How the U.S. Department of Education...
How the U.S. Department of Education...
As Maria rushes outside without a jacket, the
late winter air dances over her arms, but she’s
too excited to stop. “I made it!” she squeals,
running across the yard into her grandmoth-
er’s arms, just like she had as a child. In a few
months she will walk across her dusty high
school gymnasium to receive her diploma. Then
in August she will start living her dream of at-
tending college. Maria is the first in her family
to finish high school. Her life has always been
challenging, but now she has set a new trajec-
tory. But did the coursework Maria take in high
school prepare her for college-level classes? Will
she finish college in four years, or at all? Maria
starts to shiver. Rather than using standardized test results to
modify programs and courses as needed, stan-
dardized tests have become part of the cyclic
dropout problem the Department of Education
has tried to combat for years.
Among those students graduating are higher-
than-ever percentages of minority students and
students with disabilities. New dropout preven-
tion programs and learning models may have
helped increase graduation rates with groups
that previously graduated at lower rates. These
indications are positive: more students now
have a greater chance for a better future. The Common Core Curriculum
Standardized Testing
Another benchmark the Department of Educa-
tion uses to measure student success is stan-
dardized testing. The Department of Education
utilizes standardized tests to demonstrate that
students are learning the Core Curriculum.
“Despite the highest high school graduation rate
in our history, and despite growth in student
The U.S. Department of Education Guidelines achievement over time in elementary school
and middle school, student achievement at the
The Department of Education guidelines define high school level has been flat in recent years,”
what students will learn and to some degree said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
how they will learn. There are four primary fac- (Resmovits, 2014).
tors that the Department of Education uses to
determine if a student is successful: dropout Peggy Carr, who is over the administration of
rate, standardized testing scores, the Common NAEP (National Assessment of Education Prog-
Core Curriculum, and college enrollment.
ress), explains: “What’s happening is that stu-
dents who would normally drop out of school
The National Dropout Rate
are staying in,” Carr said. “Students who would
normally not be taking our assessment, they’re
The first method that the Department of Edu- in there now at larger proportions” (Resmovits,
cation uses to measure success is dropout rate. 2014). One of the challenges the Department
According to the National Center for Education of Education faces is accurately accessing the
Statistics (NCES), graduation rates are histori- success of students; this is vital, particularly for
cally high; 82% of high school seniors graduated groups of students who were not included in
in 2013-2014 (the latest statistics available).
standardized testing previously.
In 2009, the Department of Education created
the Common Core Curriculum. The focus was
on mathematics and English language arts.
Studies found that many students entering
college still required remedial coursework and
were not able to perform satisfactorily in the job
market. The goal of the curriculum is to make
The National Dropout Prevention Center/Net- sure that regardless of where a student attends
work at Clemson University tracks why students school, they will be prepared for college-level
drop out. The center reveals that of all the stu- courses. The Common Core is also intended to
dents who want to drop out because they dis- strengthen students’ critical thinking skills.
like going to school, 10.5% of them dropped out
for fear of failing a competency test.
“In 2013, 39% of students were considered
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