The idea struck me as counterintuitive. After all, how many supervisors would give a worker struggling with a small task a bigger project? Maybe it’s not the best analogy, but it’s pretty close to what New York education officials are proposing for the 12,000 students on the brink of dropping out.
Desperate to keep the students from giving up on school, the state’s Board of Regents approved a plan on Tuesday that would place at-risk students in college courses, where they could earn college credit while still in high school.
Dual-enrollment program have found success in many school districts across the country, but New York’s version would be one of the first to specifically target potential drop outs.
Risky? You bet, though most of the lawmakers and bigwigs in New York seemed willing to take that risk.
“Especially with the expense of college being what it is, if you can get kids from disadvantaged families to complete work in high school, they would be saving substantial dollars,” Manhattan assemblywoman Deborah Glick told the New York Times.
Ok, hold on a minute. We’re not just talking about disadvantaged kids, even though statistically, many underperforming students do come from impoverished backgrounds.
Who we’re talking about are students that, for a variety reasons, have become disillusioned with school and the solution, from a practical and analytical standpoint, doesn’t seem to me to include making what is already difficult for them, even more challenging.
I wouldn’t tell someone who is obese that the way to solve their weight issues is to train for a marathon. The lofty goal may work for some, but it seems that individual would be better served to examine why they battle weight problems in the first place and what they could do simply, everyday to win that battle.
Not all students want to go on to a university and not all students have to. I understand the power of setting goals high, but let’s not set them so high we forget to deal with what’s in front of them.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
Comments (1)
If the college courses the New York Board of Education is talking about are academic in nature, then I completely agree with your analysis. However, if they are talking about college level trades training, then we have a completely different picture.
I live in central British Columbia, Canada, and am the Chairperson of our local Board of Education. British Columbia Boards of Education have been sending potentially at-risk high school students to college for trades training for many years. It works!
There is a definite upside for both the students and society as a whole. The students can complete the first year or two of their chosen trade apprenticeship program before they graduate from high school. This also allows them to opt out of many of the more 'boring' courses. They still have to complete a grade 12 level English, a grade 11 level Math and a Grad Transition Plan. Many of them find that the Physics course they were goofing off in is essential to their trade and come back to it with renewed interest. Society gains well trained, motivated tradespeople. Employers gain because part of the apprenticeship costs normally borne by employers is taken up by the public school system.
This program is a three way partnership between the public school district, the local college or trades training institute and business. There is also an incentive for students to do well in their dual-credit trades training courses and graduate high school. Successful completion of their 'Dogwood Diploma', our provincial high school completion, combined with high marks in their chosen trade will result in a $1,000 scholarship that may be applied to the remainder of their apprenticeship training.
Many of our students actually complete their first level apprenticeship before they graduate. Notably in welding, there are a large number of students who complete their level C welding ticket and some even complete their level B. Both of these tickets are 'Red Seal' tickets which are recognized all across Canada and by some employers in the USA.
Further information on this program and others like it can be found at the British Columbia Ministry of Education website in a publication called Secondary School Apprenticeships Handbook. The link is: http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/careers/ssappren.pdf
We have found that this has 'saved' many students who would otherwise have dropped out. It is a really good program and, with the looming worldwide shortage of trained tradespeople, very timely.
- Caroline Nielsen