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Across the country, educators and families are grappling with a confluence of challenging realities: Rising college tuition rates with a national college debt tally in the $1.4 trillion range, representing the second highest level of consumer debt behind only mortgages. At the same time, the nation has seen strikingly high post-secondary remediation rates, meaning more than half of all community college students and nearly as many four-year college students must take remedial coursework in college to re-learn and master concepts they missed in high school.
Meanwhile, employers continue to identify jobs that need to be filled in order to maintain and strengthen the U.S. economy. A 2013 Georgetown University study reported that by 2020, 65 percent of all jobs will require post-secondary education and training beyond high school. Through that same year, the nation is also expected to see 55 million job openings, most from baby boomer retirements but 24 million from newly created jobs. The United States is expected to fall short, according to the study, by at least five million workers with post-secondary education.Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there is a growing recognition that we must support students’ social and emotional needs and give them the tools, resources and a supportive environment for a safe and healthy school life that is rich in strong and positive relationships, free from bullying, threats and violence.
One emerging solution is to provide a clear pathway, lined with more rigorous courses, opportunities for career exploration and increased guidance, all housed within a small, supportive learning community within a large high school.
The School District U-46 community already recognizes the success of such small learning communities through its current High School Academies. Graduates of these academies do well in college and careers. Many give credit to the lessons learned within their academy, even those who now work in a career other than their academy’s focus.
Matt Wahl, a 2012 graduate of Larkin High School’s Visual and Performance Arts Academy is among those who believe the small learning environment gave him an advantage in college where he majored in music.
“If you go through the academy, one thing you discover is a point where teachers are not necessarily teachers,” says Wahl. “They are mentors, but they are also friends, I mean if you are going to be spending eight hours a day with a teacher, you had better have a good relationship with them. I think that personal relationship allowed for a deeper level of teaching to occur.
“Even on days when we could go home early, you would often find students sitting in the music wing of the school talking with teachers. I still to this day cannot get over seeing the joy and true happiness and enthusiasm that the teachers had. That made coming to class really exciting. For a teacher to spend that much time with their students, it really shows their dedication to their job and what they enjoy.”School District U-46 wants to make these small learning communities available to all students. We believe all our students deserve to have access to the most engaging and relevant coursework. These small learning communities provide students with career knowledge and skills that will serve them in both the workforce and college.
Academic data, as well as local Board policy and state and federal legislation drive this work, but so does the need to better support our students, to create more personal and sustaining relationships to help them thrive socially and emotionally as well as academically.
We live in an age when, nationally, more than 46 percent of U.S. youth—34 million children under age 18—have had at least one ACE, or Adverse Childhood Experience, such as the death or incarceration of a parent. More than 20 percent have had at least two. Our students are more connected technologically than ever before but many report they yearn for deeper, more meaningful connections. Educational research has long confirmed that building smaller learning communities betters supports students.
Some of the driving academic metrics include:
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Freshmen on Track (to graduate): Illinois collects and reports data on a metric called “Freshmen on Track,” which refers to the percentage of ninth-graders who have earned at least five full-year course credits (10 semester credits) and have earned no more than one semester F in a core course (English, math, science or social science.)
- In U-46, four of our high schools are below the state average of 87 percent Freshmen on Track and one high school’s percentage rate is above the state average.
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Graduation rates: Two U-46 high schools posted graduation rates in 2017 lower than the state average of 87 percent with the remaining schools above the state average.
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College Readiness: Two U-46 high schools fall below the state average of 51 percent of students earning an ACT of 21 or higher.
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Post-Secondary Remediation: Every high school in U-46 has more students who require remediation at Illinois community colleges than the state average of 47 percent.
