Senior Projects Encourage Insight Via Sustained Effort
Posted on 27. Apr, 2009 by Admin in Charter, Corporate, District, News, Private Schools
by Jay Mathews (April 27, 2009)
Senior theses/projects are quite rare in public education. But should they be? Is the bar so low that anyone can graduate with minimal effort? Or would such requirements doom many of the nation’s students to certain failure? Should it be done anyway?
“Private schools have been doing this for years. . . . Such enterprises add depth to high school — a chance for each student to explore something that intrigues him or her personally. . . . Why should just private schools, and a few exceptional public schools . . . be encouraging insight through sustained effort? This relates to another of my pet peeves: the reluctance of American public high schools to assign even one research paper of significant length and complexity before students graduate.”
It is the opinion of UEC that every community is different and should make decisions regarding such graduation requirements, not based on what works for other schools but based on needs in the particular community.