Working within the system

Billed as a new idea in education is an initiative from the National Center on Education and Economy. The program would allow high school students to graduate after 10th grade, pending passing certain academic tests, in order to allow them to study trades or to attend community college.

The hope is to reduce the amount of college students who need to take remedial courses. According to an article in The New York Times, "more than a million college freshmen across America must take remedial courses each year, and many drop out before getting a degree."

In essence, it gives high school students a chance to begin studying what they love sooner, outside academics, and gives them a leg up in the industry in which they choose to work. For example, students who wish to study auto mechanics can begin studying at age 16 or 17 instead of waiting until they graduate high school.

It's a great idea, and even Bill Gates has signed on to promote the initiative. The National Association of Manufacturers and the National Education Association, the largest teachers' union, have both given their seal of approval.

But it's not a new idea at all. Travel back in time 70 years and before, and that's exactly how education was handled. Students who wished to further their academic studies continued on in high school and went on to college, and those who wanted to study trade skills (or enlist in the military) left high school -- or even left junior high or elementary school -- to enter the working world to support their families, to contribute to the household budget or just to pursue their chosen careers.

During the Great Depression, when youth joined the workforce en masse, public education numbers dropped so drastically that a few schools were even forced to close. But the point is, teenagers were trusted to know whether they could take care of themselves and their families.

Then the nature of the public education system changed drastically throughout the 20th century -- at the beginning of the 1900s, 2 percent of Americans 18 to 24 attended college. At the end of the century, that number increased to 60 percent. Also, most states now require, with obvious exceptions, that kids go to school until age 18.

So far only eight states are part of this new initiative, including Connecticut, and within them, only certain schools. It's still experimental at this point, but we hope that this works as planned, and that it accomplishes what it sets out to. It has the potential to lower the number of college dropouts, if nothing else. After all, how much money are college students -- dropouts or grads -- still paying to student loan companies?

According to The Times article, students would receive necessary education in English, history, science and math. And, they would specialize their studies based on professional interests.

To make up for the estimated $500-per-student cost, federal stimulus funds could be set aside -- $350 million worth -- but most of that price tag would go toward initial program start-up costs, like training teachers, getting course material and tests.

This type of program has already worked in a number of other countries, including Denmark, England, Finland, France and Singapore, with high rates of success.

Summing up the difference between the U.S. education system and the system in place in those countries, Phil Daro, a member of an advisory committee for the program, profoundly said that in these other countries, students' career path is clear, which makes them take their testing more seriously. Daro continued, in The Times article, "In the U.S., by contrast, all is murky. Students do not have a clear idea of where to apply their effort, and the system makes no coherent attempt to reward learning."

Oh, and students who don't quite make the grade by sophomore year have the option of passing the test in their subsequent grades.

We wholeheartedly support this idea because we think that some 16-year-old kids know what they want to study -- or, perhaps, what they don't want to study. They are familiar enough with their academic track record that they know whether they will continue on in academics or whether they would rather apply their skills elsewhere.

This is a program worth exploring, and we hope school districts, educators and students will give it serious consideration.