Eight states to introduce program for 10th graders to get diploma early and enroll in college

[heli]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/education/18educ.html

February 18, 2010
Plan Would Allow for Early College
By SAM DILLON

Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests 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. 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 also 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, England, Finland, France and Singapore.

The program is being organized by the National Center on Education and the Economy, and its goals include insuring that students have mastered a set of basic requirements and reducing the numbers of high school graduates who need remedial courses when they enroll in college... The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has provided a $1.5 million planning grant to help the national center work with states and districts to get the program running. Start-up costs for school districts would be about $500 a student, to buy courses and tests and to train teachers. To defray those costs, the eight states intend to apply for some of the $350 million in federal stimulus money designated for improving public school testing.

High school students will begin the new coursework in the fall of 2011 in Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. The education commissioners of those states have pledged to sign up 10 to 20 schools each for the pilot project, and have begun to reach out to district superintendents. The project’s backers hope it will eventually spread to all schools in those states, and inspire other states to follow suit. Supporters include the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union...

Its backers say the new system would reduce the need for community colleges to offer remedial courses because the passing score for the 10th-grade tests would be set at the level necessary to succeed in first-year college courses. Failure would provide 10th graders with an early warning system about the knowledge and skills they need to master in high school before seeking to enroll in college. Currently, many high school graduates enrolling in community colleges are stunned to find that they cannot pass the math and English exams those colleges use to determine who need remediation...

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Wait a minute. I thought our schools were failing.

Now we are doing such an awesome job that kids are ready for college two years early? That's great news.

[stray cat]

2. Easy - we can't neglect the best and brightest so we have to get them to college early

that way we can cater to babysitting the others until they turn 18

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Damn close to true. The best and the brightest are more than ready at that age

[Oregone]

9. Not really

Yeah, they can handle the learning, but the life experience that one can obtain in college?

Actually, I probably wouldn't even of been able to handle the learning at that age. I did well enough in school, and at college, but 16 was quite young.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

11. Some are, some are not. I certainly would not pack a 16 off to UMD etc

but a local JC would be fine.

Neither of my daughters really needed to go to HS when we returned to the US. The low level of content and progress in the core courses coupled with HS drama bored them to tears. The AP courses and electives were what kept them interested. My youngest later wished she had gone direct to JC at 15/16. No doubt she was ready for it.

[Oregone]

13. Few are I bet

And even ready for it intellectually, there is no proof that entering post-HS academia at such a young age equates to a happier, more fulfilled life. Being able to pass tests doesn't necessarily mean you will be able to develop intellectually or emotionally at the rate of someone two years your elder. Life experience and maturation can be an asset in learning, as well as personal development during that critical period where many people also find themselves.

Yet this policy will not affect just those few.

Personally, looking back, I would of been very unhappy doing this. I would never let me children do it either.

I remember quite a few of the kids that really excelled at my college (especially socially mind you), were ones that spent a year abroad after high school on foreign studies. I had a few on my rugby team. They came in at 19-20, very mature, ready to learn and they seeming were quite able to handle the social scene adeptly compared to other freshmen. Just an anecdotal observation. Now that was an opportunity I envied.

[seabeyond]

24. exactly. i wouldnt be sending kid to the university of choice. but we have a JC that

will do just fine with core classes and would save me moeny when the time came to sending him to university

[SoCalDem]

8. yep, that's probably it, but as a parent of a kid who was in the G.A.T.E.

program from 3rd grade, on, I actually like this idea.. In some of his classes he was more of a tutor than a student, and it pissed me off more than a few times..
he did take chemistry during the summer at UCR so he would not have to take it in HS. Most of his classwork from about 9th grade was pretty boring..even with AP classes.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

3. This seems like a decent proposal to cut spending.

Students that are interested in trade schools, associate degrees, or other career paths can pass thier graduation exams and move on. Students that want to move on to college can contiue to throug the 12th grade.

[DAMANgoldberg]

4. Follow The Money...

Imagine if you will that you are a School Board Member or President, like
this guy. OK, you have decreased tax revenues, increased enrollment, and the pesky little
manner of a 39 year segregation court order you still have to live with. The
state is of little help, and those that truly can home school or live in a
suburban county.

Now you have the opportunity to potentially lower the costs of running the
schools by housing less kids in the upper secondary grades, thus saving $$.
After all, in this economy, it doesn't really matter what you learn in High
School, you can be just as unemployed as the rest of us, myself included. This
sounds wacky, but sometimes the best ideas come from "way out there."

