Florida To Stop Giving GED Diplomas

[The Straight Story]

Florida To Stop Giving GED Diplomas

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Florida is changing its policy on youths who opt for a GED to finish high school in less than four years.

Until now, those looking for a shortcut could earn the same diploma as others. But Education Commissioner Eric Smith said that's not fair, or necessarily legal. Department of Education lawyers researching another issue could find no state law authorizing it.

So Smith has notified school districts that all who take the General Educational Development test must now receive a high school equivalency diploma, just like dropouts who later go through the GED process.

The GED exit option started in 1988. About 3,000 students in the most recent school year took the shortcut -- roughly 2 percent of all graduates.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/20334865/detail.html

[Demoiselle]

1. What's not fair about it?

Maybe some kids need to be done with school so they can find full time jobs?
Maybe they NEED those full time jobs?
Wow. Maybe I'm hopelessly ignorant about this...but...what?

[Odin2005]

6. Can't let the smart kids graduate faster, that would piss of the parents of the dumb kids.

Don'tcha know? :eyes:

[dysfunctional press]

13. if the smart kids graduate faster- it will lower the overall test scores for the school.

by keeping the smart kids in the classroom longer- they can help keep the overall numbers higher re: nclb testing.

[michreject]

27. By keeping the students in school

The school district gets the state funding that is allowed for each student.

It's about the money.

[PVnRT]

29. Smart kids who graduate early tend not to go the GED route

[cyberswede]

2. My local paper ran a story on the Florida GED

Our paper ran a story on the Florida GED exam some years ago - complete with a sample test.
I remember I got every question in the sample correct, and I wanted to drive straight to Florida and pick up my GED!
I was 10.

[Egnever]

3. Thats a fairly misleading title

They arent doing away with GED's at all.

[Mariana]

9. It is not misleading at all.

Florida was granting diplomas to students who passed the GED test. A GED certificate is not a diploma. They're doing away with GED diplomas.

[Boojatta]

23. Isn't there something misleading somewhere around here?

So Smith has notified school districts that all who take the General Educational Development test must now receive a high school equivalency diploma, just like dropouts who later go through the GED process.

[csziggy]

4. Is Florida still offering the early admittance program for community colleges?

My little sister had finished her high school requirements by the time she completed eleventh grade. She went into community college that summer on an early admittance program that did not require a high school diploma. She tested out of many of her first year classes (CLEP Tests), took summer school and two semesters, and received her AA diploma the same week she received her high school diploma. Since she had also started school at age five, she was sixteen. This was in Florida in the 1970s.

Then she went on to a four year university and finished her BA in less than two years. She was not legally an adult when she graduated from college. But she was given the regular degrees from each institution since she completed all their requirements - there was no discussion of a time requirement for finishing school, just credits.

Why is Florida trying to penalize smart students?

[Odin2005]

7. See post #6.

[Mariana]

8. Lots of places do crap like this to smart students.

In my school district (it may actually be state law, I'm not sure), students may test for high school credits. If they've taken the class in high school, failed, and then take the test they need a score of 70 to get the credit. If they study on their own in their spare time and take the very same test, they need to score 90.

This is disgusting. Independent study is something that should be encouraged! It's an incredibly useful thing for anyone to be able to do.

[Odin2005]

5. A slap in the face to gifted people that have trouble in school.

[winyanstaz]

10. Is Florida being run by a bunch of people with Alzheimer's or something?

Whats wrong with the water in Florida? Something must be wrong with it because it's "leading" citizens have all gone brain dead.

[BlooInBloo]

11. :(

[dembotoz]

12. smart kids = high test scores

makes the district look like they are doing something.

if they leave early, they district does not have the benefit from their high score for the maximum amount of time.

in terms of no child left behind, they are more likely to have funding reduced.

it is all about the money
always about the money

[ProgressiveProfessor]

14. Public education can not really handle the gifted

Our daughters were 2-3 years ahead of grade level when we returned to the US. We foolishly assumed they would be able to test to a grade level and go from there. We were seriously mistaken. The school district tried to use age as the only determinant. Had a helluva time getting put forward so they did not have to spend time in classes well beneath their academic level. Funniest was foreign language. The eldest aced a fluency test but the school thought somehow she had rigged it and insisted on an oral interview. My wife sat in and reported that by the end of the interview, my daughter was correcting the teacher's grammar. It was similar for math. Once it was clear they were both testing at the college level, the district tried to use the "They need the full high school experience so they can integrate into American society". Eventually we got a colleague back in the country we had been living in to whip out a fake report cards and transcripts for each of them and moved on. I would rather have sent them directly to jr College, but the lack of a HS diploma is very limiting and a GED looks questionable in many ways.

