Joven Aquino

Mrs. Thomas

UWRT 1104

20 April 19

From High School to College: Setting Up Our Students for Success or Failure?

The transition from high school to college is a substantial one. In high school, most

people are from the same city, mostly know one another, generally have the same background,

and generally take the same classes. But for most colleges, they are very big in size, have many

diverse people, and have a plethora of classes one can take. Asking an 18-year-old what they

want to do for the rest of their lives is a pretty daunting task and making sure they are prepared

for that next big step in life is a big deal. The reason why high school students are not being

prepared for college is because students feel that high schools are more focused on the having

good grades than understanding the material, lack of support services, how to learn certain topics

like critical thinking, life lessons and as an effect of this, students are having to take remedial

classes. The answer to this is to reform what is taught in the classroom, by focusing on language,

leadership, authenticity, breadth, and resilience.

Before going into why our education system is not setting up our students for success,

one must understand why we have general education from K-12. According to Greg Jobin Leeds

(2012), public education is “more than just Math, Science, English and History, rather trains

someone to have the necessary skills to participate in society as a full citizen and to have the

knowledge and skills to go into the work force.” It’s important to understand that society is more

than just those four subjects, rather it teaches students the knowledge to be functioning adults in

society. The 3rd American President Thomas Jefferson stated, “the most important bill in our
whole code, is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people” and if we did not provide

public education, it would “leave the people in ignorance” (Encylopedia Virgina, 2016).

So why do high school students feel they aren’t being prepared for college? A survey by

The 74, a non-profit, non-partisan news site covering education in America, on how high

schoolers in America felt if they were prepared for college. The piece states that half of

America’s high schoolers said that they didn’t feel prepared when it comes to college. (Stringer,

2017 One big reason that students aren’t feeling prepared is how information is taught.

According to a high schooler, he states “school has taught us that having better grades is better

than actually learning something” (Stringer, 2017). This puts a very big emphasis on having

good grades and test scores, so students just memorize information instead of learning and

applying what they’re learning in class. This hinders the student’s ability to use their critical

thinking skills--the analysis of facts to form a judgment (Glaser, 2019). Also, some other

students said that the support programs in place did not help them in high school. One student

said “they haven’t helped me in choosing a major, choosing a school, applying to that school,

knowing what I need to do to get into my dream school, how to pay for my school, what I should

expect from college life, or even to help me register for scholarships or other things that could

help me pay for my university” (Stringer, 2017). I can personally relate to this quote because I

had the same problem, I went to a public high school that had over 2000 students, so accessing

my counselor was difficult. Instead of getting this information from a counselor, I had to ask

friends who were applying for and already in college. Classes are also not preparing students for

college, as “more than four in 10 college students end up in developmental math and English

classes” (Reports, 2018).

 As stated before, public education’s main goal is for us to be knowledgeable citizens. But

the education system fails at that as well. An article titled “How School Trains Us To Fail In

The Real World” by Stephen Guise, who is an author who studies about personal development

strategies, talks about how school fails us when learning certain topics like critical thinking, life

lessons and how to learn when you fail (Guise, 2017). He argues that instead of learning critical

life skills on how to manage money, how to negotiate, or how to communicate, kids are mostly

taught to memorize information. This is helpful to learn, but not at the cost of not learning

critical life skills. According to Francis Bacon, an English philosopher in the 16th century, that

“critical thinking is the desire to seek and the readiness to reconsider, revise, refine.” Guise

supports the claims from The 74 survey by reinforcing that high schools fail in teaching critical

thinking skills but rather teaching you to memorize information, not realizing how to utilize the

information. In addition to this information, I did a survey in my university writing class, which

consisted of 10 people. Out of those 10 people, 8 of them said that High School did not prepare

them for knowledge they need to be successful in life (Ex. Knowing how to pay taxes, critical

thinking skills, manage money, public speaking, etc.) which was alarming to me. The reason

why this is alarming to me is that if public education is supposed to teach students the knowledge

to be functioning adults in society and they’re failing at that specific task, there is a problem and

it needs to be fixed.

Admittedly since High School is supposed to prepare us for the next big step, students

should have the knowledge to be successful in their college classes. Sadly, that is not the truth, as

stated in a journal called Readiness Realities: Struggles and Successes During the Transition to

College, which states that roughly half of the college students have to take remedial classes

before being considered “college ready” (Hollander, 2017). The author is Professor Pamela
Hollander, who teaches at Worcester State University. She does research about literacy and

education. One thing she shared in her article that stood out to me was “As an educator who has

worked for twenty years alongside students who are moving from K-12 to college, I can say that

it is a difficult passage for many reasons.” (Hollander 2017) The reason why this quote really

stood out to me was because it shows that educators can see the struggle that students face when

transitioning. Again, using my survey for some more data, including myself and all ten students

who took the survey said that they had or are currently taking a remedial class. I did appreciate

that I took a remedial class which will help me with my future classes, but instead of paying for

it in a college, shouldn’t the education system prepare me so I wouldn’t have to take that class?

