Why Did The American High School System Fail To Prepare College Students?

Today, more Americans than ever before are attending college, but students face many eccentric challenges. Around 45 million Americans collectively hold more than 1.4 trillion dollars in student loan debt, but only 54.8 percent of those students manage to graduate within six years (cnbc.com). What is the reasoning behind this? Did the American high school system fail to prepare these students? Or are college expectations just way too demanding for students to handle? In the following essay, I will explain the reasoning as to why the statistics for higher education are so low, and how high school teachers and college professors differ in their student expectations. Bossier High School, an under funded, under ranked, and under developed inner city high school located in Bossier City, Louisiana; a place I call my home, but most importantly a place I am proud to call my alma mater. For many students across the United States, attending an inner city high school means condemning them to a life filled with failure and lack of success. Teachers are often filled with low expectations simply because those students are of color. In high school, teachers’ expectations were low in every class I took. It did not matter that my

One of the main reasons I decided to attend Delaware State University, a public HBCU filled with minority students and minority faculty. Here, professors hold me to the same expectations as those of my peers, not based solely on the color of my skin or my socioeconomic background. Opportunities are offered to every student, as long as they are willing to work for it. Delaware State University, my college, a place where we have equal opportunities to fight — not equal opportunities to