The High School Curriculum

The biggest factor in determining whether young people earn a bachelor’s degree is participation in a strong academic curriculum in high school. So what should be on the curriculum? According to the National Commission on Excellence in Education, all high school students be required to complete:

• four years of English
• three years of math
• three years of science
• three years of social studies
• one to one-and-one-half years of computer science

In addition, those students planning to attend college should take two years of a foreign language. The National Center for Education Statistics is even more demanding:

• four years of English
• three years of a foreign language
• three years of social studies
• four years of math (including pre-calculus or higher)
• three years of science
• at least one Advanced Placement course.

Good luck with that. Indeed,

According to a recent report by The Education Trust, only about half of the nation’s high school students graduate having completed even a “mid-level” curriculum along the lines of the commission’s recommendations. And just 12% complete the kind of rigorous program described in the NCES study. The statistics are even more dismal for poor and minority students, who are considerably less likely than nonminority students to be enrolled in – or even have access to – rigorous courses.

And of course we know which language the vast majority of high school students are going to be studying, and it's not Chinese.