The Times reported this week that under a program starting next year, some high school sophomores in eight states will have a chance to earn a diploma and head straight to community college. To do so, however, they will have to pass academic tests known as board exams. If they don’t pass the tests in the 10th grade, they can take them again in their junior and senior years.
The National Center on Education and the Economy, the nonprofit group that is organizing the program, says that students will have to meet basic requirements before they go to college and that it hopes this will reduce the need for remedial classes in college.
A fast-track approach, which is focused on “at risk” students, is already in place at 71 North Carolina high schools, and is spreading in New York, California and Texas.
What are the benefits of a fast-track approach through high school? What are the possible problems and risks?
- Leon Botstein, president of Bard College
- Ze’ev Wurman, former Education Department adviser
- Michael Goldstein, founder of charter public school
- Marc C. Tucker, National Center on Education and the Economy
- Vern Williams, middle school math teacher
- Nancy Hoffman, Jobs for the Future
- Sandra Stotsky, professor of education reform
- Rudy Crew, former chancellor of New York City Schools
- Kenneth Bernstein, social studies teacher
- Amy Wilkins, Education Trust