Children with Asperger’s or ASD often struggle socially. One of the symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome is that people with Asperger’s have trouble reading social cues, whether they’re verbal cues or physical cues. Children with Asperger’s have trouble reading facial expressions. These traits often make it hard for children with Asperger’s or ASD to fit in socially in a traditional high school. Sometimes children with Asperger’s feel isolated and lonely because they have trouble making friends or sustaining relationships. Sometimes children with ASD are targeted by bullies, which can lead to frustration and depression. Parents of children with Asperger’s or ASD often worry for the safety of their children at traditional schools.

Many children with Asperger’s or ASD choose to homeschool. Choosing to homeschool is a choice a family can make to ensure the safety of their child, but also to help meet the special educational needs of their child with Asperger’s or ASD. Many children with ASD want to take advanced classes in particular subjects and can be frustrated in traditional schools because their schedules do not permit this.

Distance learning is often a great choice for high school students with Asperger’s or ASD. The online environment is straightforward and easy for them to understand and manipulate. Many children with Asperger’s excel in a distance-learning environment because it can be highly structured and regulated. Children with Asperger’s tend to like things to be the same and to not have surprises or interruptions. The distance learning online environment for high school students is safe and predictable, enabling children with Asperger’s or ASD to feel comfortable and in control.

Children with Asperger’s can sometimes have trouble with processing information. Some children with Asperger’s or ASD process information more slowly than traditional students. When asked to speed up, children with Asperger’s can get easily confused and frustrated. In an online high school environment, distance learning classes provide children with Asperger’s the opportunity to work and process information at their own pace. This low-pressure environment allows children with Asperger’s to really excel and develop their own talents and abilities, without having to conform to an arbitrary timetable as they would in a traditional school.

Many children with Asperger’s feel isolated in a traditional school because other students focus on their differences. Often, these children find a safe ‘home’ in the online high school environment. Children with Asperger’s find that online communication can be easier to master than face to face communication, and they also find that in an online environment, often other students are more accepting and less likely to be concerned about the social issues that might consume students at a traditional high school.

A distance learning high school is a tremendous environment for students with Asperger’s or ASD. It provides a safe, challenging place for students to learn and to be in control of their own learning.

Children with Asperger’s or ASD often struggle socially. One of the symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome is that people with Asperger’s have trouble reading social cues, whether they’re verbal cues or physical cues. Children with Asperger’s have trouble reading facial expressions. These traits often make it hard for children with Asperger’s or ASD to fit in socially in a traditional high school. Sometimes children with Asperger’s feel isolated and lonely because they have trouble making friends or sustaining relationships. Sometimes children with ASD are targeted by bullies, which can lead to frustration and depression. Parents of children with Asperger’s or ASD often worry for the safety of their children at traditional schools.

Many children with Asperger’s or ASD choose to homeschool. Choosing to homeschool is a choice a family can make to ensure the safety of their child, but also to help meet the special educational needs of their child with Asperger’s or ASD. Many children with ASD want to take advanced classes in particular subjects and can be frustrated in traditional schools because their schedules do not permit this.

Distance learning is often a great choice for high school students with Asperger’s or ASD. The online environment is straightforward and easy for them to understand and manipulate. Many children with Asperger’s excel in a distance-learning environment because it can be highly structured and regulated. Children with Asperger’s tend to like things to be the same and to not have surprises or interruptions. The distance learning online environment for high school students is safe and predictable, enabling children with Asperger’s or ASD to feel comfortable and in control.

Children with Asperger’s can sometimes have trouble with processing information. Some children with Asperger’s or ASD process information more slowly than traditional students. When asked to speed up, children with Asperger’s can get easily confused and frustrated. In an online high school environment, distance learning classes provide children with Asperger’s the opportunity to work and process information at their own pace. This low-pressure environment allows children with Asperger’s to really excel and develop their own talents and abilities, without having to conform to an arbitrary timetable as they would in a traditional school.

Many children with Asperger’s feel isolated in a traditional school because other students focus on their differences. Often, these children find a safe ‘home’ in the online high school environment. Children with Asperger’s find that online communication can be easier to master than face to face communication, and they also find that in an online environment, often other students are more accepting and less likely to be concerned about the social issues that might consume students at a traditional high school.

A distance learning high school is a tremendous environment for students with Asperger’s or ASD. It provides a safe, challenging place for students to learn and to be in control of their own learning.

Of course, this argument is totally ridiculous. Among other things, it assumes the following:

• That if inner-city kids got high school diplomas they would automatically also head up into the next income strata.
• That having or not having a diploma is THE key influence on one’s income strata.
• That new graduates would have the same academic rigor and opportunity of prior graduates.

Reports like these simply feed the “Education Gospel” in America, the myth that education is a solution for economic and social problems. There is little or no evidence that this is the case.

The report concludes with the following two sentences:

1) There is an overwhelming national economic and social
justice need to prevent existing high school students from dropping out without earning a diploma and to encourage the re-enrollment and eventual graduation of those dropouts who have already left the school system.

2) In the absence of concerted efforts to bolster their academic achievement, their formal schooling, their occupational skills, and their cumulative work experience, their immediate and long term labor market prospects are likely to be quite bleak in the U.S. economy even after the end of the current economic recession, which for many of these youth has turned into a labor market depression.

Note that #1 is not saying the same thing as #2. It is not at all clear that high school graduation will lead to the results discussed in #2. Furthermore, as I have noted before, EDUCATION DOES NOT CREATE JOBS. So even if you get #2, you won’t necessarily (likely will not) get many graduates into the next income strata.

These kind of reports especially piss me off in today’s economic crisis. “Hey, kids, if you had just stayed in school, look what you could have done. But too bad. You didn’t. So your unemployment is your own fault.” Not what the authors meant to say, I’m sure. But that’s part of what it does say. And it’s wrong.

Note: in the comments, Sherman Dorn correctly adds:

. . . Yes, increasing graduation will not in and of itself change the macroeconomic circumstances that shape people’s lives. . . .

On the other hand, there are also recent reports that use better estimates, and even if you are persuaded (as I am) that there are significant sheepskin/queueing effects of graduation, there is at least part of education that has a human capital benefit for general productivity. It’s not as much as Claudia Goldin and Larry Katz claim, but it’s not zero, either.

And there is also reason to be concerned from an equity standpoint. Even if high school graduation does nothing other than confirm credentials, the unequal distribution of those credentials should worry us.

Bottom line: I dislike the crude calculations and the “crisis” rhetoric, but there is a problem we have to address.

To which I reply:

I agree with your points. Wasn’t cutting the issue quite this closely. The point is not that we shouldn’t care at all about graduation. The point is that this link is much weaker and problematic than framed here and in many other places. And this framing has effects on our public dialogue around education.

If we actually educated poor kids to “think” it would be even more critical.

I wish it was more critical than it is.

This may be an example of learning too much SPSS and not enough social theory and research design. Correlation is not causality. Prior results do not guarantee future returns. Too harsh? Feel free to comment.

At least I learned how to make tables in html. Not a total waste of time. [Note retitled columns to save space]