Accountability
College Prep Should Be Optional and Improvements Better at Neighborhood Schools
On a number of questions relating to college preparatory courses, Ohioans indicated they favor college prep in high schools but are not convinced that it should be required for every student. There was also mixed support for requiring all high school students to take college courses for credit while in high school, with only 37 percent strongly or somewhat in favor.
Support was extremely strong for requiring certain college-prep courses, with nearly 94 percent in favor of requiring four years of English and 90 percent favoring four years of math, including two years of algebra. A clear majority also supported requiring science, social studies, and foreign language classes to prepare students for college and recognized the need to back up such requirements with additional funding. Nearly 85 percent agreed the state should provide extra funding so that public schools could provide such state-mandated curriculum. Below is an outline of the current Ohio curriculum requirements and the proposed mandated core curriculum under the Ohio Core.
CURRENT OHIO GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS (CLASS OF 2007)
Beyond completion of the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT), the following are the state’s current graduation requirements for all Ohioans. A unit is a year’s coursework.* Science units must include 1 unit of biological sciences and 1 unit of physical sciences.
** Social Studies units must include ½ unit of American history and ½ unit of American government.
*** Electives units must include 1 unit or 2 half units in Business/Technology, Fine Arts, or Foreign language.
OHIO CORE PROPOSED GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS
Despite the strong approval for particular subject matter requirements, when asked whether all high school students should be required to take college prep classes, about 57 percent of Ohioans were either somewhat or strongly opposed. Only 51 percent agreed that requirements for high school graduation should be the same as entrance requirements for the state’s colleges and universities.
Ohioans indicated a desire to see improvements in student performance. Nearly 90 percent said it was extremely or very important to close any gaps in standardized test performance between white and minority students.
The public also indicated a strong commitment to improving rather than abandoning troubled local schools. More than 72 percent said that if they had a child attending a school identified as “in need of educational improvement” they would rather see efforts to improve that school than transfer the child to another school. This has particularly interesting implications as schools in Ohio and nationally that continually fail to meet state and federal expectations under the No Child Left Behind Act are expected to undergo interventions that include using vouchers to attend private schools or attending other community or charter schools.
1. Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose making four years of mathematics, including two years of algebra a requirement for all high school students to take?
 |
 |
|
|---|---|---|
| Strongly Favor | 41.4% | 69.0% |
| Somewhat Favor | 28.9% | 20.5% |
| Somewhat Oppose | 18.4% | 5.7% |
| Strongly Oppose | 9.2% | 4.2% |
| Don’t Know | 2.1% | 0.6% |
;)
2. Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose making four years of English a requirement for all high school students to take?
|
|
|---|---|
| Strongly Favor | 80.0 |
| Somewhat Favor | 13.8 |
| Somewhat Oppose | 3.7 |
| Strongly Oppose | 2.0 |
| Don’t Know | 0.5 |
;)
3. Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose making three years of science, including physics, chemistry and biology a requirement for all high school students to take?
|
|
|---|---|
| Strongly Favor | 59.9% |
| Somewhat Favor | 26.0% |
| Somewhat Oppose | 9.9% |
| Strongly Oppose | 3.2% |
| Don’t Know | 1.0% |
;)
4. Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose making three years of social studies a requirement for all high school students to take?
|
|
|---|---|
| Strongly Favor | 54.4 |
| Somewhat Favor | 30.8 |
| Somewhat Oppose | 10.1 |
| Strongly Oppose | 3.3 |
| Don’t Know | 1.5 |
;)
5. Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose making two years of foreign language a requirement for all high school students to take?
|
|
|---|---|
| Strongly Favor | 46.1% |
| Somewhat Favor | 30.3% |
| Somewhat Oppose | 12.9% |
| Strongly Oppose | 9.4% |
| Don’t Know | 1.4% |
;)
6. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree that if the state is going to require high school students to take all of these courses, the State of Ohio should provide additional funding to the public schools to ensure that all high school students in Ohio can provide students with this curriculum?
|
|
|---|---|
| Strongly Agree | 71.0% |
| Somewhat Agree | 13.8% |
| Neither Agree/Disagree | 3.5% |
| Somewhat Disagree | 4.2% |
| Strongly Disagree | 5.4% |
| Don’t Know | 2.1% |
| Refused | -- |
7. What if you had a child attending a school identified by the state as “in need of educational improvement?”
What would you prefer:
NOT in need of improvement
OR
To have additional efforts made at your child’s current school to improve student achievement?
|
|
|---|---|
| Transfer Child | 22.6% |
| Additional efforts in current school | 72.1% |
| Don’t Know | 4.5% |
| Refused | 0.7% |
;)
8. Do you agree or disagree that the state should make the requirements for high school graduation the same as entrance requirements for state colleges and universities?
|
|
|---|---|
| Agree | 51.3% |
| Disagree | 40.4% |
| Don’t Know | 8.1% |
| Refused | 0.2% |
9. Do you favor or oppose the State of Ohio creating a statewide test that assesses every high school student’s readiness for work and college?
|
|
|---|---|
| Favor | 55.0% |
| Oppose | 34.3% |
| Depends/ need more info (Vol.) | 7.9% |
| Don’t Know | 2.7% |
| Refused | 0.1% |
10. And what if you knew that African-American and Hispanic students in Ohio generally score lower on standardized tests than white students. In your opinion, would you say it is extremely important, very important, somewhat important or not very important to close this academic achievement gap between these groups of students?
|
|
|---|---|
| Extremely Important | 26.3% |
| Very Important | 40.5% |
| Somewhat Important | 19.1% |
| Not Very Important | 8.2% |
| Don't Know | 5.0% |
| Refused | 1.0% |
;)
11. Would you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose a proposal that required all high school students take college courses for credit while in high school?
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Strongly Favor | 61.4% | 14.4% |
| Somewhat Favor | 28.0% | 23.0% |
| Somewhat Oppose | 5.2% | 33.9% |
| Strongly Oppose | 4.1% | 26% |
| Don’t Know | 1.3% | 2.7% |
