Utah debates eliminating the 12th grade

I can't for the life of me remember exactly where I read this, but supposedly most OECD countries finish secondary schooling at age fifteen, which is why PISA does its testing at age fifteen. The United States tends to score terribly on these assessments, which can mean one of two things: those extra years of schooling aren't very helpful, which correlates with our low college graduation rate in math and science related fields, or it could mean that we do poorly on PISA examinations because our kids are being tested before they get into higher math and science courses.

Since my recollection of the last few years of high school is that of a glorified day care, I'm going with the former, and suggesting they do make the last year of high school optional,and maybe they could offer full on college courses for those who do opt to attend the last year of high school.

The other option would be a complete overhaul of the high school system so that it genuinely prepares all kids for college, not just the ones who take AP courses. Talking to kids at my college, it seems like there's a huge generation gap between when I graduated high school ten years ago and high school graduates now. The kids who don't take AP courses in high school nowadays are incredibly underprepared, even for a no-name state college here in Tennessee.

Or, they could find something else to take the money from for awhile, and pack the senior year full of good relevant classes that will help create a far better workforce with better educated voters. This better educated workforce could then either themselves start or even just attract the kind of business that could help get them out of this slump in the long run, leading to less discussions of this kind.

and just to highlight my stupidity, i didnt check to make sure i had logged morgan out first.

it must be time for bed now.

In Wisconsin we had AP as well, but we also had a program where students were able to take college level courses for both HS and College credit, on the school's dime. I ended up getting Developemental and Abnormal Psychology as well as Jazz Appreciation done by the time I was done with High School.

Well, in perfect and total fairness to the West Jordan school district, it is at least possible that a lot of their seniors could test out given how they structure their curriculum. I'm not exactly sure what the graduation credit requirement for Utah is, but in Idaho just to the north, you have to have 50 credits of classes to pass. Because Utah and Idaho have large numbers of LDS worshippers, and the LDS like to do seminary training just off campus during class time, and that seminary training cannot be a credited class, my high school was arranged around an A-day/B-day schedule to give us 8 credits a semester (in effect, 7 credits a semester for the LDS members).

That being said, multiply 8 by six and add a pair of summer classes, however, and in theory you could meet the requirements for graduation at the end of your junior year without having to test out of a single class. A classmate of mine did just that; I myself graduated with 66 credits, or a full year more than what I was required to graduate with. All I had to do to accomplish that was test out of Reading and take Driver's Ed over the summer. The net effect, put simply, is that the Utah and Idaho systems could conceivably test non-Mormons out of their ranks and save themselves some money.

there were some places in ky that did that too. i think my school just thought that they were better than whatever college would offer to teach the classes.

and since this was kentucky, theres at least a reasonable chance they were correct.

I agree too. Its sad that thats one of the first things cut. Thats what keeps some kids wanting to go to school.

My college accepts local high-school students all the time. In a summer class, I had a 16 year old Jr who out-wrote everyone else in the class, and was taking 12 hours of General Studies during high school to get them out of the way.

Being a Utah resident.... I'm just going to say that Buttars is a fucking douche bag

And might I also add, that there's now word that his political career is nearing an end.... not soon enough if you ask me.... but better late than never I suppose....