The State Board of Education adopted two new courses at its meeting on December 8 that certainly are worthy of your consideration. The Board adopted standards for Technical College Readiness English and Technical College Readiness Mathematics. The proposal for the courses came from Hall County and they will pilot the courses beginning in January 2017.
Enrollment in the courses is based on student scores on the ACCUPLACER test. That is the test given to all entering technical college students and many public community colleges and state universities. Students are placed/not placed in developmental studies courses based on their ACCUPLACER scores. One of the significant criticisms leveled at public education from higher education is the number of high school graduates that end up in developmental courses. The two courses approved by the State Board will enable the students to take the developmental courses in high school, generally as seniors or juniors, and hopefully avoid developmental studies at the technical college or community college level.
Students must take the ACCUPLACER exam as the pre-test and post-test for the high school courses.
Indications are that the technical college system has already agreed to accept the ACCUPLACER scores of students that take the exam as a part of the high school offerings.
The opportunity to avoid developmental courses at the college level is most certainly beneficial to both the student and the high school. More information on the courses is available from the GADOE Curriculum Division.
We salute Will Schofield and our friends from Hall County for their innovative thinking.