The American high school

College Student Journal, Sept, 2008 by Marlow Ediger

Of all levels of schooling, the high school receives by far the most criticism. There are continuous innovations recommended in journal articles, textbooks, and speeches at state/national conventions on ways to improve the secondary level of schooling. At one teacher education convention, the speaker was criticizing the American high school and said that students therein felt it was boring. After his presentation, I asked him if "high schools are boring" had become a slogan. He had to admit that there was some truth in my question. Generally, little is said about the specifics as to why it is so boring.

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The High School Curriculum

Charter schools have become relatively numerous in the United States. They are a part of the public schools in terms of receiving funding for operational purposes. They are, however, independent in their development and implementation of the curriculum. Campbell (2007) observed the following in Confluence Academy, a charter school operated by Edison Corporation, a for profit company, in St. Louis, Missouri:

"In the other classrooms I visited, most of the teachers "taught at" the students. I observed no project based learning or hands on approaches of any kind. The students simply responded in parrot like fashion to the teacher, illustrating the school's implicit view that students are passive receptacles into which knowledge is to be poured. There was also a great deal of "Guess what the teacher is thinking" game. In one episode, a fourth grade teacher asked, "How many nickels in a quarter?" The students raised their hands, and the teacher called on them in turn. "Four" "No." "Six?" "No." "Five?" "Right!" The students role was clear: obey orders, don't do anything that the teacher does not tell you to do, sit still, and be quiet."

In visiting elementary and middle school students in Confluence Academy, Campbell (2007), found that teachers had much control over students with a quiet classroom which immediately prevailed upon the teacher's orders. Being quiet and obeying teacher's orders were unquestioned virtues. Unhappy teachers with no grievance or bargaining processes, and a test-centered curriculum were required of students.

When secondary schools are criticized much, there are a plethora of remedies offered. For example, the April 2007 issue of Educational Leadership had a series of articles on recommendations to improve high schools and having students ready and prepared for graduation.

Stewart made the following recommendations in an article titled "Becoming Citizens of the World:"

* Redesign high schools and create new graduation requirements to motivate higher achievement and promote international knowledge and key skills.

* Expand teacher training to deliver rigorous study of world history and cultures, economics, world regions, and global challenges.

* Develop world language pipelines from primary school to college that focus on crucial languages such as Chinese, and that address the acute shortage of language teachers.

* Use technology in innovative ways to expand the availability of international courses that every school in the US has ongoing virtual ink to schools in other countries (Stewart, 2007).

From the above, Stewart would emphasize world history, foreign languages, and international studies. This would be a turn around from the preset day stress placed upon reading and mathematics, the latter two areas emphasized by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). History, international studies, and foreign languages are not tested in NCLB.

A second article in Educational Leadership "The Essential Cognitive Backpack" puts high priority upon diverse thinking skills. These thinking skills include interpretation such as in-depth understanding of content and critical thinking, as well as students possessing inward motivation. These thinking skills, as well as intrinsic motivation, will assist students to do well in future careers and self realization (Levine. 2007).

Levine places high value upon higher levels of cognition for students, which might well, be stressed in all curriculum areas. Again, NCLB does not, particularly, test different kinds of thinking skills.

A third article in Educational Leadership places high priority on college readiness. Thus, the high school curriculum must be aligned with higher education (Conley, 2007). The thinking here is that high school versus the college curriculum are so different. To close the gap, Conley advocates alignment of high school courses with that of the college curriculum. He wrote

   Remaking high school to align better
   with college success standards
   will not be easy. Some people might
   legitimately argue that the two systems,
   secondary and post secondary,
   should retain their distinct characters.
   Some might even question
   whether college instructors should
   be telling high school teachers what
   to teach.

   As significant as these issues are, in
   the final analysis, the evolving needs
   of students compel us to make
   changes in the relationship between
   high schools and colleges. The proportion
   of students going directly
   from secondary to post secondary
   education continues to grow. More
   and more students and their families
   believe that a college education
   is the key to success in the new economy.
   To respond to student's
   growing expectations, secondary
   schools and post-secondary institutions
   must bring their programs into
   closer alignment (Conley, 2007).