Mary Mitchell: 5th year of high school a good idea

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Updated: October 29, 2011 12:35AM

Is four years of high school enough to prepare today’s students for the real world?

My high school years were easily the most trying of my life. But I cried at my graduation. I still don’t know whether I shed tears because I was the first in my family to graduate from high school or because I was just so darn happy to get out of there.

On Friday, state Rep. LaShawn Ford (D-Chicago) teased a group of students at Wells High School that Gov. Quinn was about to sign legislation that would keep them in high school a year longer.

Of course he was joking.

Quinn was at Wells for the ceremonial signing of three pieces of education legislation. Two of the bills require school districts to emphasize reading and math during summer school for students who are at least two grade levels behind for two consecutive years.

Another bill requires Illinois school districts to teach students — beginning in kindergarten — how to “prevent violence and resolve conflict peacefully.”

Given the state’s dire straights, at this point the bills are just feel-good legislation — the kind that ends up on re-election literature. And with the statewide redistricting battle looming, it doesn’t hurt to get some positive press.

But these measures also show that education reform is still being treated like a quilting bee.

Although Ford was joking about five-year high schools, Quinn spoke of the real possibility, pointing out that North Carolina had already adopted the model.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing them here,” Quinn said. “In North Carolina, if you take an extra year, you get an associate’s degree. This is one of our missions,” Quinn told the students.

I forgive them for not applauding.

To young people, a year can seem like a lifetime. But the governor is onto something. The extra year could help struggling students.

No matter how much a student says he or she hates school, no young person really wants to drop out. But for a variety of reasons, including pregnancy and poor environment, some students can’t get through high school in four years.

Adding an extra year would give these challenged students time to find a fresh start.

For those students who are on track, the extra year could be spent in instruction that focuses on employment or life skills.

I’m always amazed that a lot of young people, especially those without work experience, do not understand that they have to call in to work when they aren’t going to show up and that a family reunion isn’t a family emergency.

More importantly, not every student wants to go to college. But in order to make a decent living, the non-college-bound students will still need advanced instruction in their field of interest or their high school diplomas will be worthless.

“We are really going to look at this [five-year high schools] and at the community college system,” Quinn said. “Oftentimes you need a better skill to get a job.”

Quinn said he recently met 15 young men back from combat duty in Iraq, and when they came home to Illinois they were not able to get a job. But the local community college worked with the pipefitter’s union and put together a training program that put all 15 vets to work.

“If you can be a welder in Illinois, you got a job for the rest of your life,” Quinn said.

Former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley raised the issue of a fifth year in 2006 as a way to defray college education costs.

And Michigan proposed extending high school in 2008 as part of an overall effort to reduce the state’s dropout rate. That plan allowed students to request a one-year extension on a case-by-case basis.

Other states, such as Indiana and Maine, also have jumped on this bandwagon.

I like the idea.

It is one way to stop funneling students into community colleges even though they are not prepared to do college-level work.

At the same time, the plan would not hold back students capable of moving on because they could earn college credit.

Right now, there aren’t many options for students who fall in the middle — between the smart kids and the ones who need help. But quite often, these are the students who need time to figure out the next step.

A fifth year could help put more of them on the right path.