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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 [...] This being election season there are many civics lessons at hand. Here’s one from the morning paper: Parent seeks removal of civics textbook at Brewer High (Bangor Daily News, 11/3/09) Here’s how today’s class will work. First read the article. Next, after you’ve read the whole article — you have, haven’t you? — tell me if the [...] Apropos of this week’s announcement of another high school reform initiative: The glancing impact of their lavish and ambitious ventures is no surprise to analysts…who, while cautiously optimistic about U.S. schools improving, insist that “educational reformers fail to give due weight to the resilience of schools as institutions.” What they term the “grammar of schooling” [...] Big announcement: Maine will collaborate with New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont to redefine the concept of high school, while sharing ideas for boosting high school graduation rates and enrolling more students in college. A $1 million grant from the Nellie Mae Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will bankroll the effort. Ho hum. Now [...] A tip of the Downeast hat to those good folks at MDISchools.net, who are tipping us off to a big announcement today by the Governor, the Commissioner, and others. Here’s part of the media advisory, as reproduced at MDISchools: WHO Governor John E. Baldacci It doesn’t look good for the values we mostly all value, if we’re to believe this new study, The Ethics of American Youth. Just in time for the holidays we learn that: In bad news for business, more than one in three boys (35 percent) and one-fourth of the girls (26 percent) — a total of 30 [...] If it’s the last thing we ever do! You remember the song. Now New Hampshire is doing something about it. It’s the logical step in an outcomes-based approach, after all. High school sophomores should be ready for college by age 16. That’s the message from New Hampshire education officials, who announced plans Oct. 30 for a new [...] An addendum to yesterday’s post about the DOE’s ambitious high school graduation rate goals: All sorts of questions about the efficacy of high schools are in the air these days. This leads to discussions of issues like dropout rates, graduation rates, and success (or lack thereof) at college preparation. At Downeast Schoolhouse we’re trying to pick up on these themes and bring them to your attention. Now we are shocked [...] This is the image we get when we choose “Get the Facts” and then “Maine” from the Strong American Schools: Diploma to Nowhere page. Not so very promising, is it? A hoax is being played on America. The public believes that a high school diploma shows that a student is ready for college-level academics. [...] There’s a new paper from the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at UM, High School Achievement in Maine: Where You Come From Matters More Than School Size and Expenditures, part of the newest Maine Policy Review. Here are the questions asked: Two recent education policy initiatives operate from the premise that higher student achievement at lower public [...] Noble Street College Prep is a remarkable example of what a school can do for kids who’ve never known success. The public high school in Chicago takes mostly poor and immigrant students. A hundred percent of the students graduate, and almost all go to some of the nation’s top colleges. So begins a report on … [...] |
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