Is High School Too Easy?
A national report calls for more rigor in high school programs to
develop students’ critical-thinking skills and to prepare them for college and
careers. The report questions whether high school is “tough enough”
and cites the high percentages of students who require college remediation and
a dearth of high-level math courses in some 3,000 high schools as a major
barrier to postsecondary success. It is a good overview of this issue. (Bangor
Daily News, 03/08/12)
I believe that there should be separate leveling for schooling after high school. By this I mean that there are some students who just want to pass High School and move on in life, there should be a basic level of schooling for them to get a diploma that allows them into the workplace. Now for those decide to follow through with the college course, they could option to take a higher leveling of High School to prepare them for the college experience. Not only will this help with the problem of schools not being “Tough enough” it will most likely help with dropout rates and test scores. This could also help people with their choice in life of what they want to do. However, with this they should also add stronger Magnet schools. This being that they should focus on what those students want to follow in life and not focus on pointless agendas like public schools. For example; a student wants to act when he is older, but is denied access to the theater class because he his failing in math, the reason he is failing math is not that he can’t do the work but he struggles with it; This problem should be addressed when dealing with not only the problem of schools being to biased but them not being “tough enough” even for those who don’t want to be challenged in school.
I worry that rigor is too closely defined as simply college and career ready and that high school “toughness” is defined by how well it prepares students for college. Instead, I’d like to see a broader definition of rigor that focuses on how students learn to think and solve problems (here’s my stab at defining rigor http://mindstepsinc.com/2012/04/what-is-rigor/). I want students (and teachers for that matter!) to learn how to think more rigorously regardless of whether it directly prepares them for college or a career.