TOMMIE SAYLOR: Measuring schools by college-readiness misses the point ... and misses what should be our job

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”  

William Butler Yeats

By Tommie Saylor

Kennedy High School Principal

This week national news outlets reported the government’s release of a sliver of educational data.  According to the news, the government is reporting that this year’s standardized tests show that only 37 percent of our graduating seniors are college ready.

Most people are shocked because – in the minds of most Americans – either you pass a test or you fail a test.  So, if only 37 percent “passed” this test, that means 63 percent failed.  How can 63 percent of our high school seniors fail a standardized test?  What is wrong with our schools? Something needs to be done, right?

Well, before we storm the local school demanding satisfaction and change, let’s take a closer look at the numbers. 

First of all, college ready does not mean pass, and not ready for college does not mean fail. In fact, the line between “college ready” and “not college ready” is an arbitrary line drawn by some faceless individual tucked away in an unknown office using math algorithm’s unknown to all but him. 

According to the standardized test I took when I was a high school senior, I should have had nothing to do with college. My score was so far below the arbitrary “college ready” line, and a career working at McDonald’s was better over even attempting to attend college. 

Yet today, here I sit with a Bachelor of Science degree in the field of education as a certified science teacher, and a Master of Arts degree in administration in the field of education as a certified public school administrator.

The standardized test was not a good indicator in determining my ability to be successful in college. You measure college success in the tenacity and resolve of the individual to get a degree no matter what obstacles stand in the way. Not by some standardized test score.

Understand that about a third of American’s have college degrees. Having a little over a third of our high school seniors scoring as “college ready” on standardized tests makes sense. Not everyone is going to go to college and not everyone wants to go to college. Assuming that every high school senior should be “college ready” upon graduation is a fallacy. 

The goal of today’s high school is not to get students ready for college; it is to get students ready for life. 

If a student wants to go to college and is capable, then it is our job to get them “college ready.” But if a student wants to have nothing to do with college, is clearly not college material, then our goal is to provide them with the skills to find gainful employment upon leaving high school.

Our mission is to get students ready for life and get them ready to become productive members of our society.

The real question should be this: What are we doing for the two thirds of students that will not earn a college degree? The demand for skilled trades in today’s society is enormous (and growing every day). Are we preparing students to enter the skilled trades market?  Are we teaching students how to buy a car or rent an apartment? Do our graduates know how to balance a checkbook and establish and follow a budget?

Those are the things we should measure. Measuring the quality of today’s high schools by the number of seniors who are “college ready” is more than just wrong, it is educationally dangerous. 

It is dangerous because it is natural for institutions to place as many resources as possible into that which is measured, starving all other aspects of the institution. As our society measures the quality of our schools by no other measure than college readiness and our schools adjust curriculum to college prep in response, we are committing a great disservice to the two thirds of our students that will not end up with college degrees. 

Understanding the fundamentals of Algebra 2 and Chemistry makes sense to those heading to college, but for those seeking employment after high school these classes hold little value.  Classes that would hold more value to the “silent two thirds” of students that will not end up with a college degree, classes such as Home Economics and Auto Mechanics, were pushed aside in favor of the Michigan Merit (college prep) Curriculum forced upon our schools by the State of Michigan. 

This dangerous practice of only offering a college prep curriculum leads to an increased number of high school dropouts, because high school holds no value for these students. This also leads to classroom misconduct because many of the students don’t see the value in what is being taught.

By measuring the value of our schools by a single test, we not only devalue everything else that takes place in our high schools, we also devalue two thirds of our students.

How and where will you lead them. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence by design.