Today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch contains this front page article: “Colleges find college freshmen unready.” Some of the schools listed on the “best schools” chart are very solid institutions, but find up to 26% of their former students in remedial classes during their first two years of college. Are high schools trying to do so much that they aren’t able to do enough?

While serving as a Department Chair at a school considered to be rigorous, I was approached several times a year about the high number of Fs in our department. The teachers in our department are not hard-nosed, stick to the bell curve kind of people. Their greatest desire is to see all students succeed. They move heaven and earth to help students who struggle. Systemically, we have multiple supports in place for kids who need more personal or intensive assistance. Yet, some kids do not pass, often times because they have not chosen to do the hard work necessary to demonstrate even low levels of achievement. However, the pressure exists to make sure all kids are “on target” to graduate in four years.

Does this push to pass every student through high school in four years do a disservice to some students? Would it be possible to allow some kids to slow down, take fewer classes each year and allow for more depth in learning? Could we ever get over the stigma that the five year plan would impose on students? Would another year really help?