The law passed this year that lets Florida students graduate after only three years of high school is more likely to leave them behind than give them a head start.
Published September 16, 2003
The Florida Legislature, in its finite wisdom, decided earlier this year that Florida's high school students don't necessarily need four years of education. So they passed a law that forces school districts to let students lop off their senior year and still graduate.
The move was so unusual that it made national news. While other states are working to find ways to give their students a better education even in tough economic times, here in sunny Florida we'll reward students with a high school diploma if they'll just leave sooner, after only three years and with only 18 credit hours rather than the standard 24.
And what did lawmakers chop from the list of courses required for graduation? U.S. history. Physical education. American government. World history. Life Management Skills, which teaches students about marriage, parenting and how to maintain good health.
Legislators claim that their intent was to give especially smart, mature students the opportunity to leave school a year early and get a jump on starting college, joining the military or going to work. But their explanation is disingenuous. The new three-year graduation option grew out of legislative debate about how to satisfy the voters' demand for reduced class sizes in public schools. Legislators weren't motivated by desire to provide students a better education; they needed a way to get them out of school faster so the state would not have to foot the bill for more teachers and more classrooms.
Look at how the new option was implemented. Blindsided school districts were notified of the change in graduation requirements in July, a mere four weeks before school started in some areas. And the districts were ordered to inform all high school students and parents of the option immediately. Even incoming seniors had to be given the right, if they already had 18 credits, to turn around and walk out the door with diploma in hand. Past changes to high school graduation requirements usually were phased in, beginning with incoming freshmen. This time the Legislature was in too much of a hurry for that.
Lawmakers gave little thought to the myriad problems their tinkering would create (though they did remember to reduce the number of credits required for admission to state universities from 19 to 18 - another backward step). Among the problems:
They left the required number of years of English at four, though students who choose the hurry-up-and-graduate option will be in high school only three years. Students will have to take two years of English at one time.
Under the three-year option, students may finish school as early as age 16 - too young to join the military and perhaps too young to compete with older high school graduates for jobs. College administrators already are worrying about having immature 16-year-olds living in college dorms with students 18 and older.
School districts have no idea how they will calculate class rank for purposes of naming valedictorians and salutatorians now that some graduates will have 18 credits and others 24. Will they have to name two sets of valedictorians and salutatorians each year?
Lawmakers mostly hacked away high school graduation requirements to reach the pared-down, 18-credit list, but inexplicably added two years of a foreign language, which is not now required to graduate, for vocational as well as college-bound students opting for 18 credits. School districts already were struggling to find enough certified foreign language teachers and don't know how they will find more so quickly.
But those problems pale beside this one: No one can forecast how students with only 18 credits will compete for college admission against applicants who have more credits. Entrance to good universities is extremely competitive. The colleges emphasize that they look for students who have had rigorous, intellectually challenging high school schedules, even in the senior year. Florida's legislators seemed to think that most students just twiddled their thumbs through their senior year. But these days, college-bound students wise to the universities' preferences use the senior year to take more math and science, Advanced Placement and honors courses, and to boost their involvement in school organizations and community service.
From now on, eighth-graders will be asked to declare which graduation option they will pursue: the standard 24 hours, college-preparatory 18 hours, or vocational 18 hours. School districts may (but don't have to) allow them to change their selection as they go through high school. Students who graduate with 18 credits will not be allowed to come back and take more credits if they find they can't get into college or can't find a job.
While the law forces high school counselors to offer the 18-credit option, they are not doing it happily. Privately, they express concerns that Florida students who choose this option will be left behind, poorly equipped for college, work and life compared with graduates who stay in school longer. And university and community college administrators, who have complained for several years that too many high school graduates are unprepared for college work, don't have much good to say about it, either. Educators likely will lobby legislators to kill the fast-track diploma, but without the voices of parents and business, their pleas may be ignored.
Parents and students should be aware that if they choose to shorten high school, they do so at great risk. The 18-credit option may be great for legislators trying to dodge their responsibility to adequately fund public education, but it will do nothing to help students in the real world.
