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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > February > 23 > Entry
Editorial: Early college cut now has Ohio out of step
The Obama administration wants to pilot a promising high school reform effort. Too bad Ohio is moving in the wrong direction, having junked funding for an effective program that is perfectly in step with the administration’s goals.
The federal pilot in eight states (Ohio is not one of them, but Kentucky is) would create an avenue for high-achieving high school students to skip two years of high school and jump straight to attending a community college.
Specifically, if students can perform well on challenging coursework early in high school and pass college-level exams at the end of their sophomore year, they can move ahead with a college education.
It just so happens that Ohio has pioneered an excellent test program build on this concept. Nine “early college” high schools in Ohio are part of a national experiment with the same regimen.
Dayton has one of the best performing, the Dayton Early College Academy. That charter school began as a joint venture of the University of Dayton and Dayton Public Schools. It now relies heavily on UD’s financial support.
In part, that’s because of a huge mistake by the state legislature in the midst of last year’s budget wheeling-and-dealing. In the effort to fill a massive shortfall, money for the early college was among a host of programs that lawmakers axed, costing DECA about a quarter of its funding.
Ohio is now out of step with the national trend.
Under President George W. Bush, almost all school reform efforts were focused on kindergarten to eighth grade. The faulty logic of No Child Left Behind was that better prepared younger children would naturally make high schools more rigorous. Belated efforts by President Bush to get serious about changing high schools never really got off the ground.
President Obama’s hope is that high schools will respond to the opportunity for their students to move quickly ahead by ratcheting up their own expectations and offerings. The plan also maps the way for kids to see the practical value of their school work: put in the effort, and you can get out of school early.
Critics have argued for more than a decade that U.S. high schools need a makeover. In too many schools, the work is just not challenging enough. Sometimes the bar is set so low that high-performers complete the toughest courses early and end up filling their senior years with frivolous electives and study halls.
Bit by bit, efforts have been made to give kids who want to move on a way out. Allowing high school students to earn university credit by taking college courses has been a huge success.
There’s also been an explosion of college-level courses at quality high schools through programs like Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate. Early-college high schools are another successful move in this direction. The Obama plan takes some of the lessons of schools like DECA and tries to apply them more widely.
Before it’s too late, the state should reverse course. Ohio should not only keep its fledgling early-college program, it should expand it.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott
Comments
By tax productivity
February 23, 2010 10:09 PM | Link to this
Outstanding article, One state out west is thinking of elimination 12th grade. You could pretty much eliminate all levy’s in Ohio for 15 years by one simple move. $5,200,000 a year is contributed to retirement funding of employees - Centerville School system (100%). Make employees contribute 50% of their retirement and in 15 years you have $37,500,000. Join the real world 401 k’s with 0% contributions. Not 14% of their salary e.g. schools, cities, counties and RTA.
By fortressdayton
February 28, 2010 12:14 PM | Link to this
As long as the losers are allowed to drop out at 16 (and become a burden on society) then we should allow the gifted to leave as well - and succeed.