Even though I’m a former college professor, I must’ve missed the memo that says a HS diploma means you’re ready for college. Last I checked, that wasn’t what it meant at all. Colleges have their own standards, and a HS diploma or its equivalent is usually only the starting point. My understanding is that very few 4-year colleges have open admissions, even among state schools.
That HS diploma will usually get you into a 2-year community college without any additional indication of worthiness, but that’s as far as the free ride goes; even CC’s have standards, and will give D’s and F’s to those who can’t handle the coursework.
If the goal is to only grant HS diplomas to those who are ready for college, that’s a major change in the rules. We’ve been giving out HS diplomas to future factory workers, plumbers, electricians, and roofers for a century or so, and nobody’s had a problem with that. Everybody’s for standards in education, but I’m betting very few Florida voters realized the new standards meant HS diplomas would now only be going to those ready for college.
I realize that you were addressing this to a specific person, but it applies to me, also.
I’m returning this fall to complete my bachelor’s. I don’t have a high school diploma, but I do have a GED. I also have 26 college credits from various community colleges, so I’m entering as a sophomore. So, yes, there are ways for non-HS graduates to get a bachelor’s degree, and to continue on to graduate and post-graduate education. In fact, all but the most competitive universities have mechanisms in place for students to transfer in if they don’t meet the criteria for incoming freshmen.
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Got a cite to back up your assertion?
And it’s not entirely true that “most people” fail out of high school don’t know the material. Some of them, like me, were so bored with it we decided not to bother. Just because we didn’t do our homework doesn’t mean we didn’t know the material. A grade isn’t a reflection on how much or what information is received by the student. It’s just a grade.
To you, it’s incredibly basic stuff. To me, it’s incredibly basic stuff. To a student with test anxiety (and they do exist), it’s not basic stuff. To a student with language barriers, it’s not basic stuff. To a student with a learning disability, it’s not basic stuff. You may know the material forwards, backwards, sideways, but if you can’t communicate that on a test with four or five answers, you lose out on thirteen years of effort? Doesn’t seem fair or reasonable.
Ms Robyn, I must remind you that as you have earned a GED, you do not fall into the same catagory as the Florida students discussed in the OP. You have earned a GED!
Nope. I could try to dig around for one, but it’s so nebulous a subject I doubt I’d find a match. After all, how do you test people to see if they know the material that they fail the tests on?
I will admit here that I prejudiced by the fact that I work with both adults who are trying to earn a high school diploma and adults who have one, wish to go to college, but are not working at a college level. These folks run the gamut from potential Dopers to, well, pretty much illiterate. I am infuriated about the ones who can barely read or write, but graduated high school. Clearly, they were just pushed through the system. And it sure didn’t help them out in the long run.
I thereby submit that you do not fall into the catagory of “most people.” You fall into the catagory of “some.”
Do you feel that it was fair that, since you did not bother doing the work, you did not recieve a diploma? After all, you did not fulfill the requirements that your school set down. If you feel that you were treated fairly, why should these students in Florida be exempted from the rules?
True. Standardized tests suck. However, the students in Florida have six chances to pass the tests. There are procedures in place intended to level out the playing field for students with learning disabilities, assuming that the disability is properly diagnosed and the right steps are taken to help. My answer to the language barrier may be to allow the student to take the test in their first language, if he or she chooses. Unfortunately, I don’t make the rules. In the end though, after six failures of, say, the reading exam, one might come to the disheartening conclusion that the student does not know how to read.
I ask for a cite that these students in Florida do know the material, that the majority are acceptable students with basic skill sets who merely failed one test. I believe that we’d find that most have been pushed through the system. If that’s true, should they get a diploma?