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Cleveland
Plain Dealer...
Ohio’s
education leaders want to overhaul 12th grade so students are ready for
college, training
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio’s top education leaders want to “reinvent” the
senior year of high school so that instead of cruising through their
final year, students get involved in technical training,
apprenticeships or college classes.
“We want to have no distinction between the senior year of high school
and the first year of college,” said Stan Heffner, superintendent of
the Ohio Department of Education, at a meeting this week of the Ohio
Board of Regents, which oversees higher education.
“A high school senior year is in many ways a wasteland,” he said. “They
have passed the Ohio Graduation Test and tests to get into college.
Wouldn’t it be something to have them meshed together? We’re pretty
excited about this.”
Chancellor Jim Petro, head of the state’s higher-education system,
agrees that Ohio has to overhaul 12th grade.
For at least a decade, educators across the country have discussed ways
to alter the senior year, according to a 2001 report by a commission
appointed by the U.S. Department of Education.
As many as half of all high school students “are undereducated or
miseducated,” and even high achievers who have been accepted to college
“consider the senior year a farewell tour of adolescence,” according to
the report, “The Lost Opportunity of the Senior Year: Finding a Better
Way.”
The commission recommended better communication between secondary
schools and higher education to align academic content, admissions and
student expectations.
But little has changed nationally since the report was released. A Utah
state senator introduced a bill to make the high school senior year
optional in 2010 as a way to balance the state budget. But other than
getting a slew of national media attention, it gained no support.
Many states are talking about how to make 12th grade more relevant but
none as seriously as Ohio, said Bruce Hunter, associate executive
director of the American Association of School Administrators, a
professional organization for school superintendents.
“The way we have structured schools is you have to accumulate credits
to graduate and by the 12th grade, particularly the second semester,
they are pretty unmotivated,” he said.
He said students may be prepared to graduate after 11th grade but
states like Ohio would not likely be able to absorb those who don’t
plan to go on to college into the workforce.
In Ohio, efforts are under way to better align secondary education with
college, including preparing students so they do not need remedial
courses when they enter college and offering work-force training for
those who don’t want to attend college. In addition, officials are
encouraging students to earn college credits in high school so they
could graduate earlier and save money.
Heffner and Petro said they are working on 12th-grade initiatives with
Richard Ross, the former Reynoldsburg schools superintendent recently
named by Gov. John Kasich to head the Governor’s Office of 21st Century
Education.
“It’s the biggest issue among the three of us, and we will get it
resolved,” Petro said after the meeting.
One option is to provide state funding to school districts only through
11th grade.
“We should make 12th grade a neutral and wherever the student goes the
money should go,” Petro said. “If half the students are taking courses
at a community college, the college gets it.”
Petro and Heffner said funding could also be distributed to cover
seniors who go to technical training schools, seek apprenticeships and
internships or stay in high school.
Currently, high school students can attend technical school or take
Advanced Placement classes and receive credit from a college after they
pass an exam. Ohio also offers the Post-Secondary Enrollment Options
Program, in which a student takes college classes while in high school,
earning college credit at no cost.
But few take advantage of the opportunities, Heffner said. Only 4
percent of public high schools students are in the options program,
partially because high schools promote Advanced Placement classes since
districts lose state money if the student takes a college course.
Access to college is also an issue. The state’s community colleges have
the most students in the post-secondary program, according to Ohio
Department of Education statistics.
Cleveland State University is trying to address that problem. This
fall, CSU professors will teach one class each in math and English at
Maple Heights High School for students at that school and at high
schools in Warrensville Heights, Bedford Heights and Garfield Heights,
said Sajit Zachariah, dean of the College of Education and Human
Services.
He said he was contacted by Maple Heights Superintendent Charles Keenan
about providing the classes. The students will receive credit without
having to travel to Cleveland, may become interested in enrolling at
CSU and will be better prepared for college, he said.
“If this model is successful, we hope to expand it to other districts,”
Zachariah said.
CSU President Ronald Berkman said examining how to make the most of
12th grade is an “interesting prospect.”
“It is a squandered year for many, but not the case for every student,”
he said. Petro and Heffner “should look at it incrementally.”
In many countries, including India and China, students leave high
school after 11th grade and enroll in college, he said. Many take a
national test that determines university placement.
“It is helpful if they create a more seamless bridge between high
school and college,” Berkman said. “You go through a deceleration in
your senior year, then have to accelerate when you go to college.”
He said he saw that occur with his own children.
Solon schools Superintendent Joseph Regano said 12th grade needs to be
addressed, but he opposed doling out funding based on what the high
school senior is studying because state and local funds are not spent
equally across school districts.
Instead, he believes students should graduate after 11th grade.
“Instead of K-12, start funding at age 4 and fund preschool through
grade 11,” Regano said. “This is a way to do [preschool] at no cost.
And students who do not attend preschool are in disadvantaged
neighborhoods.”
Heffner said at the regents meeting, when discussing his general
priorities, that a preschool education is imperative.
Regano said his proposal would allow educators to help children at an
early age, leading to less violence and fewer dropouts.
And he is convinced that students are ready to graduate at age 16 or 17.
“Honestly, kids are more mature today and they have learned at a
quicker rate and are ready to roll,” he said. “We could get them
graduated.”
Read this and other articles at the Cleveland Plain Dealer
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