Governor Timothy M. Kaine and the Commonwealth of Virginia have been telling high school students in Virginia Schools for a while to take more difficult classes. The Governor just announced the pilot Commonwealth Scholars Program and a marketing campaign to show that Virginia's young people are committed to doing well.
At first, eleven school divisions in Virginia will take part in the new programme. The required rigorous coursework is more than what is needed to graduate with a Standard Diploma, but less than what is needed to graduate with an Advanced Studies Diploma. Students who finish the core classes in the Virginia schools programme will be called "Commonwealth Scholars" at graduation and be able to get a special seal on their diplomas to show what they've done. All of the students who take part will get help with their lessons.
The Commonwealth Scholars Program is paid for by a $300,000 State Scholars Initiative grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This grant lasts for two years. In a national competition, schools in Virginia were one of eight states that were chosen to take part in the federal grant programme.
The school divisions in Virginia were chosen because they were interested in the programme and could meet the grant's requirements. The eleven groups of schools in Virginia are:
- The county of Albemarle
- Alexandria
- Bristol
The county of Carroll
County of Chesterfield
- The county of Lancaster
- County of Nottoway
- Richmond
- County of Henry
Roanoke County, Virginia
The Virginia schools initiative will be run by the Virginia Career Education Foundation, a group of businesses and schools from all over the state that work together. They will work with the school districts that are taking part to make partnerships with local businesses and spread the word about the programme. Volunteers from the private sector will be trained to give talks to the students about how the tough high school courses will help them get better jobs after high school.
The Commonwealth Scholars Program is based on a core curriculum that includes:
- English for four years;
- Three years of math: algebra I and algebra II, plus geometry;
Biology, chemistry, and physics for three years;
- Health and physical education for two years; and
- Two years of learning a language besides English.
- Three and a half years of social studies, including United States and Virginia history, world history, geography, economics and financial literacy, and United States and Virginia government;
Research has shown that there is a strong link between how hard your high school classes were and whether or not you got a degree after high school. One example is math. Forty percent of high school students who took Algebra II went on to get a bachelor's degree, while only 23 percent of high school students who stopped taking math after geometry did.
Governor Kaine is sure that the new Commonwealth Scholars Program will encourage many students to go to college after they graduate from high school in Virginia. He has thrown down the gauntlet and issued a challenge to the students in Virginia schools who are not on track for an Advanced Studies Diploma. He hopes that they will try to do better and move from being good to being great.
