New Plan Lets Top HS Students Graduate 2 Years Early 425
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that education commissioners in Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont have pledged to sign up 10 to 20 schools each for a pilot project that would allow 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college. 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. '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.' says Marc S. Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy. Kentucky's commissioner of education, Terry Holliday, says high school graduation requirements have long been based on having students accumulate enough course credits to graduate. 'We've been tied to seat time for 100 years. This would allow an approach based on subject mastery — a system based around move-on-when-ready,' says Holliday. However some school officials are concerned about the social and emotional implications of 16-year-olds going off to college. 'That's far too young to be thrown into an environment with college students who are about 18 to 23 years old. ... Most of them are just not mature enough to handle that,' says Mary Anderson, headmaster of Pinkerton Academy."
Great idea! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:d'oh (Score:2, Funny)
Time to re-tool No Child Left Behind! ;-)
NCLB sure has produced a high quantity of tools, however the vast majority of which are not students.
Pennsylvania should know (Score:3, Funny)
Pennsylvania should know if they are ready to move on to college based on the live webcam feeds they have of the students.
Re:Ill placed worries (Score:4, Funny)
I could see your point if the students were going away for college but their not
parser error
Re:Ill placed worries (Score:3, Funny)
Leonard: "You went to college."
Sheldon: "Yeah, but I was only twelve."
Re:Ill placed worries (Score:4, Funny)
Research says the brain doesn't achieve a steady state until one is dead and thoroughly rotted.