Roderick, Nagaoka, and Allensworth found that only 6.5 percent of 13-year-olds in Chicago's public high schools in 1998 or 1999had graduated from high school within six years, and only about 3 percent of male African-American and Latino students did so. In addition, eleventh-graders in Illinois scored higher than eleventh-graders in Chicago on the 2004 Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE). Only 54 percent of the 2000-2001 freshman class graduated in four years. Chicago's public schools reflect these trends. The likelihood of graduating with the abilities and qualifications to even apply to a four-year institution is 40 percent for white students, 23 percent for African-American students, and 20 percent for Latino students. The problem is especially severe in large urban high schools, which disproportionately serve students of low socioeconomic status and students of color: of students enrolled as ninth-graders and scheduled to graduate in 2002, only 52 percent of Latino and 56 percent of African-American students ultimately earned a regular diploma. By obsolete, I mean that our high schools, even when they are working exactly as designed, cannot teach our kids what they need to know today.' Analysis by Greene and Winters indicates that the national graduation rate for the class of 2002 was 71 percent for public school students, and that only 34 percent of students who entered ninth grade in public schools left school with both a regular diploma and the qualifications to attend a four-year college. He continued, 'By obsolete, I don't just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed, and under-funded, although a case could be made for every one of those points. In a much-noted speech to the National Governors Association, Bill Gates described high schools as obsolete.

Current research shows that high schools are not preparing students for college, work, or life, and that they are leading to increased alienation among students. Increasingly, researchers, policymakers, school leaders, and concerned citizens are recognizing that high schools in the United States are in need of major reform.

Exhibeo conotum