High School Graduation: Strong Start or Dead End? New Book Calls for a National Priority on 'Doubling the Numbers' of Low-Income and Minority Youth Who Complete College 6/3/2004
From: Carmon Cunningham, 617-728-4446, ccunningham@jff.org or Alexandra Merceron, 617-384-7249, alexandra_merceron@harvard.edu CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 3 -- As high school students around the country prepare to graduate this spring, a new book warns that the high school diploma -- as elusive as it remains for too many American youth -- is no longer an adequate educational endpoint for any of our youth. "Double the Numbers: Increasing Postsecondary Credentials for Underrepresented Youth," (Harvard Education Press / May 2004 / $54.95 library / $28.95 paperback) issues a "call to action," urging the U.S. to "double the numbers" of low-income and minority youth who go to and complete college or some other form of postsecondary training or education. While college graduates earn 70 percent more than high school graduates, the statistics about college completion rates are sobering. For every ten students who start high school, only seven leave with a diploma, only five enroll in a postsecondary institution, and fewer than three complete a BA within 10 years. For black, Hispanic, and low-income youth, the reality is even worse: by age 29, only 18 percent of African-Americans and 10 percent of Hispanics have earned a BA. Double the Numbers tackles this critical issue head on. Edited by Richard Kazis, Joel Vargas, and Nancy Hoffman of Jobs for the Future, and with a foreword by Tom Vander Ark of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Double the Numbers highlights emerging strategies-at the state, district, and school levels-for improving postsecondary outcomes. The book looks at how to motivate older adolescents in school settings; how to overcome the rigidities of high school schedules and routines; how to prepare students for smooth transitions to postsecondary learning and success, and more. Double the Numbers also explores policies that are likely to serve as building blocks in any next phase of education reform that tackles the dual problems of high school completion and postsecondary access and success. "This is not just a personal tragedy for young people who get sold short on their futures" states Hilary Pennington, CEO of Jobs for the Future. "It constitutes a crisis for the entire country-because our collective future rests on the future employment and civic engagement of all our young people. JFF intends the publication of Double The Numbers to jump start a national conversation about how to ensure that more of our youth go to-and through-postsecondary education to reach their potential." The contributing authors propose changes in the design of high schools and colleges-innovations that could overcome the discontinuities, perverse incentives, and inflexibilities of existing educational institutions. They focus on state policy, since doubling the numbers of students attaining postsecondary credentials within a decade will require aggressive innovation by states. Finally, they consider how opportunity and outcomes vary by race, ethnicity, and gender-and they look at the implications of these variations for policy and practice. Contributors to the book include experts in the field such as Kati Haycock, John H. Bishop, Robert B. Schwartz, and Marc S. Tucker. Among them are some of the most important and thoughtful experts on innovations in practice and policy, representing a diversity of political viewpoints and professional perspectives. Those who have hailed the book include the following: "There is nothing more important in today's economy than the preparation of ALL of our youth for the competitive jobs of the future. Kudos to all of the contributors to this work." -Governor Mark R. Warner, Virginia "That too few poor and minority students are successfully completing college is a major societal challenge, and the authors of these pages perform a great service by placing it squarely on the policy agenda. America would be a better place if federal, state and campus leaders sought guidance in these pages."-Chester E. Finn, Jr., President, Thomas. B. Fordham Foundation and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University To see a complete list of contributors and the book's table of contents, please visit the Harvard Education Press online at http://gseweb.harvard.edu/hepg/doublethenumbers.html. About the Harvard Education Press: The Harvard Education Press, located at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, publishes innovative, authoritative books covering critical issues in education practice, policy, and research. For more information, please visit http://gseweb.harvard.edu/hepg. About Jobs for the Future: Jobs for the Future is a leading innovator in strategies to accelerate education and career advancement. Jobs for the Future provides research, consulting, and technical assistance on education and workforce development issues to public and private organizations throughout the United States and abroad. For more information on JFF, please visit the Web site at http://www.jff.org |