School bosses, students ponder plan for high school short-cut

What if high school students are capable of graduating at the end of their sophomore year?  Would it be smart to let them?

Some of the brightest students from Colorado debated that question during a lunchtime discussion Saturday with state Commissioner of Education Dwight Jones, whose office is considering some form of “early exit” as part of a new vision for public education it may unveil by 2012.

“It’s being considered pretty seriously,” Jones said after the talk, held as part of a three-day conference organized by the Colorado Association of School Boards and hosted at The Broadmoor.

The program would rewrite the rules so that students who have mastered the high school curriculum could potentially get their degree early or at least begin college-level classes, perhaps through local community colleges or online programs offered at their high school campus.

The question is being mulled now because the current system for tracking student progress, the Colorado Student Assessment Program, will essentially expire by 2011, meaning the school system is reevaluating how it grades itself.

About 100 student leaders were selected to attend the two-day conference in Colorado Springs. Over the rustling of boxed lunches, they fired tough questions at Jones.

Several asked about the students who are smart enough to leave high school early but lack maturity, and suggested there is a benefit to “growing up” with people their age. Others wondered whether the state should just devise more challenging programs if it believes students are bored.

One participant asked about students who didn’t make the cut for early exit.  How would they feel about sticking around after their friends moved on, and would they be more prone to drop out?

R.J. Rekdahl, a senior at Telluride High School, wondered about the affect of removing the most gifted students from the often collaborative world of classroom instruction.

“You want these kids around to challenge you to think more critically,” he said.

Jones gave no direct answers but said the students had keyed in on many of the challenges that school administrators are addressing as they review the prospects for a statewide early exit program.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” he said.

Seth Berg, a teacher in Telluride, said now is the time to “rip up” basic concepts in public education and start anew, beginning with identifying education’s biggest and most wasteful obstacles.

“The starting point is, for three-quarters of students, senior year is just floating.  It’s their easiest year by far,” he said. “Why are we spending all this time and effort on 12th-grade classes if kids are only there to socialize?  Could we put the money in the previous years to make them stronger students?”

Mia McLaughlin, a senior at Telluride High, said she believes the “maturity gap” is too great to let teenagers out of high school before their senior year.  But she welcomed the opportunity to sound off.

“They’re getting our input, which means a lot,” she said.