In my last post, I talked about how the U.S. is falling behind in higher education. This week I’ve run across an article from the Boston Globe discussing how the Massachusetts Board of Education is pushing up curriculum standards in secondary schools to get kids ready to go to college.

It’s not a stretch to think that the more comfortable students are with academic subjects, the more they’ll be comfortable with going to and succeeding in college. Let’s face it; if kids go to college and can’t handle the subject matter, they’re much more likely to drop out. Here’s what the Massachusetts higher education chancellor says:

The move follows a recent state report that concluded more than a third of public high school graduates attending Massachusetts public colleges must take remedial courses, which do not count for college credit. Students stuck in remedial courses at the start of their college careers are far less likely to graduate, said Patricia F. Plummer, the state’s higher education chancellor, who helped draft the recommendations.

A better K-12 experience (better meaning that they know more and won’t be behind in college) may be one ingredient to helping the U.S. stay ahead of the curve in its education needs.

The Massachusetts program is called MassCore, but it is only a series of recommendations to schools. Schools don’t have to follow them. The Board of Education will be following up with studies of college students from schools who adopt these guidelines.

I truly think that getting more people to go to college starts with building a strong foundation in public schools. You can’t force feed education to anyone, but you can make sure that all the right ingredients are available to students who are hungering for success (sorry for the food puns, it’s dinnertime as I write this). A few more advanced math and English classes mixed in with some foreign language classes apparently seems to be part of the mix. Let’s just hope students take advantage of what is offered for their sake and the sake of the country’s prosperity.