Photo courtesy of Stockvault
From serious cases of senioritis to the infamous senior skip day, the last year of high school is sometimes wrongly deemed by students as a year to coast through their classes and responsibilities. Even high achievers may soon be skipping out on senior year, but they wouldn’t be playing hookythey’d be headed off to college.
Twenty-one states already allow students to graduate early, and 35 let students graduate based on performance on state proficiency tests, rather than fulfilling specific course requirements, according to the Education Commission of the States.
A recent USA Today story said that many high school students end up “tinkering with their senior year,” whether this means graduating early or earning college credits while still in high school.
“By the fall of 2011, a small group of high schools in eight states will take part in a new initiative, announced last week, that will allow high school sophomores who pass a series of board exams’ to graduate two years early and move directly to a two- or four-year college,” the USA Today story said. They also mentioned the 50,000 students enrolled in early-college high schools, which operate specifically for this purpose.
In addition to getting students into universities and/or the workforce sooner, eliminating senior year would also take some of the strain off school budgets that are already stretched to the maximum.
Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, told USA Today that for many, senior year is, “a waste of time. And it’s certainly a waste of money for hard-pressed school systems, who could better use those dollars to spend on the youngsters that need the additional time.”
Schools have long been calling for more teaching time in their school day, week and year (read up on that in this month’s cover story), but for students who are ready to move on before senior year, school may seem too long already.
While abolishing senior year altogether is not the answerespecially for those students who need the extra time to take advanced placement classes and prepare themselves for college-level learninggiving students the option to forgo their final year seems like a winning idea.
For those academically exceptional students who are ready to start college early, the last year of high school can seem tedious. It’s better to let these students move on to an environment where they can be challenged, rather than take a semester or two filled with easy classes they know they can coast though until their college acceptance letters arrive.
Tricia Smith, Spring intern
