceed the number of years of study in physical education and health than is required for college admissions.
About half of these states require from one semester to one year of physical education and health for both high school and public university systems. Seventeen states require one and a half to two years and two states—New Jersey and New York—require three years for both systems. Two states—California and South Carolina—do not meet college expectations for years of study of fine arts. Both require one year fewer of fine arts study for a high school diploma than is required for public university admissions.
Twenty-eight states require the same number of years of study in this subject. All 28 states do not require or make optional the study of fine arts for both the high school and public university system. Eighteen states exceed college expectations in number of years of fine arts study. This is a sum total of 46 states meeting or exceeding college expectations in fine arts. Most of these states require one full year more of fine arts study in high school than is required for public university admissions.
A handful require one semester or one and a half years more of fine arts study. Two states—Wisconsin and Wyoming—require less than college expectations in the number of years of study in electives. Their high school systems make no requirements for electives, but their public university systems require two years for admission.
Sixteen states require the same number of years of study for high school graduation and college admissions. Most of these states require no electives for both the high school graduation and public university admissions systems. Two states, California and Wisconsin, have other course requirements for high school graduation that will likely fulfill their respective public university system admissions requirements for electives. Thirty states exceed college expectations in years of study of electives.
A total of 46 states meet or exceed college expectations in years of study of electives. The difference in the amount of study varies most widely for electives, as high school systems require between one semester and four full years more of study of electives than their respective public university systems.
While some higher institutions accept HSE for admission, all colleges and universities generally prefer a high school diploma to be considered for admission. Study your options carefully and seek advice from counselors at your online school or local college.
An education improves your skills. A high school diploma represents the hard work you put into your learning experiences. Less risk of being unemployed. Finish your high school diploma if you want a better chance at getting a job. As of December , unemployment rates in the United States hovered around 4.
When compared to previous years unemployment rates continue to improve. However, the unemployment rate varies significantly depending upon your education level. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, the unemployment rate for college graduates was only 2. Earning a high school diploma is easier than it was in the past. There could be a number of reasons why you think earning a high school diploma could be difficult.
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