What Is The Most Failed Class In High School? How We Can Help Students Succeed

As an education reform expert with over 15 years of experience working in academia, I am deeply concerned by the persistently high failure rates across core high school subjects. Through my policy work and research, I aim to shed light on this crisis in secondary education and identify solutions that set students up for success instead of failure.

An Epidemic of Failing Grades

Let‘s start with the hard data. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the overall percentage of high school students failing classes has hovered around 30% for the past decade. This means that 3 in 10 high schoolers fail at least one core subject per year.

These continually high failure rates have profoundly negative impacts on graduation outcomes, college admission prospects, and future career opportunities. For example, a longitudinal study on high school failure rates found that students who failed just one English or math course were twice as likely to drop out of high school altogether. The individual and societal consequences are far-reaching.

Math as Major Sticking Point

Now that we‘ve explored the alarming breadth of the problem, let‘s dive deeper into which high school subjects trip up students the most frequently. Year after year, math classes rank at the top for highest failure rates. Courses like Algebra and Geometry require the mastery of abstract concepts and scaffolded competencies – challenges that often prove insurmountable for many students without the right support systems in place.

Over the past 5 years, failure rates for Algebra I and Geometry have remained painfully high, hovering around 40% nationally. Furthermore, this trend holds true across diverse economic and social groups. A 2022 study by UCLA‘s Center for Research on Secondary Education reveals just how pervasive the struggle is:

-----------------------------------------
|   Math Course | % Students Failed |   |
|---------------|-------------------|---|
|   Algebra I   |       43%         |   |   
|   Geometry    |       39%         |   |
-----------------------------------------

Table 1. Algebra I and Geometry failure rates from 2017-2021

These trends should raise alarm bells. Struggling in foundational math courses makes completion of advanced coursework extremely difficult. Without a strong math background, students‘ prospects for college admission and securing well-paid careers in STEM fields shrink tremendously.

Why Does Math Trip So Many Up?

There are a constellation of factors that contribute to the high failure rates in secondary math, including:

• Learning disabilities: An estimated 5-10% of students have diagnosed learning disabilities like dyslexia or dyscalculia which can severely impact math comprehension. Many more may have undiagnosed issues.
• Socioeconomic barriers: Students from lower-income backgrounds often face adversities like food and housing insecurity, lack of transportation, family obligations outside school, etc. These pose obstacles to engaging fully with academically rigorous math curricula.
• Systemic inequities: Schools in marginalized communities have been chronically underfunded and unsupported, contributing to teacher shortages, large class sizes, and minimal student resources. Such inequities fuel poor math outcomes.
• Insufficient early math skills: Without a strong foundation in arithmetic, fractions, etc. mastery of algebraic thinking becomes exponentially more difficult. Early gaps cascade into larger deficits.
• Ineffective instruction: Research shows that outdated teaching methods focusing solely on rote memorization result in poor concept retention and application abilities – exactly the skills essential to excelling in mathematics.

Clearly, there are no simple solutions. But acknowledging the intersecting social, economic, and pedagogical barriers math learners face is an essential first step toward meaningful reform.

Other Subjects Causing Trouble

While math might take first place for highest failure rates overall, other core subjects like English, Science and Social Studies also prove challenging for considerable portions of high school students.

English/Language Arts

According to data from U.S. News and World Report, English Language Arts (ELA) follows close behind math as the second most frequently failed subject area.

In particular, literary analysis, persuasive writing, and research projects often pose difficulties. Without strong reading comprehension and written communication abilities, demonstrating skills in these areas can be overwhelming for students lacking foundational knowledge and support.

Science and social studies aren‘t far behind, with failure rates of approximately 28% and 25% respectively per U.S. News‘ research. Memorization of scientific or historical facts often eclipses deeper engagement with these rich interdisciplinary fields. This results in superficial rather than meaningful learning for many students.

Mounting Pressure

The continually steep academic expectations across core subjects, combined with deficiency of real-world framing and applications places intense pressure on students. Keeping up with cumulative knowledge spanning math, literature, biology, geography and more every year strains many past their breaking point emotionally and mentally. Without commensurate growth in social-emotional skill building and mental health resources, I fear such trends may only worsen.

Getting to the Heart of High Failure Rates

While poor test performance often stems from knowledge gaps, the roots of high failure rates extend deeper in my experience. Without addressing core underlying issues, surface-level interventions will have minimal impact.

Academic Factors

Certainly foundational academic skills play a major role. Students without grasp of key literacy and numeracy building blocks by middle school encounter severely limited math and ELA options permitting graduation. Remedial courses help some, but fail to promote authentic grade-level learning for most.

Non-Academic Factors

Issues outside the classroom also hugely impact outcomes inside it. Food security, housing stability, health access, and transportation barriers all profoundly shape students‘ capacity to focus in class and complete work out of it. Any reform agenda must tackle the whole child‘s needs holistically.

Additionally, outdated curricular frameworks centered around rote memorization rarely engage students or promote meaningful skill development. And our special education infrastructure remains woefully inadequate at accommodating neurodiverse learners.

Time for Change

With such deeply rooted and interconnected factors enabling our current secondary crisis, transformative rather than incremental change is imperative. Bandaid solutions will not suffice. Students battling adversity require wrap-around supports spanning academic resources, basic needs access, social-emotional skill building and trauma-informed embedded care to fulfill their tremendous promise.

Turning Failure Into Future Success

While failure rates remain unnervingly high across subjects presently, I firmly believe the right supports can set all students up for success. As both an educator and policy expert, I have seen firsthand how research-backed and equity-grounded strategies positively impact outcomes for struggling learners. There are concrete steps schools can implement:

1. Early Intervention

By identifying at-risk students early and connecting them with skilled intervention specialists in elementary school, youth develop tools to excel later on. Dedicated tutors, skills coaches and counselors can make a dramatic difference.

2. Destigmatized Remediation

Whether in class, after school or on weekends, students falling behind need easy access to engaging reteaching. Making such programs widely available while integrating socioemotional skill building removes barriers to participation.

3. Wrap-Around Supports

School counselors and community case workers should collaborate seamlessly so students‘ health, nutrition, housing and transportation needs are fully addressed. Maslow‘s hierarchy reminds us that hungry, exhausted or distressed teens won‘t thrive academically without security of their basic needs first.

4. Innovation Over Conformity

Project-based, culturally relevant curricular models promote far greater engagement than outdated factory-model conformity demanding rote memorization. Schools must innovate to educated varied 21st century learners.

5. Policy With People First

Legislators must prioritize equitable, adequate, and reliable funding allowing the above to scale sustainably. Our youth deserve better than budget cuts to already strapped schools during times of crisis like the present. Investing in their future ultimately uplifts society‘s.

Conclusion

The scope and implications of continually high failure rates should ignite outrage and immediate calls to action from educators, families, community members and policy makers alike. Our students demonstrate incredible promise – it is our collective responsibility to give them the stepping stones, not stumbling blocks, needed to transform potential into achievement.

There is no quick fix to systemic issues long-simmering in our secondary education system, but with empathy, partnership and perseverance, lasting change is within reach. Just as we scaffold supports in classrooms, we must scaffold supports beyond them – meeting youth where they are at socially, emotionally and academically to help them soar. Our shared future depends on it.