This is a guerrilla move, and I applaud it, but it shouldn't be necessary to come up with hacks and work-arounds like this.

It might make an excellent back door. If we've already been funding college education, it will be harder to argue that we can't. I think 13th grade as a stop-gap measure has a lot of power to normalize publicly funded higher education for the voter base.

The effects would start to trickle in almost immediately since everyone who benefits will already be old enough to vote, unlike the majority of students who benefit from tax funding via public schools. It would take 2-3 decades to become more ingrained and to have a larger effect, but I think this is a good start.

I think it's particularly useful because AP classes count for college credit- and AP classes (in my experience) are kind of bullshit.

I'd put AP classes under this same sort of bullshit. We wouldn't need AP courses or 13th grades if we just placed students appropriately and gave them a decent education in the first place.

I agree in principle, but what do you do with the kid who's reading at a college level but is struggling with ninth grade geometry?

Stop using a system that assumes a kid who reads at a college level will be able to do college level maths?

You mean, like AP courses? ;)

I'm not saying there aren't better ways to address disparity, mind you. And although it's frustrating. at the time, being held back by the lowest common denominator in a classroom is some of the best training you'll ever get for the " real world".

The problem with that is that you're still dealing with formative minds. Holding people back at a young age doesn't teach them anything about the real world -- it limits their cognitive capacity and future success. Let them learn how difficult people can be after they've got the critical thinking skills down.

As to AP courses, they're a workaround. They have serious flaws with classism, accessibility, and applicability. It's better than what we have, but that's because what we have sucks so much.

I love this i combination with community colleges being able to give out 4 year degrees. I think of lot of school degrees are overpriced and unable to deliver their return on investment beyond just being a barrier for have-nots. I think in terms of having an educated population, and the effects that has in our politics and in consumer society is pretty much priceless.

The problem with business today is that there is no investment into our educational services and they are hiring people educated in different countries. In fact, I think the American educational system (at least pre-college) has never been good in terms of a lot of our scientific progress being based on scientists we "acquired" after WW2 etc.

Not that American education is shabby. I shouldn't say that... more like... I think American business doesn't value long term educational investment as much as it should.

part of this is because business does what shareholders want... but when your shareholders don't live in that country, there is negative incentive to invest in things like education- and that is where capitalism (in terms of privatization) fails in terms of education in America.

TL;RD: There is no longer a social contract being upheld by american business- so solutions have to come from programs like these.

That- and the structure of college has changed away from innovation to a for-profit-model.
(i.e. Janitors have to sign contracts that if they invent anything on the premises, that invention belongs to the institution- not the individual who invented it.)

From a Gin and Tacos Facebook post:

"Short essay question: "Suppose you work for Apple. You post a racist joke on your personal Twitter and it gets a lot of media attention. Can Apple fire you or does the 1st Amendment protect you?" (Note: I spent almost a full class on this)

Complete, verbatim student answer: "Yes it do." "

(background: Ed Burmila, the proprietor of G and T, teaches a college freshman intro to government course.)

I do have to wonder if the 50+% of Oregon students that don't make it through the first year of community college aren't similarly ill-prepared. If people who don't have the ability to write a complete sentence are getting high school diplomas, I'm not sure that a year of college with training wheels is going to be any more help. That said, I would have loved to have had an option like this.

Hopefully Oregon can expand trade school type programs as well. College isn't for everyone, but we still need plumbers, mechanics, electricians, nurses, and so on.

Which his freshman course in intro to government will take them far.

Honestly- given the football programs in colleges, and the fact he's teaching a bullshit class makes me think that his antidotal evidence isn't really all it's cracked up to be.

Also ala caddyshack:
Danny Noonan: I planned to go to law school after I graduated, but it looks like my folks won't have enough money to put me through college.
Judge Smails: Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too.

The average law school graduate today would be thrilled to have a career with the security and steady income of ditch digging, amirite?

I'd kill for a position like that!

Answers like this are not a problem provided the students are failing as a result. I would look to the rampant cheating and the blind eye the unis turn as to why quality is so low.