Kentucky stepped out onto the cutting edge in the quest to transform high schools by becoming one of eight states piloting an approach for early college work.
Put together by the National Center on Education and the Economy, the early college pilot represents a bold attempt to overcome the long-standing criticism of high school, the basic design of which took shape in the 19th and early 20th Century: for many adolescents, secondary school is boring and goes on way too long. Both high achievers and students who struggle find the current structure of high school archaic as they move into late adolescence and are ready to take the first steps toward building an adult life and career.
Students in the early college pilots will take a battery of tests at the end of 10th grade that will allow them to get a diploma and immediately enroll in community college. Those who aspire to attend a selective college will go on with college preparatory classes for their junior and senior years.
Marc Tucker, president of the center that’s overseeing the pilot program, says it offers a new approach designed to improve the success rates for students bound for community college. “We’ve looked at schools all over the world, and if you walk into a high school in countries that use these board exams, you’ll see kids working hard, whether they want to be a carpenter or a brain surgeon.”
Kentucky commissioner of education Terry Holliday, was quoted in The New York Times about the state’s decision to participate. High school graduation requirements traditionally revolve around accumulating credits, he said. “This would reform that. We’ve been tied to seat time for 100 years. This would allow an approach based on subject mastery – a system based around move-on-when-ready.”
The Jefferson County Public Schools and Jefferson Community and Technical College are already working on an early college partnership that will launch next fall.
It’s an exciting innovation designed to create a new, viable pathway for students to undertake college work sooner – but also to see more clearly the link between high school and college in their education.