By JON HUTTON
Assistant Principal, Tippecanoe Valley High School

Today’s high school students have many different opportunities than existed even five years ago.  The experience of a freshman starting high school serves as more of a transition to college than ever before due to the partnership between school and the higher education community.  Students graduating with the Indiana Honors diploma are required to have six hours of dual credit in a course that offers both high school and college credit or four credits in two or more Advanced Placement courses.

A student can also score a 1750 on the SAT or a 26 on the ACT (this would put the student in about the top 20 percent of all students in the nation).  Opportunities for students to graduate with 10-15 college credits is well within the reach and translates into a potential savings of almost $4,450 at a public school to $15,000 or more at a private college.

Dual credit and AP classes also help students transition from high school to college in terms of the content and rigor of the coursework. It makes both academic and financial sense for students to take advantage of this opportunity to transition to college in smaller steps while in a familiar environment where they are supported in their academic endeavors.

In the last 5-10 years there has been a push to increase student testing and evaluation. Not long ago, college bound students were most concerned about passing the ISTEP test their sophomore year, the PSAT their junior year, and the ACT/SAT their senior year. Due to a significant increase in the amount of standardized testing dedicated to determining student competency, schools are using more class time preparing students for the state-mandated tests, taking away from valuable instructional time.

To prepare students for success on the end of course assessments administered at the high school level, students are assessed with Acuity three times per year. Acuity allows the school to monitor each student’s individual growth and predict future success on the ECA. If a student does not demonstrate sufficient proficiency on the ECA, the student is provided with individualized remediation and tested with the Accuplacer assessment tool to determine whether or not the student is college ready.

Because of the required remediation, some students experience less time for academic exploration and classes of their own choosing. Indiana’s schools have been told the ECA and Accuplacer are going to change in the next two years. Educators and parents have expressed concern at the amount of testing time required of students. In response, the Indiana Department of Education recently moved to reduce this year’s standardized testing sessions and hours for students.

Education has changed significantly in the last decade, not just in obvious areas like the use of technology, but also in the areas of academic standards and the opportunities available to students. One of the constants we all have in our lives is that we attended high school.

Today’s students may be sitting in the same chairs, in classes taught by the same teachers, as their family members did years ago. The reality is, however, today’s academic requirements and educational opportunities are very different, so different that we may all need to go back to high school to gain an understanding of what students today experience and how best to guide them into the future.