Students are creating high expectations for themselves, as 34 percent of high school seniors expect to receive a four-year degree and an additional 35 percent plan to go on to obtain a graduate or professional degree, according to a recent report by the National Center for Education Statistics.
The report was based on statistics gathered from the students in the class of 2004 who were surveyed both during their sophomore and senior years of high school. The survey observed each student's plans for higher education as well as their preparedness for college.
Lee Davis, vocational planner with Charlottesville City Schools, said she thinks the importance students are now placing on higher education directly relates to the economic competition the United States is engaged in with countries such as China and India, which are experiencing rapid growth in the number of students pursuing higher education.
"That [competition] really has a big impact on the United States because we have the best educated 55- to 64-year-olds in the world, but among the 25- to 34-year-olds, we rank eighth," Davis said. "So when you're looking at that, in other words, we are in a crunch right now."
Davis said the education force must change in order to better prepare its students so they are able to meet the higher expectations of employers who now require their workers to have strong reading, communication, analytical and statistical skills in addition to knowledge of their particular career field.
A plan has been developed to help high schools achieve this by focusing on having higher expectations, using more experiential learning to engage students and supporting students in different ways to make them feel empowered and motivated, Davis said.
The survey also examined how well students have mastered certain mathematical skills and found that 32 percent of students who expected to earn a four-year degree and 20 percent expecting to earn a professional degree have not mastered simple problem solving requiring the understanding of low-level mathematical concepts.
Davis said she thinks some high-school students are not adequately prepared for higher education, but it is not the fault of their schools.
"It's not that the schools have not offered things to them, but they don't understand how important it is to take advantage of them," Davis said.
Dean of Admissions John Blackburn said he has not seen this trend of unpreparedness at the University and students now applying to the University seem to be stronger than those that applied 20 years ago. He said he has noticed high school students in general have less experience writing research papers, which he attributes to the strict schedule kept by Advanced Placement classes, and this can lead to confusion with attributing information.
Still, Blackburn said current students are bringing stronger educational backgrounds and better-developed skills with them when they enter the University.
"I think in terms of subject matter, the students have covered a much more sophisticated level of work than they did 20 years ago in most subjects," Blackburn said. "The students we're seeing have really put themselves to the test in high school."
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