Education is in something a Catch-22. If they have standards, there will be dropouts among people who don't want to do the work to reach the minimum levels. If they don't have standards, they are just an assembly line and that is bad for teacher morale.

Because who is going to get blamed if students don't succeed? Teachers.

Raising state-mandated math and science course graduation requirements may increase high school dropout rates without a meaningful effect on college enrollment or degree attainment, according to  a new paper which finds that high school dropout rates increased as states mandated more math and science coursework, reaching 11.41 percent when students were required to take six math and science courses, compared to 8.6 percent for students without a requirement. 


"Our research suggests that many students were ill-prepared for the tougher standards, and ultimately failed to graduate," said co-author William F. Tate. "Going forward, state policymakers must understand that you can't do math and science courses if you are not in school."





"Policymakers must anticipate unintended consequences from more demanding content and more rigorous requirements," said Andrew D. Plunk. "We should also rethink what it means to be an at-risk student. To be effective, these measures will likely require academic and social support for a broad range of students, as well as change at the K-8 level."

Citation: Andrew D. Plunk, William F. Tate, Laura J. Bierut, and Richard A. Grucza, "Intended and Unintended Effects of State-Mandated High School Science and Mathematics Course Graduation Requirements on Educational Attainment," Educational Researcher.
Source: American Educational Research Association