As a result of finding sources that discuss how high school is not preparing students for

college, I wanted to find out how we can fix that. Henry Doss, who was a former banker turned

venture capitalist, musician, and Executive-in-Residence for the College of Liberal Arts and

Sciences at UNC Charlotte suggests that our education system is outdated if not changed to fit

the future, our students will become not be as innovative and successful. (Doss 2013) The critical

elements that students should be focusing on and educators should be looking to deliver are

language, leadership, authenticity, breadth, and resilience. The ideas that Doss presents to fix our

education system for the future resonates with me. Language means the way we articulate our

ideas and share those with our peers. Leadership is the way we keep others accountable and

taking charge. Authenticity is how to be self-aware of our strengths and our weaknesses and how

we can keep improving ourselves. Using breadth is to broaden your perspectives and have a

broad perspective on whatever you do. Lastly, resilience means being able to accept change and

adapt to it quickly. The five main elements that he talks about are very important in everyday life

and if implemented in the education system, students will be prepared for the future. One quote
that was salient to me was “Will this new generation of leaders be innovators or followers?

Strong resilient problem solvers or servants of the status quo?” (Doss, 2013). This quote was

salient to me because it helps convey the idea that if we don’t change the way we see education,

the next generation will not be as innovative. Innovation is very important, as “innovation is the

exploitation of new ideas that lead to the creation of new products, processes or services”

(International Association of Innovation Professionals 2019) and as a society, we want to keep

advancing, but if we lose our skills to innovate, we won’t.

In conclusion, the transition from high school to college is a very substantial transition

for most students in the United States. The education system’s purpose is to educate our students

on how to become knowledgeable citizens, so we won’t grow in ignorance and to be successful

in the next part of our life, whether that be going straight to the workforce or to college. Sadly,

the education system fails us not only as educating us to become knowledgeable citizens but as

preparing us as scholars going into college. But to change this as to make sure our future students

are prepared for the future, we must change the education system to focus more on language,

leadership, authenticity, breadth, and resilience.

 References

APM Reports. (2018, July 02). College students increasingly caught in remedial education trap.

Retrieved April 22, 2019, from https://hechingerreport.org/college-students-increasingly-

caught-in-remedial-education-trap/

Doss, Henry. “Innovation: Five Keys to Educating the Next Generation of Leaders.”

Innovation: Five Keys to Educating the Next Generation of Leaders, Forbes Magazine, 19

Mar. 2013, www.forbes.com/sites/henrydoss/2013/03/19/innovation-five-keys-to-

educating-the-next-generation-of-leaders/#2ecd9a08b1a3.

Glaser, E. M. (2019). Defining Critical Thinking. Retrieved April 22, 2019, from

https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766

Hollander, Pamela W. “Readiness Realities: Struggles and Successes During the Transition to

College.” Readiness Realities, 2017, pp. 61–68., doi:10.1007/978-94-6300-938-6_6.

International Association of Innovation Professionals. “What Is Innovation and Why Is It

Important - International Association of Innovation Professionals. “WHAT IS

INNOVATION AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT, 2019, www.iaoip.org/page/What_Why.

Jefferson, Thomas. “Transcription from Original.” Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George

Wythe, with Enclosure (September 16, 1787), 11 Oct. 2016,

www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Letter_from_Thomas_Jefferson_to_George_Wythe_with_

Enclosure_September_16_1787.
Jobin-Leeds, Greg. “What Is the Purpose of Public Education.” Education Week - Democracy

and Education, Education Week, 30 May 2012,

blogs.edweek.org/edweek/democracy_and_education/2012/05/what_is_the_purpose_of_p

ublic_education.html.

News. “Semantics: Did Francis Bacon Ever Use the Term ‘Critical Thinking’?” Uncommon

Descent, 17 June 2012, uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/semantics-did-francis-

bacon-ever-us-the-term-critical-thinking/.

Guise,Stephen. “How School Trains Us To Fail In The Real World.” How School Trains Us

To Fail In The Real World, Stephen Guise, 23 Oct. 2017, stephenguise.com/how-school-

trains-us-to-fail-in-the-real-world/.

Stringer, Kate. “When It Comes to College, Only Half of America's High Schoolers Say They

Feel Prepared, Survey Finds.” The 74 When It Comes to College Only Half of Americas

High Schoolers Say They Feel Prepared Survey Finds Comments, The 74, 7 Aug. 2017,

www.the74million.org/article/when-it-comes-to-college-only-half-of-americas-high-

schoolers-say-they-feel-prepared-survey-finds/.