Aiming High

Sometimes, aiming high just means that you miss. Unintended consequences of raising state math, science graduation requirements -- ScienceDaily

Raising state-mandated math and science course graduation requirements (CGRs) may increase high school dropout rates without a meaningful effect on college enrollment or degree attainment, according to new research. To examine the effects of state-mandated CGRs on educational attainment, researchers looked at student outcomes in 44 states where CGRs were mandated in the 1980s and 1990s.

Bottom line: Looking at the article, it would seem that the main effect of enhanced requirements was that some students who would have finished high school but weren't going to college anyway still didn't go to college, but also didn't finish high school. (And my solution? I think they might be looking at the wrong problem....I'd be promoting German-style apprenticeship programs as more helpful to the students being affected here.)
update:What I'm talking about there is CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST: Expanding Apprenticeships

Today apprentices make up only 0.2 percent of the U.S. labor force, far less than in Canada (2.2 percent), Britain (2.7 percent), and Australia and Germany (3.7 percent). In addition, government spending on apprenticeship programs is tiny compared with spending by other countries and spending on less-effective career and community college systems that provide education and training for specific occupations. While total annual government funding for apprenticeship in the United States is only about $100 to $400 per apprentice, federal, state, and local annual government spending per participant for two-year public colleges is approximately $11,400. Not only are government outlays sharply higher, but the cost differentials are even greater after accounting for the higher earnings (and associated taxes) of apprentices compared to college students. Given these data, at least some of the low apprenticeship penetration can be attributed to a lack of public effort in promoting and supporting apprenticeship and to heavy subsidies for alternatives to apprenticeship. ...

"Unlike programs in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, the apprenticeship system in the United States is almost entirely divorced from high schools and serves very few workers under the age of twenty-ive.

Worth thinking about.

Or on the other hand, maybe not.