[Odin2005]

16. I hate the "schools are for socialization" BS.

Unless someone has Asperger's Syndrome like myself "socialization" happens completely on it's own with no help needed from formal education. When people bring up "socialization" they really mean "the kid needs to submit to indoctrination and the latest social engineering fad". It's the use of schools as testing areas for ideological and academic social engineering schemes that have screwed over education the most, IMO, as well as the "there are 5 million sides to every story" BS that makes History suck, and finally the one-sized-fits-all BS that declares one way of learning spelling and grammar is better than the other (or even BS about formal grammar being "unnecessary". :eyes:

[Mariana]

17. Kids get much much better "socialization" working a job.

When they go to work, they usually have to learn to get along with all kinds of different people. At school, the only people there they can socialize with are other teenage high school students.

[mopinko]

19. schools are for antisocialization.

and gifted kids are the only ones NOT entitled to an appropriate education. the least they could do is cut them loose.

[Odin2005]

21. And if you prove yourself more knowledgeable than the teacher you get in trouble...

...for disrespecting their authority. :eyes:

[mopinko]

30. goes double for girls.

my baby has a language gift, got the highest grade in the class in french 1. her teacher was supposed to be doing a swap, she went to france, but her replacement didn't materialize. they found some dumbass with 2 years of college french. oy. did that woman dislike my kid.
almost as bad as the "blond" 7th grade math teacher, who wore tight sweaters and high heels to teach in a grade school. unbelievable. was bothered that kiddo doodled during class, even tho she got a's on the test. just couldn't get it through her head that all she needed was to listen with one ear for half the class. didn't appreciate that kiddo just quietly entertained herself instead of being disruptive.

gifted kids really deserve an appropriate education, and just teaching them a curriculum from 2 years ahead, in the same way, is not it. fortunately my kids had summer programs at university education departments that let them know how smart they were, and that they were not alone.

[Jkid]

22. Schools are for Socialization: more like negative socialization

am I right?

Seriously, most socialization that happens in most high schools are negative. Such as bullying, negative peer pressure, and cliquish behavior.

[Odin2005]

26. +1; I have PTSD from bullying, from both peers AND faculty.

[tblue37]

20. I have an article on my

Teacher, Teacher website entitled "We Don' Need No Stinkin' Gifted Programs!":
http://teacherblue.homestead.com/gifted.html

It's about the elimination of gifted programs and the fact that our society, unlike every other society in the developed world, deliberately ignores the needs of its gifted students and refuses to do anything to help them fully developed their talents.

I am convinced that it's at least partly because ours is such an anti-intellectucal, anti-elitist society.

In our society, full college scholarships go not to the most academically gifted students, but to athletes, who get a full ride, even if, as is all too often the case, they function at the equivalent of a 6th-grade educational level.

[Boojatta]

24. "a GED looks questionable in many ways"

Of course it looks questionable. When the highest authorities select the official phrase "high school equivalency" it's obvious that the thing isn't equivalent. If you were stupid enough to take at face value words used by legislators, then you would have only yourself to blame.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

28. I don't take a the pols word for anything...A GED is carries a certain amount of stigma

when trying to get into college, jobs, etc. However, school want more than SATs to get into college these days. For us our younger daughter was a hard call. She passed the GED at 14. They let her enter as a junior, so she took a couple of the locally required classes and some AP classes. She spent most of senior year at the local JC.

[cynatnite]

15. We had to force our daughter to get her GED...

We couldn't keep the troublemaker in school and she was failing all her classes. So, finally, I let her quit school and she got her GED.

That was seven years ago and she thanks us for making her do it. She's going to college now.

[EFerrari]

18. I hated high school and just enrolled at our JC when I turned 16.

Got my AA and went on to college and grad school. I don't have a high school diploma or a GED. No one has ever even asked.

[cynatnite]

25. Our kid was wild and young...very wild...

fortunately, she grew up and has settled down. It took her a while to mature.