<p>GMTplus7–I agree that most countries don’t require education past what would be our 10th grade–yet we are compared to those countries using ALL of our students to their TOP students :D. Again, the issue lies with labor laws here. I see nothing wrong with kids being done with high school after 10th or 11th grade if they don’t have plans to go on to a 4 year college, but what will they do for those years until they turn 18?? </p>
<p>Most kids CAN seek out a vo-tech type degree and have that completed or nearly so when they graduate in 12th grade through the dual enrollment option that pretty much every state has now. Are these kids taking advantage of that is the real question.</p>
<p>@SteveMA, I concur that if we tinker with the graduation year then we also have to tinker with the labor laws. No point in cutting kids loose early if they are not permitted to work.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that in those countries, the basic education expectation levels for vo-tech tracked students in many of those countries could exceed even those of many “college-track” at many US high schools. </p>
<p>With the reading, writing, and math skill levels being what they currently are at many regular high schools and required by the GED, it’s very doubtful they’d be admitted/survive the rigors of some of the vo-tech high schools in many foreign countries.</p>
<p>I was on both tracks, back in the day, taking voc classes AND AP classes. Teachers had a hard time wrapping their had around it, but I felt quite at home with both sets of kids a d their families.</p>
<p>I was also able to get a job as a CNA while still in high school, and THAT’S where it got strange. I could not wrap my head around working like that ( very physical work) for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>Our HS offers this track. it’s still a 4 year thing but years 3 and 4 are spent almost entirely doing whatever vocation is chosen. It’s offered in partnership with a local vocational school.</p>
<p>Students can choose from a lot of options - firefighting, cosmetology, auto mechanic, construction, culinary arts…while still doing the basics required to earn a HS degree.</p>
<p>Germany has a two-tier system, in some parts of the country it is even three-tier. You may leave full-time education after nine years of school, when you are about 15. In this case you start an apprenticeship, which lasts for three, sometimes even three and a half years. It means you go to vocational school for one or two days a week. For the rest of your time you are trained in a company. At the end you have to pass a written exam and one, where you can show the skills you learnt. That is the reason why many people end up with 13 years of schooling, but in reality they are skilled workers in a trade. If they feel like it they can go back to school after their training and finish high school to go to university. Many of them do so and employers usually like that because they know all parts of the job, not just the academic side of it.
You get a specialized and qualified work force in the end. On the other hand people are so specialized that it is hard to change one’s job, because you have to do the apprenticeship all over again. So the economy is not flexible.
There are positve and negative aspects in either system.</p>