Do you know that most seniors get stuck taking extra classes during their last year?

To graduate you must have 24 credits. Each year is worth 7 credits which means that beginning of your senior year you have already earned 21 out of the 24. This causes many students to begin acting up by skipping classes or not doing their work since they feel they've already done the criteria needed to graduate. The problem with that is that you MUST pass all classes your senior year to graduate. If at the beginning of the kid's freshman year, we tell them if they pass all their classes up until the senior year they’d be able to leave school early it would have a huge impact on the kid behavior. That will motivate them to get their work done and behave. Now when it comes to seniors leaving early would have many positive outcomes.  If the students were able to leave it could allow them to have more opportunities. They would be able to work more hours allowing them to save up some money for their future such as college and other things. This would allow them to be more independent and cause less stress and behavior issues for both them and the school. This could also be an opportunity for our grade point average and test scores to improve. Without the seniors, teachers would be allowed to focus more on helping other students test scores will improve as a result. This could also be a positive thing for attendance. It could motivate kids to come and “reward them” senior year by allowing them to leave early. 

In 2021, around 19.4 percent of teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were employees while enrolled at school in the United States. This is an increase from the previous year when 17.6 percent of teenagers were working while in school. Most of those kids end up dropping out to help support their families. Especially in Worcester since most people are very poor. If we allowed them to leave early it would decrease the dropout rate and allow teens to both graduate and work more hours (increasing pay/money.) The number of working teens could also increase allowing teens to start saving for college and plan for their future. This could also decrease the huge amount of homelessness in Worcester and get people off the streets resulting in less drug use and gang violence. 

Pro-  Some pros to this policy is it can boost morale and dedication to the school. Because the freshman sophomores and juniors will try the hardest in the classes to make the credits needed to pass. So they can get early release their senior year and that creates more belief. This helps bring the attendance numbers up. Also, it gives working students a chance to make more flexible working hours and get home early or get more rest.

Link to our statistics 

https://www.brookings.edu/research/employment-and-disconnection-among-teens-and-young-adults-the-role-of-place-race-and-education/