Alabama Graduation High Requirement School

Admin | January 02, 2012 | Comments Off

Alabama Graduation High Requirement School

Alabama Graduation High Requirement School

Most students attend four years of high school to graduate. But, there is a growing trend to graduate early and enter college sooner. What is the student motivation for early graduation?

Graduating Early is Legal

Most states allow students to graduate under certain circumstances.

  • 21 states allow students to graduate early.
  • 35 states allow early graduations if students can show mastery of standards in state tests. [1]

Some school boards view early graduation as a negative because it would deprive the school of funding. Schools are given funding based on students enrolled. If a student is not enrolled, the school is deprived of $5,000 up to $12,000 for a school year. Some schools allow early graduation on a case by case basis and student appeals for early graduation are often denied.

Early College High Schools

Bill Gates has underwritten yet another educational project – Early College High Schools. 200 schools are enrolled in this project to assist students to complete high school and earn an Associate’s Degree in five years. This model allows students to fast forward through high school while consecutively taking rigorous college classes. So, instead of going to high school for four years and earning an Associate’s Degree in two years, a year is cut from this process by combining both.