California to give HS Diplomas to flunkies

[SunsetBengal]

At least the ones who did not pass the proficiency exam, to earn one the way the rest of the graduates did..

http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/california-will-give-free-high-school-diplomas-to-kids-who-flunked-out/

Thoughts?  Curious to hear from BmorePat and Beaker, as they are in education.

[BmorePat87]

I'm not a fan of standardize testing, but the test was apparently easy.

I mean, there are 1.772m high school students in California right now. if only 40k didn't graduate because of it over 10 years, we can say 4k a year, so 16k of those 1.772m won't pass because of it. That's .9%. POINT NINE PERCENT. That's an incredible pass rate at 99.1%. I think they quoted 97%, so that must take into account dropouts. Still 97%.

In our state, we have an alternative route if you cannot pass the state tests (9th grade Math, 10th grade English, Bio, and Govt). You complete these projects that demonstrate the knowledge. It's basically huge packets of work that the teacher cannot help with, just facilitate.

A better policy than just suspending testing is allow this last group a chance. Anyone from the class of 2015 who wants to keep trying should be allowed to, just suspend it going forward. Yea, it sucks if you're 2015 compared to 2016, but that happens. Requirements change. Politicians who don't know shit about education tend to not make good policy decisions.


that said, diplomas are pretty meaningless.

[SteelCitySouth]

(09-14-2015, 11:06 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote:  Politicians who don't know shit about education tend to not make good policy decisions.

This.  When I was a teacher this was my biggest issue and fight.  All too often some person, who is by all accounts a very intelligent person and has done good things in the field they studied or worked in, gets a "great idea".  So many people believe that being a teacher doesn't require a lot and anyone can do it.  Let me tell you.  I taught in a state that you could be a teacher without an education degree.  You just needed a degree of some sort and go through the PACE program.  Within a very short period of time we could tell who was a PACE educator vs one that actually studied how to do it.

[Rotobeast]

(09-14-2015, 08:32 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: At least the ones who did not pass the proficiency exam, to earn one the way the rest of the graduates did..

http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/california-will-give-free-high-school-diplomas-to-kids-who-flunked-out/

Thoughts?  Curious to hear from BmorePat and Beaker, as they are in education.