Student Ambition Exceeds Academic Preparation

The aspirations of many students may be a mismatch with the paths they have charted in high school. So reveal the initial results from a broad federal longitudinal study.

As 10th graders, most high school students expect to graduate from college, but the study shows that only about half take a rigorous academic program, and that few can perform anything but relatively simple tasks in mathematics and reading.

The students surveyed as sophomores during the 2001-02 school year largely believed that good grades were important, and that their classes were challenging and satisfying, according to the study released in March by the U.S. Department of Education’s National...