The article “Project Aims to Strengthen Students’ Skills” talks about exactly how I feel high schools should be changing. It talks about a project in Maryland that is trying to raise the expectations of graduating from high school. In Michigan we are attempting to do this as well. The most important point of the article was that students are graduating from high school unprepared for college and the workforce. They want to stop students from taking remedial classes that in the real world will do nothing for them. We are advancing so much in the demands society has on the workforce, thus students who are not challenging themselves in high school will become lost. This article ties in with the Brophy article “Socializing Uninterested Students” because they would be the students in the remedial classes. The only problem is by upping the requirements these students will still not be motivated enough to achieve them. The issue then maybe is not to just make the graduation requirements harder, but also somehow show students they need to have better preparation for the real world. I do not know how high schools as a whole could do this, but individual teachers could use some of the techniques Brophy talks about in socializing those students with motivation to learn. Perhaps if high schools had career fairs that were more hands on and descriptive of the work force this would help. Or maybe if high schools could have better career planning programs. I am sure these are not the only ways, and they too have their own problems. I think upping the requirements of high school grads is a good idea, since society is demanding more out of them now, but it is not the only thing that needs to be done.
I really agreed with the part of the article that said that high school education is not just about passing tests but being ready for what comes next. Students need to see that high school is a stepping stone into the real world. Without it they will not be able to get any where meaningful. Teachers also need to focus more on teaching the information required in real life and not so much on getting test grades higher. Tests are a good gauge of how well students know the material, but they are not the only tool. Also they do not always show that students are learning the important parts of the curriculum and how to apply them. They could just be memorizing them to take a test. Perhaps teachers need to find other ways to gauge learning and prepare students for the real world.
