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Indiana has proposed new high school graduation requirements, and some are not happy. I might suggest a different view. The state’s proposal is a floor, not a ceiling. There is nothing that prevents high schools from doing more than required. We do at GEO Academies, and our students love it.
What do I mean? We started helping our high school students in Indianapolis and Gary take real college courses years ago. The primary reason for doing this was to help our students (mostly from underserved communities) see that they are college material. Once they understood this, they then had a reason to finish high school. It’s working.
Our students not only learned they were college-capable, they learned they belong on a college campus and can succeed in college, too. And they learned that high school graduation was important to realizing their college capabilities.
Students started pushing themselves to earn career certifications and associate degrees (with our unlimited support). Then, once they accomplished those goals, they kept going. Three have earned full bachelor’s degrees from Indiana University Northwest and Purdue University Northwest before graduating from our high school. Five more will do that next year.
Want data? Here you go: When we started in Gary back in 2005, the city’s traditional high school graduation rate hovered around 50% annually; it stands at 67% today. Our graduation rate, by contrast, is typically 94% or better every year.
More important than our graduation rate is our college- and career-readiness rating from the Department of Education. It stands at 26.7%, 13th-best in the state among all districts. The state measures college- and career-readiness by the percentage of students earning high-quality career and college credentials while in high school.
Turns out, high school students like higher rigor and real college experience.
Our students earn the right to be juniors at IUN and PNW because they earn full associate degrees from Ivy Tech Community College Lake County first while in our high school.
The state did not tell us we had to do any of this. We did it on our own because it is the best thing to do for our students—help them finish high school and complete college.
Is it easy? No. Does it cost a lot? No more than traditional schooling. And we do this with 30% less than what traditional schools receive.
Our students achieve these goals because we don’t limit our students to state standards. We help our students break through the ceiling. Many of our students never take the SAT, either. Turns out, earning an associate degree is another way to prove our students are, indeed, college-ready. A recent review of our students who completed an associate degree while in our high school shows 75% of our students completed a bachelor’s degree in less than three years after high school—three times the national average.
There are no guarantees in life. Even if you get a great SAT score or do well on those AP tests, you are not guaranteed entry to your college of choice.
High schools should look at Indiana’s new proposed graduation pathways as a floor, not a ceiling. Your students will benefit. Our economy will, too.•
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Teasley is founder of Indianapolis-based GEO Foundation.
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