I just read this article:
High Schools to Offer Plan to Graduate 2 Years Early

"Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college."

Maybe this will help in the whole "but they won't have their driver's license with the rest of their friends" type arguments.

Hopefully it won't begin the argument "but they won't be old enough to drink with their friends"

"This would allow an approach based on subject mastery � a system based around move-on-when-ready.�

Yeah! That is awesome!!!

A few people were just discussing another board that the community colleges are becoming the new high schools.

It will be interesting to see how this is implimented. Is it just another way for the districts to get out of paying for what are now common community college classes for children who qualify in their junior and senior year?

I like Ohio's program. High school kids who meet entrance requirements can take college courses for dual credit. The high school funding pays for the college. There are a few catches. Not all credits earned, even in a 4 year program, will transfer out of state. Kids can graduate from high school with 1-2 years of college out of the way, but I've heard of cases where it messed up some scholarships.

LOL

Sounds like its plan to save $,
The "lets offer the smart kids quick education instead of offering a quality education" mentality.

Just because a 10th grader can pass a 12th grader test does not make them ready for college.
Not to mention, many good scholarships require 100's of service hours, hard to do in 2 years.

I'm watching this new Columbus, Ohio public high school to see how it develops:

http://www.themetroschool.org/

DD won't be ready for HS or college for a few more years (I think), but the metro school is local for us. I really hope it flourishes even if DD ends up somewhere else, like Davidson Institute or staying at her current school!
Chrys

I didn't see this as an article directed towards the gifted kids, but rather for the economical factors. They reference N. Carolina and I recently read an article about the referenced program. The program is for the high risk drop out students, headed in the direction of gangs, who live in low income areas. In the other article they made it clear that the program was not for the advanced students with comments such as: �We don�t want the kids who will do well if you drop them in Timbuktu,� said Lakisha Rice, the principal. �We want the ones who need our kind of small setting.� Maybe I'm wrong here but I predict they are overlooking gifted students, seeing them as capable with no risks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/education/08school.html?em

The second article shines a different light.

What stands out the most to me is that, the average kids are performing better when place in a challenging enviornment!
Proof again, that we should be raising the bar and challenging all students.
We sometimes need to be reminded that, It's not just the gifted who are suffering from lack of challenge, in many schools even the high average are underserved.

I think community college is a way to serve gifted students in some communities...typically semester courses are equivalent to a year-long high school course, so there's compacted curriculum. Our experience so far with cc is that the teacher is great, clear course requirements, good pace.