Is optional 12th grade turning Florida schools into a joke?

[athos1126]

Uhhh, yes, yes it is.

TAMPA - It used to be that when a kid decided to drop out of school after the 11th grade, he was called a loser, a dropout. But in Florida, there is a different term for it now: graduate.

Florida is the only state in the country with an optional 12th grade. The plan was implemented as part of the state's response to the class-size amendment.

More...
http://www.abcactionnews.com/stories/2003/08/030829earlygrad.shtml

[athos1126]

1. Gah, mods...

please send to GD. I posted here on accident.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Jeb Bush has got to go.

There is no other alternative to this abomination of misgovernment.

[JohnKleeb]

3. Are you back for good athos?

:hi:

[quaker bill]

4. What about being +/- 45th in the nation hasn't already?

The schools in FL have been an afterthought since who knows when. I can only attest to the period from 1966 on...

[dofus]

5. It's sad but true

that for an awful lot of high school seniors, that year is largely wasted. Many of them take no more than two or three classes, getting done by noon. At least that's quite common in the public schools around here.

Graduation requirements are sufficiently low in most places that they can be almost completely met in the first three years. Only the four year English requirement (and I'm not even sure that's universal) keeps students in school that fourth year.

I'm not sure what the solution is. Maybe have higher graduation requirements. Maybe make it easier to complete requirements and graduate in three years.

Which is what I did many years ago. I went to summer school after freshman and sophomore years, and with a lot of pestering, got to be a senior in my third year of high school and graduated early. It worked for me. It might make a lot of sense to have more formal programs to allow this.

[athos1126]

7. What they're proposing isn't

completing the entire high school curriculum in three years. They're chopping off the last year of education. Let me tell you, if I didn't have my senior year english teacher, I wouldn't be in college and getting the grades I do right now.

So, it's not about making it easier for kids to get out faster, it's about lowering the reqs to graduate to allow illiterate kids into the job market.

[revcarol]

6. Headline S/B: Colleges refuse to accept Florida students.

Lowering academic standards is a sure way to guarantee that most students will not be accepted into colleges outside of Florida.

Is this what our enlisted military want for their children? Enquiring minds want to know.

[morningglory]

8. Imagine, as a wet-behind-ears 11th-grader being thrown into Monkey

Boy*'s job market with Florida wages. You missed your senior year and now look at a lifetime of working in restaurants.

[sweetladybug]

10. In Florida a child passes if his/her grade is a 60

I went with me niece to enroll her son into the 9th grade and we could not believe our ears when we were told this. Her son, who is 15 yrs old was pleased with the grading system since he came from a school in Indiana where the lowest passing grade was a 70. We had to explain to him that the children in Florida were been cheated from a proper education and we had to explain to him that is was not good since a child passing with a 60 grade just did not know enough to pass. This will only hurt the child as he gets older and tries to farther their education or get a good paying job. This state is TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE, but what can you expect with a Bush in charge of it. Saturday we will be moving back to middle TN and I sure will be happy to be out of here.

[cmd]

9. Isn't it strange

They push kindergarten to a full day program, turn it into a first grade program, then chop off the 12th grade. Kids do learn at different rates. When I was teaching kindergarten, I had kids in the classroom who were three months old when other students in my class were being conceived. Logic tells me that there should be two school entry dates in one year. It would be much easier to place children in an appropriate learning setting if their needs were addressed. But what do I know, I was just a teacher for more than 30 years.

[Dookus]

11. Not LBN...

sorry, this article is from August.

Please feel free to post it in another forum, perhaps GD or Health, Education & Social Policy. Thanks!


Dookus
DU Moderator