[csziggy]

6. So what is new about this? My sister did it in the early 70s

Of course, she also started school at the age of 5, got her AA degree in 14 months, and completed her BA in 18 more months. She did not have to take any special tests, she just had to complete the graduation requirements early while maintaining a high grade point average and also had to work her butt off. :shrug:

[Oregone]

7. Cutting out two more years of the best chances for kids to get laid

Then throwing them into an environment where the older chicks wont touch a man without at least some peach fuzz (but heh, there is always unfortunate luck for the young girls in this situation).

Oh our sad youth.

Good stuff. So a kid that young has to figure out what to major in and spend their lives doing 2 years earlier. Shit, I don't even know what I want to do when I grow up, and Im 30. Buy a house two years earlier. Work two years earlier. Pay taxes two years earlier. Become a cog two years earlier.

Seriously folks...in our quest to be the best or the smartest, are we forgetting about being the happiest? Life is short. Take it slow and easy.

[surrealAmerican]

10. So instead of taking classes for free for two more years ...

... at high school, students will get the opportunity to pay for their classes at community college. This only works out well for wealthy kids, or kids who attend very crappy high schools.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

12. Many of the CC involved with early matriculation do not charge HS students

Not true everywhere, but in enough places.

[noamnety]

16. If they are planning to go to college anyway

going early actually ends up being cheaper. Tuition rates climb at an astronomical rate - it's cheaper to go from 2008-2012 than it is to go to the same school from 2010-2014.

[surrealAmerican]

25. It's cheaper still to get a semester or two's worth ...

... of AP credits in high school, and be able to spend less time (and money) in college.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Let's get those profit-making automatons going early

They don't need artsy-fartsy things like "understanding the world" or "deeper moral foundations".

Just get them on that assembly line, stat!

[noamnety]

15. I did something like this.

I didn't get the HS diploma or GED, we didn't have a program for that - I just dropped out to go straight to college. Got the BA at 19.

Eli Pariser of MoveOn did the same. So did the Coen Brothers.

The philosophy behind the school the four of us went to (and at least one other DUer I can think of) was that the last 1 or 2 years of high school are often a waste. Academically, the last few years of high school are often frustrating for advanced students. Teachers are reteaching skills the advanced students often have already mastered. Classroom discussions about books might be focused on reviewing what's in the book because half the class didn't read it for homework. For those who are ready for real discussions involving critical thinking, the rest of the class might just not be functioning at that level yet. And the classes which should be challenging are sometimes dumbed down to ensure half the class isn't lost. That's why if you take high school physics, for example, you're expected to retake an intro physics class in college. If you can handle the college physics at 16, why put yourself through a dumbed down version for an entire year first?

Sometimes the last few years of school can kill off a love of learning because students stop being challenged. I have to believe there are a lot of DUers that felt unchallenged in those last few years. I've seen some complaining that teachers won't give differentiated work (work geared toward their child's level) even as early as elementary school. Sometimes kids become apathetic or disillusioned with education if they stay in that environment.

When 500 dropouts, ages 16-25, were interviewed, they gave many reasons for leaving school:

47% said classes were not interesting
43% missed too many days to catch up
45% entered high school poorly prepared by their earlier schooling
69% said they were not motivated to work hard
35% said they were failing
32% said they left to get a job
25% left to become parents
22% left to take care of a relative
Two-thirds said they would have tried harder if more was expected from them.

Dropouts Give Reasons: Why do students leave high school without a diploma? http://educationalissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/dropouts_give_reasons#ixzz0fr22vi1G

[gkhouston]

17. Not sure this is really the answer. Judging by the kids I've encountered at

a local community college, it seems to be a place for kids who didn't get high school right the first time, not a place for kids who want to bypass the end of high school because they're clocking time and they want to dig in and make a start on college. Some of the kids I knew in college who entered before the age of 18 were very immature. Then again, so were some of the 18-year-olds.

[d.gibbs]

18. So 20 years from now, 11th and 12th grades will be for laggards

since most "normal" kids" will have gone on to college after the 10th grade?

And we won't need as many high school teachers?

And the average age of bachelor's recipients will be 19?

[gmoney]

19. Let's lower the military enlistment age to 16 while we're at it.

Prime of health, invulnerable, know it all... let them see the world, meet interesting exotic people, etc...

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. +1

[Hekate]

20. California, otoh, is deliberately scaling back admissions to college at all levels to save money

That's right -- not only are tuition and fees rising every year, fewer young people are being admitted in the first place.

How sick is that?

Hekate

[JCMach1]

22. Just operationalizing what was true already... CC= advanced High School

College, it's the NEW high school...

[seabeyond]

23. i would love this to happen in texas. this would be excellent for my son

this is just the initial feelings i have on it and havent done a lot fo thinking yet, nor had enough coffee. but i was hoping txaes was one of the states.

[gmoney]

26. BREAKING: Prom support industries bracing for hard times (eom)