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Closing the Achievement Gap

The Adelman Report

A recent report, “Answers in the Tool Box:  Academic Intensity, Attendance Patterns, and Bachelor’s Degree Attainment,” by Clifford Adelman, Senior Research Analyst for the U.S. Department of Education (June 1999), came to the following conclusions:

• The academic intensity and quality of one’s high school curriculum is a huge factor in determining bachelor’s degree completion.
• Academic variables are much more potent predictors of college completion than social background variables.
• Rigorous academic course work can mitigate the influence of socioeconomic status on students’ lives.

Students must have the opportunity-to-learn at high levels no matter who they are or where they come from.  Students who enter higher education from schools that do not provide an opportunity-to-learn at high levels enter with less momentum toward degrees than others.  Poor and working-class students from rural areas and minority students are disproportionately affected by this lack of opportunity-to-learn.

The intensity and quality of curriculum is a cumulative investment of years of effort by schools, teachers, and students, and provides momentum into higher education and beyond.  It obviously pays off.  It is the best predictor of college completion.

Of course, not all students want to attend college, but most jobs in the future will require some post-high school education.  A booklet published by The College Board, Dispelling the Culture of Mediocrity, says, “The college degree has replaced the high school diploma as the pass to economic advancement.  Between 1989 and 1997, for example, the wage difference between college-educated and non-college educated men has widened 12 percent.” 

Adelman suggested that one way to increase the academic intensity of the high school curriculum is to increase the number of students taking Advanced Placement (AP) classes. These courses allow students to receive dual credit in high school and college if they receive a high enough score on the national exam. His research found that high school seniors who took only one AP class nearly doubled the likelihood of graduation from college (59% compared to 33% of those who did not take an AP class).  Students who took two or more AP Courses raised the likelihood to 76%.  This figure is well above the average college graduation rate of 63%.

According to Terry Peterson, counselor and chief advisor to former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, “Advanced Placement courses are forceful gate-openers for poor and minority students.  (These courses) can help level the playing field and increase the odds that students from diverse social backgrounds and ethnic groups attend college.”

Adelman found that “the impact of a high school curriculum of high academic intensity and quality on degree completion is far more pronounced and positive for African-American and Latino students than any other pre-college indicator of academic resources.” In fact, it is much greater for them than it is for white students.  He also found that, “of all pre-college curricula, the highest level of mathematics one studies in secondary school has the strongest continuing influence on bachelor’s degree completion.  Finishing a course in trigonometry or pre-calculus more than doubles the odds that a student who enters post-secondary education will complete a bachelors degree.”

This research is exciting in light of the fact that, even though we cannot control a student’s socioeconomic circumstances, we can control the curriculum.   Plans are underway to implement a program called Vertical Teaming which will prepare students for more rigorous courses while supporting teachers as they raise standards.   

Questions? Contact Terri Bawden (bawden.t@mail.wsd.wednet.edu)