Diplomas for students from high schools and colleges have very different value. On the other hand online certification, like Adobe tests for professional proficiency, has equal value among all who are certified.
The value to the student who earns the first two of these diplomas is woefully different. All the Adobe certificates are equal in value:
- Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia was named by Newsweek as the No. 1 best public high school in the USA for 2010.
- Columbus High School in Bronx, New York is on the New York City Board of Education’s schedule to be closed because of a “long history of sustained academic failure.”
- Adobe Certification for a professional proficiency is a student’s proof of having qualified in a test online given equally to all comers from any place and any background.
Think about it: If high school diplomas were awarded after online testing that is open to all, a Columbus High School student in the Bronx would have a chance to prove her intellectual and knowledge equality to the Jefferson High School students in Alexandria. There is an echo of equality in the notion of standardized tests given at schools — but this echo does not affect the value of a diploma handed to a Columbus High School graduate.
The way public schools award diplomas based upon their own students instead of equal knowledge testing is not fair. It perpetuates an underclass.
leonard waks says:
Right you are, as always. We must take the assessment of school learning out of the hands of the schools delivering the instruction. Unable to admit total defeat, these schools pass students who have learned nothing, in large measure because they have been confined to schools.
Transform schools into open learning centers and award the assessment to an external authority. And as with the GED, make the learner responsible for success and convert the learning center to a subsidiary role — as helpmate.
At least the holder of the GED has earned public confidence for learning something!
3rd February 2010 at 10:36 pm
leonard waks says:
One further comment. A recent EDweek reported that ‘algebra for all’ had been a huge failure, in large measure because a lot of the kids taking algebra who otherwise would not have taken it were ‘7 to 8 years behind in math’.
Now I’m no math expert, but as algebra is usually math 9, to be 8 years behind means you have learned absolutely nothing. Zero. Nada.
So let’s face it. Placing these kids — in groups of thirty — in front of a teacher is not the solution. Anyone can learn simple arithmetic with a little personal attention. A cubbie in an kopen learning center with computer-assisted math, and a roving focus teacher helping out as needed, and no one would be 8 years behind – or even 2 or 3 years behind.
Every kid without a severe organic learning disability can be ready for algebra by grade 11 or 12. But sitting in a school in front oa a teacher in a crowded classroom will not — cannot — supply that readiness.
3rd February 2010 at 10:42 pm