graduation requirements

Here is the way I understand it. If the child meets all graduation requirements - takes and passes the classes, takes and passes the exit test - then the child can graduate - even if there are some modifications and accomodations. If the child is exempt from a required class or exempt from the exit test then, no, they don’t meet the requirement and they get a certificate of completion. If the child fails the exit test, they don’t get a diploma either.

Certain modifications are not allowed on the exit test, such as having the test read to them is not allowed.

This is in Texas.

Pretty much the same here…must meet regular graduation requirements. Failing to meet the course and testing requirements would result in a certificate of attendance. Accommodations are allowed as long as the general course requirements and testing are met.

Janis

In our district we have had the flexibility to replace a ‘consumer math’ or “life skills math’ class taught in the LD room for the requirement, ” 2 math credits”. However, I have been becoming very concerned with this practice. Although I agree that this should continue to be allowed, I also feel that SPECIFIC requirements need to be set up. I would like to take this to our school board. We have one staff member who is giving his students all kinds of replacement classes to meet graduation requirements and the students watch movies and sleep all day. Our school does not have ‘business English’ and many of my LD students have great difficulty with our senior English which is mostly Shakespeare. Our administrator has even gotten into the act by replacing agriculture classes needed for the science requirement. I believe in challeging my students not lowering the standard so everyone graduates and the school looks good.

Well, Mitch, there you have it. There are howls of protest about interfering with teachers’ professional judgement every time an outside standard is enforced, but those outside standards get written for reasons like the unprofessional behaviour you describe.
Your school district probably already has a written curriculum but the problem is getting it applied. That requires some power politics.

One of the schools my dh taught at they lowered the grade scale for the LD kids. I.e. for one kid in order to actually fail the class he had to get a 38% or some really low number like that. I don’t know how the school he is involved with now deals with it.

This has become a concern for me as well…I quit teaching at a public school due in large part the the impossibility of meeting the needs of my LD students with above average intelligence who I could not picture graduating from high school in my county because they spent so much time just being parked in my resource room. A majority of the students I was serving that year had emotional and/or serious behavior issues, and there were also two students who had moderate intellectual disabilities. My three “typical LD” students were the only ones in the room who could work independently…boy did they get the short end of the stick.

I’m now pretty busy tutoring students who attend the local schools. I’m very concerned that the solution to students learning math facts, for example, is to hand them a chart or a calculator and then move them along through the curriculum. That strategy works for elementary school, but once they hit pre-algebra or algebra they just can’t keep up because they don’t have the basic skills.

I can give similar examples in reading (i.e. the classic whole language question “What would make sense here?” to a first grader). The preference for context cues over decoding verges on criminal in my area.

Much to my surprise, I’m actually becoming a proponent of the accountability movement in public education. I’m seeing real differences in the approach teachers are taking with regards to struggling students. My initial reaction was that all of the testing was taking away from valuable teaching time, but I was making the gross assumption that the education being offered was valuable. Although I still don’t think that the schools are delivering the education students deserve, at least they’re moving in the right direction.

Sorry I’ve been so long-winded. I’ll step off my soapbox now!

Karyn

keb wrote

Much to my surprise, I’m actually becoming a proponent of the accountability movement in public education. I’m seeing real differences in the approach teachers are taking with regards to struggling students. My initial reaction was that all of the testing was taking away from valuable teaching time, but I was making the gross assumption that the education being offered was valuable. Although I still don’t think that the schools are delivering the education students deserve, at least they’re moving in the right direction.

Thank you very much. I especially like your comment about making the gross assumption that the education being offered was valuable. For myself, I question how much of it is education at all.
Amazing how some years dealing with the failures of the system can make you into an educational conservative.