Forty-eight percent of graduating HS seniors may not be able to read this!

At least that's the results just released from a high school program in York PA.  It is just one more troubling look at why The Perfect Labor Storm forecast is not only real but ominous.

Fewer than half of the students taking classes in a York (PA) curriculum called Your Employability Skills (YES) at 14 York County high schools were able to pass tests of basic English, math and problem solving. Only a third of the students met the 95-percent attendance requirement. Their attendance records and scores on separate problem-solving tests are poor as well.

There are test results for 263 seniors who took the YES class at York County schools last year, according to statistics from the association. Of those, only 47 percent could pass a test of ninth-grade English and math skills. Only 41 percent passed the Wonderlic, a test of problem-solving skills. Thirty-two percent met the 95-percent attendance requirement.

What is frightening and at the same time tragic is that Your Employability Skills is a for-credit elective class for high school seniors.  Yes, that's correct - YES is an "elective for-credit" course offered to high school students to help ensure they have "employability" skills after they graduate. Of the students taking the YES program last year, 48 percent said they planned to enter the workforce after high school. Half said they would attend college or a two-year technical school.

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