I recently read an opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun that
addressed the important issue of preparing Baltimore City students for the
demands and challenges of college.
The author proposes using the idea of “red shirting” college-bound
Baltimore youth to give them an additional year to sharpen their skills before
heading off to college. At first
glance, the idea has merit.
Indeed, the author points to many current prep school and college
remediation models that may work for many students. Perhaps on a tailored, individualized basis such intensive
preparation can really help students truly succeed in college. The author’s emphasis on
experimentation is also alluring
-- why not try this method and see if it can help ensure Baltimore’s
children are ready to take full advantage of the academic opportunities
afforded by post-secondary education?
However, as I thought about this proposal, I kept returning
to the thought that this must be a temporary solution; a sort of stop-gap that
might help in the short term but is not really a long-term fix. There are two primary reasons that I
keep thinking this. The first, and
most alarming, is that this proposal assumes that inner-city students
inherently need a different formula for schooling, that they must be educated
in a different way and with a different time frame than their suburban
peers. This is troublesome. We should expect that all our schools
provide an excellent education – not an “OK” education in 4 years and a “Good”
one in 5. If public schools are to
remain a foundational piece of our democratic society, they must all provide an
excellent education that prepares children for the various demands of their
future. Additionally, this
proposal alarms me because I want to ask the question, “What are you doing in
this extra year that you aren’t doing in the first four years of high school?
Or all of K-12?” If there is some
combination of skill work or academic work that prepares students in a better way,
we should be utilizing these methods throughout their education.
Is academically “red-shirting” high school students a viable
option to prepare them for college, or does this send our inner-city students a
message that is demoralizing?
While experimentation in this area may reveal valuable findings, I think
that spending more time in high school will not substantially improve the
outcomes for our students.
4 comments:
I agree that redshirting students does not provide a long-term solution for preparing students for college. Although the additional year does provide them with more opportunities to perfect academic skills, the education provided in schools should prepare students to enter, and even test out off, entry-level college classes. The proposal does suggest that the education provided by Baltimore City is not sufficient. Additionally, it conjures up the summer school argument that an interim program cannot replace a long-term, quality education.
A mentorship throughout college may be a better solution to provide students with social or academic support that will improve students’ skills while remaining on track with their peers. For example, students may benefit from knowing which classes will serve as prerequisite courses for more difficult majors or how to contact professors for internships in their field. In the long term, one of the major problems that become amplified in college is students’ access to cultural capital. Schools have focused more on the achievement gap as it relates to academics, but a major difference between schools in urban or suburban areas are the cultural experiences and background knowledge offered in the setting. Students’ access to cultural capital, rather than simply the education they receive, greatly impacts their ability to remain competitive in school and the workforce. Redshirting students for an additional year for academic gains may not yield high results for college-bound students.
Claire
At first glance at the issue I whole-heartedly agree. However, when you read statistics such as “average graduation rate for HBCUs at 37 percent” (NPR) and Average graduation rates for African Americans nation wide at 42% and 35% for just black males (JBHE). We have to look for new ways of preparing our students to succeed when they get to college. The idea of “red-shirting” could yield some surprising results. Lets face it the current education system down right sucks! And if my 11th graders as proxies for the average Baltimore city student, I can confidently say that without further preparation most would not make it through a four year college. It's a hard reality to grasp, but it is true. For me I don’t see “red-shirting” as a permanent solution, in fact just as you said it would be a temporary solution. It should be used for those students who are just too far along in the education system. This idea would work well especially if it is coupled with a radical school reform program. But until such a radical program is in place (and lets face it for such a program to be implemented it would take a very long while) a program like “red-shirting” would help to give those graduating seniors some hope of making through a four year college. Furthermore, the program would have a small percentage of our students since not all of them are going to enroll into a college, giving those students more focused attention in a less distracting environment.
I agree with GK — yes, our high schools should be preparing students to enter college without need for an extra year, but the truth is that they are failing to do so. I don't think that students who need the extra year would feel demoralized by the offer; it anything, they would feel more comfortable and prepared upon entering their freshman year. I'm reminded of one 12th grade student from my school who opted to partake in Towson's transitional program (http://www.towson.edu/main/admissions/admitted/transition/index.asp), which is similarly designed for students who need a little extra help before their freshman year. She has told me how wonderful the program has been for her, and how much it has opened her eyes to the rigors of college work.
I agree with GK and Sonia. Sure, the ideal is to prepare students adequately for college with four years of high school - but this is seemingly not the case, especially with the graduation rates GK quoted, and the fact that so many students are shuffled into remedial classes that cost tuition but do not provide any credit. And who is to say that high school should equal four years? We have been stuck in this "time-based" system, where we somehow assume that all the high-school level learning will be completed in four years - no more, no less. This is not the case for students - some could be ready and display "competency" in 3 years, while others might need some extra time. I agree that red-shirting is a temporary solution because it still is adopting a "time-based" system...when the real measure should be on competency and what kind of knowledge and proficiency students demonstrate, no matter the time or format they learn it in (e.g. virtual or brick and mortar school). Efforts are already underway to transform education into a competency-based system so that students can progress at a pace and speed that works for them, and not for the average student. To see how New Hampshire is tackling this:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/02/08/20proficiency_ep.h31.html
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