Why Bother With Shakespeare? How High School Humanities Performance Predicts Income, Employment, and Overall Wellbeing

Abstract

Reading and writing abilities of high school students have decreased in recent decades, and this trend will likely be exacerbated by generative A.I. models. What long-term effect might decreased reading and writing abilities have on individual students? Using longitudinal data, we relate the performance abilities in the humanities of high school students with a number of long-term outcomes relating to income, employment, and overall wellbeing. Controlling for numerous academic and demographic variables, we find that high school English GPA is a strong predictor of a wide range of outcomes including income, income growth, likelihood of holding a managerial occupation, likelihood of completing a bachelor’s degree or higher, and likelihood of being married. Math standardized test scores also exhibit strong relationships with long-term outcome variables, whereas math GPAs and verbal standardized testing abilities prove to be very weak predictors. Our findings indicate that high school students should focus on skills which are effectively reflected in English GPAs but not verbal standardized test scores––specifically the sustained practices of reading, writing, and analysis. We suggest that schools disincentivize students from using generative artificial intelligence to complete their reading and writing assignments.