Monday, August 26, 2013

College For All

The latest educational mantra is "college- and career-ready", but we all know that what's really meant is "college-ready".  Here in California some school districts are requiring that all students meet "a through g" requirements as a condition of graduation--for those of you outside California, "a-g" are the academic requirements to get into our state universities.  You don't see too many school districts mandating courses in "basic hand tools", "leadership and team-building", "basic accounting", or "using desktop productivity software".  When I start seeing required classes like those, alongside "watch your language" and "get where you're supposed to be, on time" and "follow the boss' directions", I'll believe that we're serious about "career-ready" preparation.

Joanne has an interesting post about "college for all" today, and I truly liked this quote:
“College for all” isn’t a smart state or national education policy, but can make sense as the mission of a single school, responds Michael Goldstein, founder of MATCH, a high-performing charter school in Boston.
Problem is, most public schools need to teach everybody, not just the college crowd.

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