RE: Question 2: Integrated curriculum/content

Both of my daughters have graduated from high school.  They are two very different learners: one was very successful and one struggled every day.  I was a parent volunteer with the track team and tall flags giving me the opportunity to listen to many students. Having experienced high school from two very different perspectives I have a suggestion that someone brought up last week in the middle of another response.

What would be the impact of making high school more choice oriented? You finish a course when you have learned the content as demonstrated by product or performance, you finish high school when you have met all the requirements...not when 4 years are up.  If you are in a class and begin to fail, and you cannot catch up even with great help from the teacher or tutors, you can step out of the class and start it over again another semester.  Provide choices in the first years of high school that give the students a taste of vocational education and other post-secondary choices.  Physical education and health education should be available and encouraged for all students all the time.  This means high school may take 4 years, it may take 6 years.  It would depend on the individual learner.

I have worked with too many students who tolerated high school, put in seat time, did the minimum and got out.  Then there were the students who got overwhelmed with a subject, couldn't get caught up, and failed the course...or worse yet...passed with a D or C- and moved on feeling stupid.  More choices and more flexibility may support learners more effectively.