Is a diploma enough? Setting ambitious visions for success in high schools

One set of questions invites participants to advise the school featured in the case, and a second set broadens the discussion to high schools in general. [...] With relevance for high schools across the nation, Opportunity Academy raises the issue: Is a high school diploma the right goalpost? And what would it take to ensure that all students, including those at alternative high schools, leave the K-12 system with the life skills and postsecondary plans that lead to career opportunities, ongoing education, or both? The context: Opportunity Academy OA has. [...] What a student who is a 17-year-old mom, but entirely reading and writing and doing math at grade level, needs might be entirely different from a student who comes to us with a disrupted formal education, speaking a different primary language and reading at a fifth grade level, but with a disrupted formal education, speaking a different primary language and reading at a fifth grade level, but able. [...] The quality of work and the rigor that we’re asking our students to commit to is higher and harder than ever before.” - Principal Opportunity Academy also offers ways for students to earn credit by demonstrating mastery of skills gained in a range of settings, including outside traditional high school courses. [...] On the real side, “you really have to learn stuff while you’re in high school in order to be prepared to be a well-functioning adult, able to care for yourself, and succeed in the socioeconomic world.” Those skills are often not reflected or prioritized on the game side, “which is checking all the boxes with credits and [standardized tests], and showing up enough to get those.” Some OA staff descr.