No Senior Year

Sounds likes someone elected a moron.

Someone should propose that state elected officials are elected for 4 years and only paid for 3, that'll save plenty of money.

Why think about the kids?? I guess it's not a problem for these politicians to eliminate what is IMO the best year of high school life. Proms, trips, enjoying lifelong friends for one more year, who needs that?

Not to mention having some 16 and a lot of 17 yo minors in college.

Go back to the drawing board!!

The thinking in Utah isn't too far from the truth. Most kids head into senior year only needing Senior English to graduate. A lot of kids do screw off senior year. However, given the decline in academics in the US compared to the rest of the world it would make more sense to create a more demanding senior year academically or possibly more demanding all four years.

If anyone is looking at this situation from an athletic standpoint don't forget what small percentage of high school athletes go on to play in college. From an administrative standpoint I'm sure Utah hasn't given college sports a thought.

I doubt Utah will do away with grade twelve? Why? Imagine the battle with the state teachers union over the need for less teachers. Teachers unions represent a lot of national political clout. Teachers are 11% of the national Democratic delegates. The Democratic party would get involved in this preventing it from happening.

Politics 101 ---- threaten to cut education, fire and police in order to pass taxes for social programs.

Saw over the weekend in the news where some school systems are thinking about eliminating the junior and senior years of high school--they claim that a lot of classes at this point mean nothing to the students--

I can see some of the rational if they were looking at HS students like I was back when all the trees were small. As a senior I had PE, Calc, and Bachelors World and was off to work, fishing, or golfing by 11:30am.

While it may save the the district money on the books it does not save the family grief on how their 17 year old kid is to find an adult job. Nor does it deal with the immature kid who does not "find himself" until he's a senior. Nor does it deal with the student who is not socially ready for college, but is intellectually competent to take AP classes in a HS environment.

There's a large faction in Utah that makes the laws and belong to a group that "takes care of their own flock". While I think the measure carries no weight nation wide, I like the fact that people jump outside the box and explore creative ways to save dollars. While those thoughts are seldom implemented, it's the extensions of those thoughts that promote change.

I'm not for eliminating the 12th grade, but I would be in favor of changeing the curriculum.
Some student's would benefit greatly by taking college courses early, to get a jump on there college education.
Other student's would find that taking Trade school courses,
such as welding, fabricating, carpentry, ect. would help in precuring employment after HS.

JMHO

EH

If you look around you will see that some school districts have agreements with Colleges (mostly community) that their students can take college level courses in their senior year at the HS. Most HS students are finished their state requirements by senior year and instead of taking doda courses can get a jump on their freshman load.

So, is the question really that the requirements for graduation are too easy?

My son attended HS that adopted the block schedule (something relatively new back then) by his junior year he was essentially done with classes and hours that he needed to graduate, he only stayed his senior year for baseball, but he most likely could ahve gone to college early if he choose to. His last year of classes, where what I considered not even classes that meant much, work program, peer counseling, another PE, debate, etc.
In my area there are a lot of kids who head off to college early. They are not involved in sports, high achievers and just bored with HS. Some don't even want to attend last year of HS, but want to attend technical schools, which you can do in your last year in HS.

I think states should implement programs that allow students to finish in 3 years, if they want to, but takes lots of planning upon HS entry. This would save states lots of money, let the mature ones that can handle college early move forward. It would also save administration lots of time looking for seniors who essentially don't show up because they are technically done with grad requirements.

JMO.

My junior son is working on his senior schedule right now. We have to sign off on it. I look at senior year as an opportunity to take classes to see what he might like (or not like) his college major to be. His schedule is not easy by any means:

BC Calculus
Physics
AP History
AP Psychology (1 semester)
2 English classes (1 semester each)
2 Religion classes (1 semester each)
and I can't remember the rest.

I suppose the state of Utah is interested in getting students graduated as quickly as possible. We are interested in having our children get the most out of the academic experience as possible. I'm glad we don't live in Utah.

The "no senior year" idea is a proposal by one state senator. It is not the state of Utah trying to get the students graduated as soon as possible.

It is getting a lot of press but there are very few that are taking the proposal seriously. What is being proposed, if it ended up passing, is not a requirement but an option.

The guy is taking a beating on the "letters to the editor" page.

If my son were in the situation where he was able to graduate early, I'd instead advise him to take more classes that aren't required for college but will do well for him in life. Unfortunately these classes aren't often offered: Personal Finance Management, Time Management, and Career Management. They don't need to head to college earlier, they need better classes to prepare them for the real world.

Why not make it optional? Allow kids to graduate early, but still have seniors able to participate in sports. Then you still cut costs, lose some kids that would drop out/are going to screw around.

quote:

Originally posted by baseball168:
Why not make it optional? Allow kids to graduate early, but still have seniors able to participate in sports. Then you still cut costs, lose some kids that would drop out/are going to screw around.

A kid can graduate early. All he has to do is meet the state's graduation requirments and if he's an athlete, the NCAA's requirements for core courses (assuming he will be playing NCAA sports). This is without going the Bryce Harper route of getting a GED.

RZ1, I agree with your deduction there Watson. Very well said!