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Comprehensive high school

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Comprehensive high schools are the most popular form of public high schools around the world, designed to provide a well-rounded education to its students, as opposed to the practice in some places in which examinations are used to sort students into different high schools for different populations. Other types of high schools specialize in university-preparatory school academic preparation, remedial instruction, or vocational instruction. The typical comprehensive high school offers more than one course program of specialization to its students. Comprehensive high schools generally offer a college preparatory course program and one or more foreign language, scientific or vocational course programs.[1]

Tracking system in comprehensive high schools

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The tracking system is a way to group students into different class levels based on their academic abilities in comprehensive high school. For example, the English course is a mandatory course for all students; there are four tracks: gifted, advanced, average, and remedial. This tracking system allows teachers to guide students more efficiently with customized learning needs and speeds and make sure students match courses with their ability levels.[2]

However, it also brings equity problems that reinforce the academic divisions in the education system. There are critics of the tracking system that it affects students placed on lower tracks by providing less challenging education, lowering their self-worth and self-esteem, which can restrict their potential academic achievement, personal growth, and future aspirations.[3]

Comparison with other types of high schools

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Other than the comprehensive high school, there are many other types of high schools. Studies show the difference in multiple aspects of the difference comparing comprehensive high schools and STEM-focused high schools or career academy high schools.

In comparison with STEM-focused high schools, comprehensive high schools don't show a significant difference in providing STEM opportunities for students, which breaks people's assumption that specialized programs must offer more in that area.[4]

In comparison with career academy high schools, researchers compared the students’ engagement in college and career readiness activities as an outcome of adopting students in future preparation. The researchers found that students in schools with high-level fidelity NAF (an organization aid to evaluate and improve schools) have higher engagement than students in comprehensive high school, while students in schools with low or medium fidelity in the NAF don't show a significant difference from students in the comprehensive high school.[5]

Other than studying the outcomes, researchers examined the bullying problem between these two types of high schools and revealed that students in career academy high schools experience less bullying than students in comprehensive high schools.[6] The potential factors are the size of the school and income level. Comprehensive high schools are usually larger, which is more likely to happen bullying issues, and schools in low-income areas tend to have bullying in school.[7]

Future of comprehensive high schools

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The future of comprehensive high schools may involve reforms that deal with the limitations of the current tracking systems. By reducing the hierarchy of tracks and implementing more flexible courses, comprehensive high schools will be more supportive of students from diverse backgrounds. Also, it is important to incorporate digital learning tools and personalized education plans, which allow a more equitable education system and ensure all students can access high-quality education.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Governor's Scholarship Programs". ScholarShare. Archived from the original on August 30, 2006. "A comprehensive public high school is a secondary school whose goal is to address the needs of all students, offering more than one course of specialization in its program. Comprehensive high schools usually have a college preparatory course and one or more scientific or vocational courses."
  2. ^ a b Finley, Merrilee K. (1984). "Teachers and Tracking in a Comprehensive High School". Sociology of Education. 57 (4): 233–243. doi:10.2307/2112427. ISSN 0038-0407.
  3. ^ Oakes, J., & and others. (1992). Educational matchmaking: academic and vocational tracking in comprehensive high schools. In Rand Corp, 1992. xx+123 pp (p. xx+123-xx+123).
  4. ^ Eisenhart, Margaret; Weis, Lois; Allen, Carrie D.; Cipollone, Kristin; Stich, Amy; Dominguez, Rachel (August 2015). "High school opportunities for STEM: Comparing inclusive STEM-focused and comprehensive high schools in two US cities: High School Opportunities for STEM". Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 52 (6): 763–789. doi:10.1002/tea.21213.
  5. ^ Fletcher, Edward C.; Tan, Tony Xing (2022-05-23). "Implementation matters: a comparison study of career academy and comprehensive high school students' engagement in college and career readiness activities". Educational Studies: 1–17. doi:10.1080/03055698.2022.2079374. ISSN 0305-5698.
  6. ^ Fletcher, Edward C.; Dumford, Amber D. (2023-07-03). "The Relationship of School Characteristics and Bullying Between Career Academy and Comprehensive High School Students". Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR). 28 (3): 306–325. doi:10.1080/10824669.2022.2084739. ISSN 1082-4669.
  7. ^ Ferris, J. S.; West, E. G. (September 2004). "Economies of scale, school violence and the optimal size of schools". Applied Economics. 36 (15): 1677–1684. doi:10.1080/0003684042000266856. ISSN 0003-6846.

Further reading

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