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.
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