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No college Plan, No Diploma!

3 Comments

Recently, I read an interesting article about a new and innovative effort by a high school to raise the percentage of college students. The school is locate in Boston.  The main focus of the school is to offer a rigorous curriculum for the students so they can be prepared for college.  In order to receive their diploma, the students had to be accepted to a college first.  For many students as well as parents this might seem drastic or disagreeable.  However, I really like this idea and yes coming from a teacher it makes sense. I personally love the concept because I think we need to put more pressure on students to go to college and further their education.  It is alarming to me to see so many young, bright students do nothing post high school.  Such a waste of talent and intellect should not be encouraged or accepted.  Yes, many young people will argue that this is America and they have a right to do whatever they want and that includes making their own decisions in regards to their future.  I on the one hand concede to this argument, but on the other hand I feel that we need to stop babying these young people by giving them so much freedom and choice.  Needless to say I love the idea of no high school diploma unless they are accepted to college. 

3 thoughts on “No college Plan, No Diploma!”

  2. Ginger,
    I don’t know how to transfer so I took the easy way out and copy and paste your comment here!:) I left your comment on my student blog so they can see another opinion. It will widen their perspective. Yeah, I heard about the test in NY. Don’t you have to pass an exit exam for each level in order to go to the next level? In Arizona we have the AIMS test and it is required that all students pass the test to get their diploma.

    Hi, I thought this look familiar 🙂
    I like the idea also, but I think it would be somewhat difficult to get
    this pass nationwide. When I was younger, I went to HS in NYC for the
    first 2 years, and went to HS in PA for my Junior and Senior years, and
    I had noticed that the schooling in PA did not require their students
    to take the statewide regional exam like in NYC therefore the students
    were not as knowledgeable IMO, and if they passed their classes, then
    they got the HS Diploma, but in NYC, you had to pass the state
    board regional exam in order to get your HS diploma, I thought that was
    neat. I don’t know if they are still doing this now, I have not kept up
    with the news lately.

    Reply

  3. Yes, we had to pass the regional exam before going on to the next semester, if not then they’d put you in a remedial English or Math class. It is not that the students in NYC were smarter, but I think they had to try harder and apply themselves more, I recalled the Lao students in PA hung out a lot and very few even graduated from HS. I didn’t go to school with any Lao student, I got accepted to a girl HS and there were an entrance exam that we had to take in order to get accepted; it was not a private school and it was funded by the state. I missed the entrance exam since I went in the middle of the semester, but I got in because of my GPA, but I struggle to graduate from that HS.

    Reply

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