I’m skeptical about this idea:
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.
I think this is far too narrow a view of the educational process. There are developmental issues involved including physical, psychological, and social that go beyond mastery of certain subjects.
At 16 most kids are still growing intellectually, physically, psychologically, and socially and that’s something that only takes place with the passage of time. Are community colleges really prepared to address the problems of a flock of immature adolescents? I mean a flock more immature than those they’re already handling.
I entered college at 17 after a full four year high school program (I skipped 7th grade). I don’t think I was mature enough for college and would have profited more by it if I’d had that extra year. Heck, I don’t think I was mature enough at 16 to do an adequate job of picking what college I should attend.
At age 16 I was working a full time job. Actually well over 40 hrs. a week.
I disagree with your take. I don’t think those two years spent in high school is useful. I think it’s more likely harmful. High schools today abuse children with workloads their parents would never tolerate for themselves — 7-8 hours of school, 3-4 hours of homework nightly, plus the extracurriculars that are now in effect required subjects.
The system is wildly off-kilter, single-mindedly obsessed with test scores as a path for career advancement among teachers and administrators. It’s sleep deprivation, rigidity and pressure — all in pursuit of a goal which is only tangentially related to actual education.
Community colleges are actually much gentler, much more education-focused, less about educational careerists racking up meaningless test scores. My nephew who is nominally in 10th grade takes all his courses at a community college. My son will do the same if practicable.
I did my senior year of high school taking all my classes at a community college, and I definitely feel I benefitted more from that than I would have another year of high school. The developmental issues are much less of a problem than they’d be at a four-year college, since CCs are already set up to handle more casual students. At least at the CC I attended, classes are smaller and more tightly structured than lower-division classes at a four-year college, and the administration has a good academic advising system set up to help students who aren’t used to a college environment get themselves situated.
The local community college system around here has some pretty extensive “concurrent enrollment” programs for students still in high school, and we deal with students coming in to the schools who are under 18 all the time. This really wouldn’t be a big jump, particularly since many of the college-bound ones would just be using the time to catch up on their general ed requirements for potential degrees in college.
In personal experience, my last year of high school was a major waste of time. I’d already taken the most rigorous course-load I was going to take as a Junior (my school had trimesters and five classes at a time instead of the Block Schedule System – I had four AP classes throughout the entire year out of my five, including a science course and a calculus course), and that was after completing a rigorous sophomore course-load. I probably would have been better off, academically speaking, if I had gone to college after that. I wasn’t the only kid in that position, too.
There might be another good effect, too – although it depends on how you look at it. In the public schooling system, you’re in classes based around age, with each class succeeding another. By contrast, at a community college (and college in general), you’ll have a wide-range of ages in the students, just like you’ll see in the workforce and society in general. I get students ranging from 17-year-olds to people of 65+ age who are just coming in to sit in the classes and listen.
2 words; Doogie Houser.
When I went to High School (which may have been more recently than most of you folks – grad of ’02) there were some students who were already doing this to some effect; taking post secondary courses before their peers were done with Senior year. I heard great feedback from everyone who was involved in these sorts of programs.
Also, my girlfriend was 17 when I met her in college; I think she made the right choices there, seeing as she met me. Your point about a huge influx of students joining the schools is potentially accurate, but then again maybe it could do something for overcrowding in high schools?
I disagree. Even a socially immature bright student faces the problem of being bored out of his mind in high school. I started as a college sophomore at age 16 where I remember that the 19-yr-old women in my chemistry class seemed to have humongous boobs. So what? I eventually grew to appreciate women
The James Scholar program at U of Illinois has long offered advanced placement and early graduation of the brightest high-schoolers. With all those math-challenged women now a college majority, a bright guy pursuing science and math needs to get in and out of high school and college ASAP.
It definitely differs with the person. I skipped three grades, and am a 16-year old freshman at a top 10 university doing just fine. My siblings skipped two grades and will be entering a top 20 university at the age of 16 this fall. We’re good socially and academically, but I’d bet that not all other young college students are ready for college life.
personally i disagree with trying to force your child into college at 16 not only are most unready for it but from a human standpoint quite honestly some people like me couldn’t handle the pressure of leaving their best friends behind my best friend is in that spot i agree with malthus some are ready but most aren’t i could be wrong but i believe hes also talking emotionally and mentally ready just because your intelligent enough doesn’t mean your truly ready
I’m having this predicament as I may need to begin high school fall 2015 I am academically advanced for my age so I don’t think that will be an issue I’m just worried that I will not be able to interact socially with other people.