High School Credit for Middle School classes
Once again I hear people asking "Why would a student want to get high school credit for classes taken in middle school?"
This may not surprise you, but you're not going to get a good answer to this question from someone who isn't interested in it or who thinks it ranges from pointless to being a bad idea. Yet that's who have been answering that question of late.
So, rather than their explanation, to graduate high school early, let me instead offer some better reasons.
1) Lighter course load when taking challenging classes. A high performing student might take as many as three or four AP classes as a senior. These classes are challenging and demanding classes. Wouldn't it be nice to have the option to not take two other classes at the same time so the student can devote more time to the AP classes?
2) Credit for work done. If you have ever told your child that going to school is his or her job, then credit is their pay for that job. If someone does the work, then they should get the pay. Students should get high school credit for classes taken in middle school because they have EARNED IT. Actually, you don't need any other reason than this.
3) More electives. Wouldn't it be nice to have completed some of the required courses so the student is free to take more electives when in high school?
4) Schedule flexibility. Students who are taking Running Start classes or have jobs will be able to build more flexible schedules if they have some of their credits covered and aren't required to have a full schedule when juniors and seniors.
This may not surprise you, but you're not going to get a good answer to this question from someone who isn't interested in it or who thinks it ranges from pointless to being a bad idea. Yet that's who have been answering that question of late.
So, rather than their explanation, to graduate high school early, let me instead offer some better reasons.
1) Lighter course load when taking challenging classes. A high performing student might take as many as three or four AP classes as a senior. These classes are challenging and demanding classes. Wouldn't it be nice to have the option to not take two other classes at the same time so the student can devote more time to the AP classes?
2) Credit for work done. If you have ever told your child that going to school is his or her job, then credit is their pay for that job. If someone does the work, then they should get the pay. Students should get high school credit for classes taken in middle school because they have EARNED IT. Actually, you don't need any other reason than this.
3) More electives. Wouldn't it be nice to have completed some of the required courses so the student is free to take more electives when in high school?
4) Schedule flexibility. Students who are taking Running Start classes or have jobs will be able to build more flexible schedules if they have some of their credits covered and aren't required to have a full schedule when juniors and seniors.
Comments
At my sons HS, if a kid takes Spanish for two years in MS, they automatically go into Spanish II in HS.
http://www.shorelineschools.org/news/release.php?releasesid=1078
Some light reading on the topic:
http://www.kdp.org/publications/pdf/record/fall10/Record_Fall_2010_Tienken.pdf
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/edweek/national.htm
http://education.nationaljournal.com/2010/07/conflicting-research-on-core-s.php
Obviously there are both pros and cons, but I hope there is good enough attendance and enough questions asked that OSPI and the legislature to realize that they can't just slide this in.
-ConcernedTeacher
Someone at a party was telling me that some APP middle schoolers take high school-level classes but on a longer timeline, taking two years to complete the class. I'm not sure how this is accomplished or even whether it is true! But if it is, the EOC would deal with that situation, too.
The one place where APP curriculum takes above-level material and stretches it over two years that I know of is the math curriculum in fourth and fifth grade, which consists largely of the sixth-grade Connected Math curriculum.
My problem with taking high school credit is that I don't trust the high schools to let the kids take any "extra" credits later on. I think it will work the way it does at the UW these days, where if you've finished your credits, boom, out you go, no dallying around with electives or double majors or anything like that.
I am also against putting pressure on the kids to get transcript-worthy grades in middle school, and I never have liked the idea of pushing high school coursework down levels (except in math); I'd much rather see the middle school subjects taught at greater depth but in an age-appropriate fashion.
Helen Schinske
Helen Schinske
Personally, my concern is that this will solidify an APP track at GHS that shuts out nonAPP kids who are capable of working at their level and who need access to that cohort in order to get the courses they need.
At the moment, at least, GHS does not appear to be creating an APP-only track.
Going to college a year or two early isn't so different from running start. Come to think of it, taking HS classes for credit in MS isn't so different from running start either.
No one is proposing that we require HS classes in MS to be for credit, only that we offer that option to students who want it. I understand why some families or kids would decide not to do that, but I just don't understand why anyone would be opposed to having the option.
For example - I would probably insist that my child take four years of science, even if she entered high school with credit for Biology. I do not, however, necessarily care whether or not the science courses she chooses are among the core requirements as defined by the district. If our high school Science Department offered a number of attractive courses that were considered "electives" by the district, I would probably seek the credits from MS in order to preserve flexibility.
Obviously the same logic could apply to other departments as well.
It's a fine goal if it happens to be YOUR goal. Getting kicked out for having too many credits is quite another matter. Having extra credits on one's transcript should only open doors, never shut them, but unfortunately that's not how the world works.
Helen Schinske
The current SPS standards require 20 credits. Many schools and many students require/attain more, but not all.
C & I committee thinks we should require 22 in the interim. As an aside, to paraphrase, some of the board members thought "we have been discussing this forever and we'd better [shxx or get off the pot.]"
Well, folks, the recipients of this interim plan would be the 8th graders, so they'd better hurry up and let them know before they start HS. Not to mention hire the teachers and find the classrooms.
And all the more reason to get middle schoolers credit for the qualifying courses.
I do see how this creates less of an exclusive track for APP, but it is true that it shuts out advanced 9th graders from access to the 9th grade APP cohort--they have to wait a year and then as 10th graders can be in with the APP 9th graders. Not a track per se, but more limiting than I have understood it to be in the past. And with the APP kids gone, I wonder about the impact on Honors World and Honors Bio?
I'm not sure how this will play out in 10th grade and beyond. Will APP 10th graders take AP American History, or will they take something else, and join others in their class for AP American History in 11th grade? Likewise, what will be the typical science progression? Garfield and the Advanced Learning office may already have figured this out, but if so, I haven't heard the plans.
Helen Schinske