January 3, 2012 | 3:41 PM | By

Will Mandating College Admission Exams Change Expectations?

Most available jobs in the District require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, which is one reason behind D.C.’s unemployment disparity; in Ward 8, where unemployment is more than 25 percent, about half of adults only hold a high school diploma.

One solution: get more D.C. students to go to college. D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown is proposing a bill that would make taking the SAT or ACT test a graduation requirement, The Washington Post reports. Details are a bit hazy at the moment, such as what kind of financial assistance will be given to students who can’t afford test fees. The impetus, it seems, is to create a different expectation for students who may not view college as an option.

Brown said it’s imperative that D.C. public schools, with a drop-out rate of 43 percent, standardize how students view post-secondary education. He noted that some charter schools already require students to prepare for the SAT or ACT and apply for college.

“I’m not saying everyone should go to college, but my goodness, we have to get more young folks prepared to go to college if they want to go to college,” Brown said in an interview. “A lot of them don’t even know how to prepare and apply to college.”

Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com

  • Elijah405

    While some thought obviously needs to be given to how this thing will take shape, it seems well-intentioned. That’s almost a compliment for Kwame Brown, whom is someone I’m not fond of in his role as Council Chairman. Clearly, you can’t place too heavy of a burden on kids to take a college entrance test when they can barely pass basic standardized highs school equivalency tests, but-I’m a firm believer that a child is a product of the expectations set for them, rather than that of their relative environment.