Does Skipping Senior Year Help Students?
Kyle Aberton is in the home stretch of his four-year high school race. A senior at Cottonwood High in Salt Lake City, he's headed to Yale next fall, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.
A senior year has meant Aberton could take more AP classes which prepared him for Yale.
"Just the camaraderie with my classmates - knowing that it's your senior year, my final year," he said.
But by the time that final year came around, Jake Trimble was so over it. With enough credits to graduate early, he's skipped half of senior year, opting for work experience in the Orthopedic Lab at the University of Utah.
"The senior year has become meaningless," Trimble said.
At many high schools, senior year is synonymous with slacking off because many colleges only look at a student's grades through junior year. So a Utah state senator proposed eliminating 12th grade altogether. Now he says the cash-strapped state could make it optional, saving $60 million.
"Educators have worried about it for probably 40 years - what to do with 12th grade," said Al Church, the principal of AMES Charter School in Salt Lake City.
Church found the answer by giving students a jumpstart on college.
Juniors and seniors take classes from University of Utah professors, earning on average 15 college credits. That can save a graduating student more than $3,000 in college tuition, because they've already completed many required courses.
"Some of our kids call themselves 'freshmores' because they've earned enough to be a freshman and a little bit of a sophomore," Church said.
In some states, overachieving students will now be able to gradate really early. Next year, eight states - Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont - launch a pilot program allowing high school students to graduate after their sophomore year. They would enroll in community colleges if they pass rigorous examinations. It's based on a model used in countries such as England, France and Denmark.
"Let's go to a system where if you finish early you can go and if you need more time you can stay," said Daniel Domenech, the executive director of the American Association of School Administrators.
But the question is even if a student is academically prepared to go to college early, do they have the emotional maturity to handle the experience?
Ann Harrison has been teaching high school English for 34 years.
"I'm certainly keenly aware of a lot of students who are not mature enough emotionally to go off and take care of themselves - at 18, at 17 - heaven help a 15 year old," said Harrison, a teacher at Cottonwood High.
Senior Emilio Camu says he's still learning.
"I need this senior year because I'm still trying to connect all of the things that I've learned from my last three years of high school," Camu said.
Showing that for some students, their final year of high school is time well spent.
