Why not allow high school students to drop a course as soon as the final class ends? [View All]

[Boojatta]

In other words, why force a student to write a final examination if the student has good reason to expect to fail the course? For at least part of high school, the education is compulsory, but that doesn't mean that examinations need to be compulsory. In fact, there is an examination called the "GED" and in many states it's far from compulsory. Based on age, a student may be prohibited from attempting the GED.

Compulsory education is about compulsory attendance of classes. Once the classes end, a student's obligations have ended. Of course, the student isn't entitled to academic credit, but why should there be a failure on the student's permanent record? If a student attempts an exam question and makes no progress on that particular question, then the student will have merely wasted time that could have been devoted to earning marks for other questions on the same exam. Attempting an exam question, making no progress, and earning zero marks for that question doesn't necessarily create a permanent record of failure on academic transcripts. Why should it? Is there any evidence that anti-learning occurs when this happens?

If students were free to study without the risk of a permanent record of failure, then they would be able to put more effort into learning and less effort into merely maximizing their grades. There will always be a difference between substantive learning and the acquisition of credentials. Trying to motivate a student to learn a particular subject by threatening the student with a permanent record of failure in that subject area sounds like a good way to persuade students to stop taking that subject as soon as they have a choice.