| Evidence suggests that American high school graduates are deficient in basic academic skills needed in the modern workforce. Billions of dollars in costs are accrued by businesses annually because of this deficiency. The intent of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the extent, if any, that various school, student, and community attributes relate to level of academic preparedness for the workforce among graduates of Texas public high schools. The independent variables were average class size, teachers' education level, teachers' average length of experience, school expenditure per student, local population level of education, and percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The dependent variable was the percentage of seniors who scored at or above a designated workforce-ready composite score on standardized academic tests. All data were obtained from government and private data archives. The study sample included all Texas public high schools for which sufficient data were available. The schools were segmented into five categories by size of enrollment: very large, large, medium, small, and very small. A logit transformation was applied to the dependent variable data before analysis. Percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch was found to have a significant negative correlation with workforce preparedness; the strongest was for very large schools, r (190) = -.70, p < .001, and the weakest was for very small schools, r(237) = -.27, p < .001. Additionally, the relationship of percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch with workforce preparedness was weaker for smaller schools than larger schools. Local population level of education showed a positive correlation for four school size categories. The strongest was again for the very large category, r(190) = .69, p < .001, and the weakest was for medium-sized schools, r(81) = .40, p < .001. Some recommendations from this study are that business leaders focus resources on providing educational mentors and role models for students. Recommendations for future study include replicating the study using data for high schools in other states, and examining the relationship of other independent variables, such as percentage of teachers who hold certifications, to workforce preparedness. |
