What’s wrong with the old diploma?

What better way to motivate high school students than to tell them the diploma they’re chasing isn’t worth much. If you want to do well in life, you’ll need the new and improved ‘College and Career Ready Diploma‘ from the Board of Education.

‘College and Career Ready Diploma?‘ What was wrong with the old diploma? Stigma Alert! Stigma Alert!

Beginning with the Class of 2013, the Board of Edumacation will offer this new-fangled College and Career Ready Diploma for students willing to take higher levels of math and English. That means they’re probably smarter and will have to work harder to prove it.

Did I ask what was wrong with the old diploma? Yes, I did. And the answer is ‘plenty is wrong with the old diploma.’ Too many of Hawaii’s high school graduates, those with the soon-to-be-out-of-date diploma couldn’t read or write or figure. The vast majority of Hawaii’s high school students could not place into 100-level college course on placement exams. Businesses found Hawaii’s high school graduates lacking in basic skills.

What does that say about the value of the current and past high school diploma in Hawaii? What does it say about the education system in Hawaii? It says that Hawaii’s education system is churning out students who don’t know how to read or write or figure. Colleges don’t like that. Businesses don’t like that.

The solution to this little crisis of the future, is to have the same Board of Education that created Hawaii’s diploma mill of the present to create a new class of diploma of the future for students who don’t want to be associated with the original, but now lower class, high school diploma.

Think of this as a private school attitude within a public school. It’s Punahou vs. McKinley without the added tuition.