Posted on 01/11/2006 8:41:43 AM PST by kemathen7
Would you trade one year of high school for two years of college? Lawmakers are proposing a plan that would grant students an associate's degree after completing a 13th grade in high school.
A charter school known as Southwest Early College started a similar program last year. Working in conjunction with the Community College of Denver, SEC will give its students a diploma and associate's degree when they are done. An associate's degree is usually earned after two years at junior college or community college.
"This school and schools like us are literally turning lives around," said SEC Principal Chris Gerboth. His program currently has 253 students, but he says the need in Colorado is great, especially when about a third of students drop out after their first two years in college. The proposal, if passed, would allow school districts to create programs similar to Gerboth's. He said, "The reason why these programs are so important is it introduces college at a time when the high school support systems are still around."
(Excerpt) Read more at 9news.com ...
Many students get through High School without the ability to read adequately, now their associates degree can do the same thing?
great idea- lets give stupider people college degrees ~!
With what public schools are graduating from twelfth grade now, I wouldn't trust them to give the equivalent of two years of college in FOUR years of public school much less one. It's not going to work.
This just lowered the standings for those who earned their A.D. the real way, now they have to compete with "bargain basement" degrees handed out by the local Public School System near you.
That being said, I'm originally from Canada and there, in order to go to college, you have to complete a 13th grade. However, a bachelor's degree is only 3 years. That last year of high school is similar to a first year of college. There is still a 4 year degree program in Canada. It's called an Honours Bachelor's degree and is typically required if you want to go to graduate school.
Friends who have gone to graduate school from Canada to the U.S. have told me the first year of a Masters Program was, course work wise, very similar to the 4th year of the Honours Bachelor's program in Canada.
My only concern in the U.S. is that the high schools do such a poor job of producing literate graduates, whay damage would they do to Associate's programs. Would we then be getting illiterate AA degree holders? Is this simply an attempt to by-pass college entrance requirements that highlight the failure of the public education system?
I've been talking about this for almost 5 years now.
Compress the usual high school curriculum to 3 years, add an extra year, and you can fit two years of community college into high school.
The program has a lot of merit, but it doesn't solve the other problem of trying to graduate adequately prepared high school students from our regular high schools. Until the high schools can actually teach our current level of curricula, there's no way we can expect them to teach to the level that would grant a graduate an associate's degree.
doc: BINGO!
Cheapening college degrees even further bump
Just keep moving the goalposts.
It should not take as long as it does to get these stupid degrees, streamline them.
Almost any kid who graduates high school if home schooled could graduate with his associates degree in the 12th grade, my son did.
They also propose raising the required weekly course hour load to eleventy-two.
Instead of forcing people go to college after high school, how about letting the kids decide if they want to go get a Associates Degree or not..
Hey, another year of high school means more work for NEA teachers. That's just another reason to be against this proposal.
As is typical of Democrats, this is sop to a special-interest in the guise of doing something "for the children." Most union teachers are at the elementary, middle and high school levels. If you make another grade, you need more teachers hence more union members. This is the same driving force behind government pre-school.
who's going to accredit this useless degree? it's a dumb, feelgood concept brought about because they know the schools are failing and need an extra year.
soon there'll be a 14th year and a 15th...
a one year "degree" is really a "certificate" indicating an interest in a subject, not any competency or ability therein.
Don't know how this proposed program would work, but my 17 year old is graduating high school and receiving an AA degree at the same time.
We have a program called dual credit and anybody (public, private or homeschool) can take advantage of it. You just take your classes at the local college instead of going to high school, but the college credits also count as high school credits.
Tuition is free...if you're a public school kid, your books are free too, if you're homeschool or private school kid, you have to pay for your own books.
http://www.spcollege.edu/ac/dc/
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