Monday, May 11, 2009
Reforming College Expectations
As I've noted before, I am intrigued by the plans for New Hampshire to move to a curriculum that allows graduation at sixteen for students entering associate degree and trade schools, as well as a more rigorous AP/IB-style schedule for students who stay for junior and senior year before applying to four-year colleges. To that end, I wrote a piece of op-ed commentary which was featured as the cover piece for the Denver Post's Sunday Perspective section yesterday.
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3 comments:
I read your article yesterday and couldn’t agree with you more. I have been in education in several states over the past 40 years—at the high school, 2- and 4-year college, and vo-tech school levels, as well as administratively. The importance of respecting and understanding that many individuals are neither interested in nor suited for a college education has been apparent. A revision of our K-16 philosophy is absolutely necessary, and it wrangles me to hear “every student needs to be able to go to college.” How about instead “every student needs to be able to receive additional career training and/or education during AND after high school.”
Thanks for bringing this topic to a front page!
I also really liked the article/generally agree. I just hope it's a feasible reform to hope for and not just another pipedream.
The reduction in voc ed, and the belief that every student should be prepared for college, is one of the worst beliefs to hit education in a long time. The damage done may even be more than that done by whole language.
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