<p>I don't know if anyone has posted this, but I found a couple of things in here interesting, specifically the part about dual enrollment and lack of hand-holding. Older ds1 didn't do any dual enrollment classes so I can't speak to that. Anyone else have thoughts?</p>
<p>My thoughts are that too many kids are not being steered toward technical and vocational careers when CLEARLY that would be a better fit. College prepping everyone serves no one.</p>
<p>Well, obviously successful exposure to what lies ahead will improve your odds at what lies ahead.</p>
<p>when i went to high school in the 70’s in Canada…they had a system that i actually liked. If you completed grade 12 then you could go to “college” ie community college…but in order to go on to university you had to go through grade 13 (which was like a prep year for university). Don’t know if they still do it that way as i heard years ago that they were talking about getting rid of grade 13.</p>
<p>^ This sounds like Ontario- not all of Canada, and they abandoned it a few years ago. </p>
<p>I agree with Eaglemom. I think the problem is not that 1/3 drop out because they were unprepared, per se, but that simply not everyone is cut out for college and there are loads of other far more suitable (ability and interest-wise) options for students after HS…if only we gave those options the same respect they deserve! </p>
<p>I didn’t really get much from this article. I felt it just repeated the same few obvious things over and over again.</p>
<p>Whether they should or shouldn’t be in college is of course an issue but the greater is issue is kids that dont’ know how to study (because they’ve never taken stretch classes), don’t know how to navigate or advocate for themselves (because they had their hand held), can’t get themselves up in the morning (because someone else made sure they got their butts out of bed) and don’t know how to “compete” because they’ve always been tops in the class. If you student has done all four you’re more than half way there.</p>
<p>starbright, yes it was ontario…so they actually did stop it.</p>
<p>My son is in 10th doing dual enrollment at the local community college. He is taking the harder level math and science courses there with labs. He says it is totally different from high school. For example, there is no “required” homework. So, he has to force himself to do the problems and be sure he understands everything so when the test comes along he will be ready. (He still has me pushing him…but I will be backing off once he is done with 10th grade). I think he will be ready for college because of this experience, provided he learns to cook his own food and do laundry!</p>
<p>Well, the motivation was a little different, but we had ordinaryd1 bypass all AP in favor of dual enrollment (bias alert - no fan of AP to begin with). I’ve been pretty pleased with the results and think the dual enrollment classes have done a great job developing academic independence in the students. And, as luck would have it, all the schools dd1 is considering for next year take the credit. So, my experience has been good. </p>
<p>Now, does my experience mean much? No. If a kid’s not ready for college level work, not sure pushing him into does anything but serve as a source of frustration. Remediation at a community college does not mean the high school failed to prepare. In fact, be glad it’s there for those kids who aren’t ready to learn until later. I suppose the problem lies with kids who think they’re prepared, but aren’t.</p>
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<p>How does a kid really know whether or not they are prepared if they haven’t tried it? There are lots of threads here with high-school students asking about courses and whether they should take the harder course or the easier course as they are unsure as to how hard/difficult/time-consuming college will be when they hit the ground running. Your kids, having already taken college courses, will already know the routine when they get there. It could even help them perform better in their high-school classes because they won’t need the reminders and hand-holding that you get in high-school but not in college.</p>
<p>I can only tell you what I’ve seen, and admittedly, that’s a pretty small sample, even after 20 years of working for a TRIO grant. But, you’re right. Students don’t realize they’re not prepared, and often won’t admit it to themselves until they’re in pretty deep. Lots of times, though, there have been warnings, perhaps in the form of low standardized tests or the student requiring “extra credit” to get their hs grades. Letting a student know that he’s “not ready” might involve letting him try and fail, but I don’t know many high schools where failure is real option.</p>