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, 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, England, Finland, France and Singapore.
I’ve not been very tuned in to the education world for the last few months, so maybe I missed this. Did you know about this?
The eight states include Maine!
More:
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 up and running, Mr. Tucker said. He estimated that start-up costs for school districts would be about $500 per 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 funds that Education Secretary Arne Duncan has designated for improving public school testing, Mr. Tucker said.
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. (Plan Would Let Students Start College Early, NYT, 2/18/10)
I’ve long felt (ever since I was about 14) that 4 years of high school was not for everyone.
Now if we could have an early 4-year college path out of that joint called high school!
Addendum: I hadn’t missed anything during my absence. This was new to a lot of other people too:
The news that Maine had signed on to the pilot program came as a surprise for some, including Maine Education Association President Chris Galgay. “For the last couple of hours, I have been on the phone trying to find out about this,” Galgay said Wednesday afternoon. “I’m very frustrated. I know few of the details. It sounds absolutely like a major initiative, but it also sounds like a top-down decision — one of many made with no input from practitioners in the field.”
(Maine schools join plan allowing early entry to college after 10th grade, BDN, 2/18/10)