Dropout problem solved. |
Posted on 02/17/2010 7:23:03 AM PST by reaganaut1
In an experiment that could reshape American secondary education, high schools in eight states will introduce new courses next year, along with a battery of tests for sophomores, that will allow students who pass to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college.
Students who pass but aspire to attend a selective college may continue with college preparatory courses in their junior and senior years, organizers of the new effort said. Students who fail the 10th grade tests, known as board exams, can try again at the end of their 11th and 12th grades. The tests would cover not only English and math but other subjects like science and history.
The new system of high school coursework with the accompanying board examinations is modeled largely on systems in high-performing nations including Denmark, Finland, England, France and Singapore.
One of the goals of the program is to reduce the numbers of high school graduates who need remedial courses when they enroll in college. More than a million college freshmen across America must take remedial courses each year, and many drop out before getting a degree.
“That’s a central problem we’re trying to address, the enormous failure rate of these kids when they go to the open admission colleges,” said Marc S. Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, a Washington-based nonprofit that is organizing the board exam effort. “We’ve looked at schools all over the world, and if you walk into a high school in the countries that use these board exams, you’ll see kids working hard, whether they want to be a carpenter or a brain surgeon.”
The 100 or so high schools participating in the initiative are pioneers in a pilot project
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I disagree with this because I don’t think kids at these ages are emotionally mature enough to make the decisions needed to plan their lives after high school.
But that’s just me....
Ah yes, high school - where they cram two years of learning into four.
Yes because the government is so good at re-thinking decades of history and making things ‘better’
I can’t wait for this young ones to be out 2 years early competing in the job market for $7.50 an hour
3 or 4 years of making $300 a week with no real life skills or responsibiities seems like suh a great idea- i wonder what they’ll spend it all on.
Dropout problem solved. |
The “educators” have their heads up a dark place. Already, the “graduation” rates at community colleges (getting a 2 year “degree” or transferring to a 4-year college) are dismal (approx. 25%). Many of the community college students take “remedial” courses (essentially high school courses that never count toward any college degree). The graduation rate nationally for all colleges is about 50% (defined as a degree within 6 years). Only about 26% of adults over the age of 24 have a college degree. Less than 1% have an advanced degree (MS, MA, PhD, LLD, MD and so forth). The educators continue to fail at raising these rates. They are in a very dark place.
In many states you can already do this, it’s called dual credit or dual enrollment, and it’s done through the state colleges and community colleges.
Lots of homeschoolers take advantage of it, and the kids earn their AA and high school diploma at the same time (as the course work at the college counts toward both high school and college.)
In our state you have to pass the college placement test, testing at a certain level in math, reading, and grammar,etc. in order to be admitted to the program.
Our son, and many of his friends, took this route. They never set foot in a high school and received their HS diploma and AA at the same time.
They can then enroll in a traditional 4 year school as a junior if they choose to pursue a Bachelor's degree or go into the work force, depending on their goals.
I would have loved this when I was in high school. I was 1 credit short in my junior year of what I needed to graduate right then. My senior year was essentially a waste except for getting that 1 credit. The school system I was in only had college-credit classes available at 1 school (not mine) and I didn't have a car so there wasn't much choice.
It's SARCASM, dangit, it's SARCASM! whap! whap!
I disagree. At 15, I had my own car, paid for groceries for the house, insurance, gas, etc. and was ready to get the heck out of dodge.
I think there are plenty of kids ready to move on in life. You don’t acquire that wisdom until you experience it yourself so people can tell you all day long what to do and not do and it won’t have an impact until you get hit with a 2x4 of life.
The trouble with this is that we have kids graduating from HS who do not have enough accumulated knowledge to qualify as college freshmen. Look at the percentage that actually finish biology, physics and chemistry..look at the percentage that get as far as calculus in math. Very few.
Look at how many have actually done research papers and original writing. What passes for a HS education in the US is nothing compared to Europe or Asia. They have had more hours and more learning.
Sounds like an awesome idea, the government run schools do away with bad ratings due to dropout rate and low grade scores...
Oh wait...
My eldest homeschooled daughter did this (but just for a year). It gave her a lot of credibility at 4-year college application time, that she was taking a full credit load at a community college and had a 4.0 GPA there.
As a guy who teaches organic chemistry at a university, I’m of at least two minds here. If your degree is going to be in a technical area, the ability to handle the level of critical thinking is developing in the late teens. Some are ready others are not. A few years ago I had two first year students taking organic who had grades of 5 on the AP general chemistry exam. One was the second highest grade in the course, the other barely got a C. The moral I took from that is that you need to be sure you are ready and it is tough to judge that. I agree that a lot of what goes on in high school can be a waste of time (or worse), but hitting the college ASAP may not be the solution. Maybe working while taking general ed courses part time could work for some.
If what we're doing today isn't working, as your post is saying, why wouldn't we try a different approach?
College is not for everyone - it never will be. Nor are the advanced courses that you list in your post. I would think that the percentage of the population in general who understand calculus is always going to be very small no matter what. It's a very difficult subject, as is physics and advanced chemistry or biology.
One of the hardest things I ever did was get by BS degree and many, many times along the way I was ready to give up.
If the students who can do advanced work are allowed to do so, it would seem to me that the high school teachers would have more time to spend with the students who need more remediation.
I left home right before my 16th birthday, supported myself as a waitress, bought a car and graduated from high school early after attending a vocational business school program. I don't see this program as much different than that. Lessons learned in real life are always more beneficial than those learned in the classroom.
To cut the cost of ‘education’ to the taxpayers:
Cut out Kindergarten. There are no academic courses involved, and it has morphed into being a taxpayer funded child care station. I don’t think it is the job of the taxpayers to provide child care for the kids next door.
Stop ‘teaching’ in several languages. Either the ‘student’ can speak English or the student is not enrolled. Every time a teacher has to stop and clarify something in a classroom for the ‘benefit’ of the non-English speaking ‘student’, it completely drags down all the other students. We are spending millions of dollars ‘teaching’ ‘students’ who are here illegally in the first place. The Teachers Union fought hard in California to allow these illegals into the classroom-—because that meant that more and more ‘teachers’ had to be hired.
Great idea. I couldn’t have cared less about High School and although I was passing with A’s, except in Algebra, I couldn’t wrap my head around being taught things I had learned in earlier grades. This was in Geography, Science and History.
I started college at 15 and took the California High School Equivalency Exam(same as GED)
Today I are a productive citzen and gots nah regreyets.
Still, there are some dummies who should just stay in school.
I can’t tell you how many times I have given classes on writing in general and even proposals.
Some people are just dumb and the dumber ones have been the dorks with pedigrees from college.
I wonder sometimes what makes a person hang their diploma in a cubicle, like some badge of honor.
I only care about problem solvers and people with pedigrees, many times, can’t figure out how to do anything but get someone else to do their job.
Of course I charge them for their laziness and stupidity but, that’s just me.
At 15, I had my own car””
Lots of states no longer give driver’s licenses to anyone under the age of 16, and some even higher than that.
Some states don’t let anyone under the age of 16 have a job, either, unless it is within the confines of a family business.
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First we institute a test in sophomore year that would let them graduate. Then we dumb down the test.