What if, instead of focusing exclusively on college, we identified success as the ability to earn a living, support a family, and be a contributing member of society? 

One-size-fits-all doesn't suit our students
By David Crane  |  June 28, 2006

I ATTENDED two high school graduations this month. One was for my own son, and the other was for students at Boston's Josiah Quincy Upper School, a grade 6-12 school that I helped to create seven years ago, and that was graduating its first class. At these ceremonies, teachers, administrators, and guests spoke with pride and excitement about the colleges to which the students had been accepted and from which scholarships will be received.

But what about our ``other" students -- the ones who do not graduate from high school and do not attend or ultimately graduate from college? According to an exhaustive study of the Chicago public school system conducted by the University of Chicago and presented at the Harvard Graduate School of Education last month, such students make up more than 90 percent of our urban public school student body.

According to this study, 46 percent of inner-city ninth graders will not graduate from high school. A third of those who do graduate have a D average. Only 18 percent of those ninth graders will eventually attend either a two-year or four-year degree program; only a third of those, 6.5 percent, will graduate with an associate's or bachelor's degree. For every 100 African-American males who enter ninth grade, only 2.5 will graduate from an institution of higher learning. These numbers become starker when we consider that, according to the study, 79 percent of inner-city high school students report they want to go to college.

Why are we subjecting these students to a one-size-fits-all, college-or-bust ethos and college prep curriculum when so few of our inner-city students either want what we are offering or want it badly enough to put in more than a minimal effort? In doing so, we create a culture in which dropping out is a norm, and we insure that the lion's share of our students leave high school with an indelible sense of failure.