- High school diplomas in the United States need to have
much more rigorous standards if they are to have any future credibility,
says a report.
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- As English school exams face a shake-up this week, there
is also scrutiny of school-leaver qualifications in the US.
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- The English exam system is expected to adopt a new diploma
structure - but the study by the American Diploma Project is critical of
the US version.
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- It says it is often "little more than a certificate
of attendance".
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- 'Broken promise'
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- The two-year investigation, carried out by an alliance
of education groups and specialists, has concluded that the high school
diploma is a "broken promise" in need of comprehensive change.
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- "The diploma has lost its value because what it
takes to earn one is disconnected from what it takes for graduates to compete
successfully beyond high school - either in the classroom or in the workplace,"
says the report.
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- It concludes that standards in English and maths need
to be tougher if the qualification is to be useful for employers or higher
education - and that in most states pupils are not taking difficult enough
courses.
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- The United States does not have a national education
system - and this report will be seen as pushing towards more national
standards, with exams becoming more of a "common currency".
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- Graduating with a high school diploma should mean that
the pupil has achieved an appropriate standard in a range of core and specialist
subjects.
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- 'Attendance certificate'
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- But in a damning conclusion it says the diploma "often
serves as little more than a certificate of attendance".
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- The project says that the lack of adequate benchmarked
standards means that more than half of students entering higher education
courses need to have remedial lessons in either maths or English.
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- It also reports that employers are dissatisfied with
students' literacy and numeracy skills.
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- The report recommends that there should be much clearer
common standards and assessment, so that a school-leaving qualification
will be able to represent pupils' abilities.
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- The US Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, applauded the
project and said the report "underscores the need for high school
reform".
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- Teachers' representatives were not all impressed by the
harsh conclusions, with some saying pupils and staff were working hard
and rejecting the claim that the diploma had lost its value.
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- The future direction of England's secondary school exam
system is going to be outlined on Tuesday, in a report from former chief
schools inspector Mike Tomlinson.
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- It is expected to propose that A-levels and GCSEs be
incorporated within a diploma structure.
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- © BBC MMIV
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3492317.stm
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