Who Should Go To College

I've known Larry Sand for several years now, as he's been president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network and I've been on the board of directors.  Larry and I share many common views, but on this we don't agree:

According to a report released last week, less than half of the 2019 Los Angeles Unified School District graduating class will be eligible to attend one of the state’s public universities. There are 15 essential “A–G” courses, including English, math, and science that students need to get a C or better in to be eligible, and just 49 percent could hack it. Overall, the graduation rate is 76.6 percent. 

Oh, I'm not going to challenge his numbers.  Let's just stipulate that they're right.  What I challenge is his implication that less than half of LAUSD students' meeting CSU/UC "A-G" requirements is a bad thing.

Before I was born, California's Master Plan For Higher Education laid out a 3-tiered higher education system.  The pinnacle was the University of California system, which was designed for the top 1/8 or our high school graduates.  The next level was the California State University system, which was designed for the top 1/3.  And the Junior/Community College system was designed for everyone else.

So even back when high school diplomas counted for something, only a third of high school graduates were expected to go to universities.  So fewer than half, as Larry points out?  That's exactly what the proportion should be.

Larry's point becomes more salient, though, when one considers that diplomas don't count for much anymore:

Grad rate numbers for students in Los Angeles should come with a giant asterisk after it because the district offers credit recovery classes, which help pad the count. Typically, these courses are online, rigor-free, and require little effort to get a passing grade. In 2016, the American Institutes for Research released the results of a study on the effect of these courses for Algebra 1, and found that they failed to improve students’ general comprehension of the content.

Toss in grade inflation, too, and Larry's point is spot on.