Grant Wiggins, the author of the article "A Diploma Worth Having" expressed his points of view regarding highs chool education. According to his article, high school diploma should be abolished for the reason that diploma does not help high school students to be prepared for the adult life. In addition, Wiggins quoted "There's only one valid measure of the high school curriculum: How well does it prepare students for their adult lives?" (Wiggins, 2011, p. 28). This means that rather than setting which standard to follow in order to better prepare the students for their future is to set whose standard instead. Diploma does not provide a good measure of how much knowledge and skills high school students have achieved academically. The true measure of their abilities and skills learned in school are the developed knowledge, interests, habits, ideals and power that will allow them to find their place in the society (Wiggins, 2011, p. 28).
In order to do that, quality instructions, curriculum and teaching strategies must be developed that are aligned with the needs of the students or more of a forward-thinking approach. Like for example, math subjects in high school are designed in a generalized manner, instead of a direct approach syllabus that is aligned with the students needed knowledge and learning capacity. This is when RTI or response to intervention comes in the picture, to make sure that a student were able to catch up with the learning requirements of a grade level, an intervention should be used outside of the classroom session to focus on the student's academic weak points. The same thing with reading, reading experts should intervene when a student is having difficulty with reading and comprehension. Therefore, an extra time should be spent to ensure that the student can move on to the next grade level, confident that his academic skills fit the next grade level. This is in-line with the NCLB or no-child-left-behind initiative of the government ensure that all American students are academically as they move on from grade to grade. However, not all students have the same learning patterns and a few would have some difficulty at some point.
RTI would help shape a better quality learning approach that will provide a better proof of the student's academic achievement and diploma cannot measure the practical knowledge that students can apply in the real world when they graduate. Therefore, diploma abolition in favor of increasing the quality of learning and utilization of RTI practices would shape better individuals among students. NCLB's initiatives are well defined that not a single American student should be academically left behind and RTI is the best answer to this problem rather than motivating students with a diploma.
Works Cited
Wiggins, Grant. "A Diploma Worth Having." Educational Leadersip 68.6 (2011): 28. Print.
