is it true that a 1/4 of american kids arn't graduating high school?

[proudvoterofObama]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

How many classes did you take? If you have an 8 period day 4 years gets you 32. Did you have 10 classes a day? If so, how long were they?

I took AP classes - counted for 2 instead of 1. By the end of my junior year I had 33 credits, but was still lacking a mandatory one for senior lit/english.

[Fiddlehead]

Another thing kids need to learn is resilience. When you screw up, dust your self off and get back at it.

[pollyrobin]

Originally Posted by oz in SC

Perhaps our society should realize that not everyone can be a brain surgeon.

Some are ditch diggers.

So true. Not everyone will or should go to college. It was the factory and infrastructure jobs that sustained America in the past - not Joe College.

We have so many college grads now with high student loan debt and no jobs in their chosen fields. Obama stated we need more science and math teachers, but the jobs in the science fields, and teaching in those fields, will still leave many in the cold - for it's certain - glut in those markets occur and no one is doing anyone a favor by
pushing kids into fields that they probably never should have pursued in the first place.

No Math Teacher Shortage, Study Says - X=Why? - A year re-living high school math with Michael Alison Chandler

“I admit I’m being heretical,” said Richard M. Ingersoll, a professor of education and sociology at the university. “But it’s not that we’re producing too few math and science teachers. It’s that we’re losing too many.”

Mr. Ingersoll and his research partner, David Perda, calculate that colleges and universities are producing 2½ times more math and science teachers than schools require to replace those who are retiring.

The findings are important, Mr. Ingersoll said, because they suggest that national efforts aimed at expanding the pipeline of new math and science teachers are misdirected. If policymakers really want to ensure that those subjects are being taught by skilled teachers, he said, they ought to focus on retaining the much larger pool of science and math teachers who are already in schools.

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by Bulldawg82

Not surprising. Especially considering that the 11th & 12th grades are a waste of time. Kids are bored and they need to either move on to college, vocational, or tech school at the end of their 10th year.

The 11th and 12th grades should be for making up what you missed and remedial for those who need it. Send the rest, even part time, to community college where they don't end up repeating the dummned down version of the same class. I figure I wasted a good many hours way back when doing the same thing. If I could have taken college courses then instead of high school, I could have moved on past my AA a year sooner and maybe would have gotten the BA I still want.

The alternative is to make jr. high a year longer. Do the catch up as much as possible there so there is less "remedial" stuff to be done and the classes at high school level are made equal to Freshman college level so they could transfer.

There is no need to repeat a class if the classes are taught right, and just maybe more bright students who are just bored would stay interested. And just think of the money they could save either on the highschool or community college level.

[Houston3]

Originally Posted by summers73

My ex had a Ph. D. and she was a ditch digger (archeologist).

They dig to slow....

[chielgirl]

Originally Posted by tropolis

i just heard that now in obama's state of the union. watching from my dvr

I bet you could find current statistics in several different places on the internets.