Blog Stage 7

Texas government desperately needs to re-write graduation requirements for Texas students. The education system for students in 9th-12th grade, High School, in Texas is not setting up their students to succeed. In January of 2014, The Texas Board of Education passed House Bill 5. This bill affected students who entered 9th grade in 2014-2015 and the classes after. House Bill five take some steps in the correct direction, but the Texas education system still has a long way to go.

Before House Bill 5, there was a system put into place known as the 4x4, meaning you need 4 English, 4 Mathematics, 4 Social Studies, and 4 Science courses. Along with a couple of other things like a Physical education, speech, art, and electives. House Bill 5 alters the common core a bit, by only requiring 3 math/science/social study course but it requires 2 credits in a language that is not English and cuts the electives back from 7.5 to 5.  Many of these common core course that are required block up a students schedule to not allow them to take classes they want, typically only allowing 2 electives per semester. Then we expect students to know exactly what they want to do in college and excel. Where in reality 1 in every 3 students drop out of college. This leads me to the question: Would the college drop out rate be lower if the requirements to graduate High school were different?

There are a couple of ways I would change House Bill 5. First, I would divide High school into 2 parts, each part lasting 2 years. The High school system would still be the same, 9th-12th grade would still be in the same building running on the same schedule. Every student would have 7 classes in one day, for both parts. The first part would only apply to the freshmen and sophomores lasting 2 years. In those 2 years, they would be required to take 2 mathematics, 2 social studies, 2 sciences, 2 histories, 2 governments, 1 foreign language, 1 art, 1 physical education, 1 semester of speech, and 1-semester health. This would be a total of 14 credits, 7 classes each year. This is what a typical High schooler takes now.

The second part of high school is for the juniors and seniors would be centered around helping students decide on the career path they want. Students would be required to take 2 courses of finance/banking, one each year, giving real-world help like balancing a checkbook, how to build credit, what loans are and the importance of an emergency fund. 4 courses of some type of duel credit classes that count towards college common core, these could be in mathematics, history or government. These classes help students understand the course load and the level of difficulty of college. 2 courses of English, with a focus on helping students write college essays and making resumes. This comes out to a total of 8 required course. Then from the remaining 6 courses, students can explore different elective that resembles a job field like culinary, ready set teach, clinical, sales, engineering, banking, and different trades. Students would be required to try out 6 different fields, this would help the student to discover if any of these classes spark their interest to potentially work towards a career in.  It would also help the students to decide if college is for them or if they work towards a trade.

The change in House Bill 5 will help Texas High schoolers to decide a career path, whether it be in college or in a trade. Allowing students to demo professions in High School would better prepare them for college. This change in House Bill 5 could result in a lower college drop out rate.