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No Tests, No Grades = More Graduates?
on September 1, 2009
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What a bunch of c.r.a.p....
What a bunch of c.r.a.p.
on Sep 8, 2009
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At an alternative high school in Newark, students will make presentations instead of taking tests and receive written progress reports instead of grades. They will use few textbooks and divide their school weeks between the classroom and an internship, The Star-Ledger reports.
Urban Academy is set to open this week, one of three schools in the city run by Big Picture Learning, a nonprofit organization, that aims to boost Newark's graduation rate (estimated at 52 percent last year) and bring disenfranchised students back to school. Urban Academy is one of five alternative high schools that the district — in partnership with several nonprofit and philanthropic organizations — will open Thursday. This year, the five new high school programs will accommodate 875 students who have dropped out or are at risk of leaving school.
By offering alternative learning opportunities including online courses and evening classes, the programs seek to reach students "based on where they are and what their interests and passions are," said Charly Adler, a senior education consultant for Big Picture.
"One size does not fit all," said Vincent Mays, Newark's director of alternative education. "Young people can go through multiple pathways (to) graduation. That's what we are providing here, multiple pathways."
Newark joins Nashville and Indianapolis in piloting the three-year program of the Alternative High School Initiative, a network of youth development organizations nationwide.
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Comments
on Sep 8, 2009
What a bunch of c.r.a.p.
on Sep 9, 2009
This is just nonsense. Why don't we just skip the whole learning part and give them a degree anyway?
on May 16, 2010
Better yet, why try at all? It is surely preferable just to only graduate half and let the other half fend for themselves.
You graduated right? How much do you remember about what you were tested on in High School? I am sure you use all that stuff, like the state capitals, and the 42nd element on the periodic table.
This is the way. The industrial revolution is over. Technology moves faster than its users, and we need thinkers who can find facts, not memorize them.
