Dear Editor,
One thing the high school could work on in the future is creating a system to be able to test out of classes. Testing out of classes would be beneficial to students because it would place students in class with the correct difficulty. In addition, students being placed in classes of the correct difficulty would give staff more focused and engaged students.
This system could be as simple as an optional test out exam in August that would be similar to the final in May for the class and if students could pass or excel in August they could be given the credit for the class. Students could find classes they want to take and study during the summer to then be able to test out of the prerequisite for the class. An example of this would be testing out of geometry in your freshman year to then have the potential to reach Calculus BC by senior year. This is extremely beneficial if you are going into stem or a math major in college.
A personal example of this is that to take an advanced computer science class you need to have taken intro to computer science. However during my freshman and sophomore year my schedule was already full so I did not have the chance to take intro to computer science. So studying and taking some classes over the summer to then test out of the introduction class to gain the opportunity to take an advanced computer science class would be very beneficial for me.
So the high school should give a test-out option for classes because it would help students who want to take more difficult classes get to that point faster. This would in turn give teachers more focused and interested students.
Sincerely,
Daniel Parker