Sunday for Monday

U.S. Schools for the trivia.

WAG

Revealing my WAG before looking it up:

Of the original 100 9th graders:

70 graduate on time

50 (70% of the on-time graduates) go on to further schooling, and

35 (70% of those entering higher educ) get a degree or cert within 6 years.

Partly correct

Of 100 ninth graders the article points out 68% graduate on time. You got that correct. I was astounded by the drop out rate of U.S. "students". That's an awful lot of the citizenry to lose to menial or no jobs for a career. It is especially so when other parts of the world turn out seventeen year olds where high school is more challenging and are turning out better prepared high school graduates. For whatever reason the United States is failing the education process-- even on the most basic level. Let's try the remainder of the question. How many go on?

Re: Sunday for Monday

I'll guess 40% go to college and last 1.5 years or more.

I'll guess 25% get degrees.

Tom

A bit high on both

[Partly] lucky guess

Yeah, I found those stats saying 68%. Lucky guess on my part! For the other two stats, I found lots of conflicting stats (all lower than the 70% I assigned to both of those). However, most of those stats spoke of enrollment in a baccalaureate program, and receipt of a bachelor's degree. I thought I might be okay on my second 70%, since we were looking only at the folks who graduated on time, and I ASSUMED that a disproportionate share of those who graduated late may be in the non-attendees, and that junior colleges and trade school may push the rate up.

But the graduation rate within 6 years is pretty abysmal, no matter which study you look at. And including junior colleges makes it worse. Bottom line, it looks like it is closer to 20% of 9th graders that go on to a bachelor or associate degree.

Won't guess again but....

....that's depressing!

T.

Whoops!

I missed the 1.5 year stay in college until I read Thomas' answer. So I give up on any hope of defending my second 70% guess :-)

Monday answer

The article with reference to today�s trivia provides the following: Leah Thayer, Editor. Market Watch, p.11, �Remodeling�, July 2009.

�For every 100 9th graders, 68 graduate on time; of those, 40 enroll directly in college; of those, 27 are STILL enrolled the following year; of those, 18 earn an associates degree within three years OR a B.A. within six years.� No info on advanced academic work.

Given those numbers it looks to me as if even a G.I. Bill type of help won�t keep us technically competitive when compared with more than a few existing and emerging powers. In the U.S., at present, and the near future, there is an absence of the basic competencies, as well as numbers of people to sustain and build on progress to world class higher technical levels.

Allow me this editorial. Part of that reason is not only lowered educational standards at home, but the existing immigration policy which forbids promising students from talent pools in Central Europe, Mid-East, Far East, and Africa from entering this country. Couple that policy with the willingness of some of our rivals to more than welcome these formerly U.S. bound students. The result may be that the shift of invention and technical know how to other countries may well bite us in the tail for, at least, the next several generations.

Also, the same �Remodeling� page provides a sidebar that indicates that 81% of dropouts said that �real world learning� would encourage them to stay in school. (�Silent Epidemic�, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) I�m wondering. Does that mean that dropouts want subjects such as world history, music training, higher level math, grammar and writing, foreign languages, social (diplomacy, tolerance) skills, to be dropped? Dumbed down further? To me this information is a very disappointing discovery. As a brief ray of light�-even though he was at Harvard, Bill Gates dropped out too. He�s doing OK!

Re: Monday answer

Trivia with a serious message.

I like it.

Thanks.

Re: Monday answer

I have some friends who are grade school teachers. The stories they tell are troubling. I would not want to be a teacher these days. They want the best for their students but "the system" along with "today's parents" pretty much make that impossible.

Tom

Re: Monday answer

I do some volunteer work as an assistant in a math lab in the local adult education system This class is for those going for their GED, high school diploma, or just for learning. The students range from 80 year olds (we had an 80 year old Grandmother get her high school diploma) to kids in high school that need a credit to graduate, to those that are there because their parole officer insists ;-) There are still a few that want to learn something.