Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Alabama Tougher Diploma Requirements (well, sort-of)
Michael Ciamarra
Filed As: Education (k-12)
With much fanfare, the Alabama Board of Education approved last week the "First Choice Diploma." Starting with the ninth-graders in fall of 2009, all high school students in Alabama will start out pursuing this advanced academic diploma. That diploma requires them to pass two years of foreign language plus algebra II with trigonometry. So far, so good! The education bureaucracy points out "reports indicate that Alabama's teens say they would work harder and learn more if schools set higher standards." Great...the education bureaucracy must be reading SPN members studies and columns.
Eleven states -- including Mississippi, Texas and North Carolina -- have made the advanced diploma (graduation requirements) the default. Seven other states -- including Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky -- mandate the advanced diploma as the only route for graduation.
Interesting ... what's the catch in Alabama? Well, the standards for the toughest diploma vision have a big loophole. Students are encouraged to pursue the First Choice Diploma. But if they find learning too difficult they can, with their parents permission, switch to a less rigorous academic path.
An editorial from the Mobile Press Register makes the case:
On the one hand, starting all students in the track to an advanced diploma will raise the bar for many of them. Everyone will be expected to try to meet the challenge, which includes higher levels of math and two years of a foreign language as well as four years of English, science and social studies.
Parents can give permission for students to "opt out" of the advanced track and seek a diploma with lesser requirements.
But the opt-out provision means students will be able to get a diploma without passing all five parts of the state graduation exam. This diploma will have a "credit-based endorsement" showing that the student did the required course work but failed one or two parts of the five-part exam.
Raising the bar for all Alabama public high school students is a laudable goal. We hope it will be achieved without slowing down students who would have been able to do advanced work anyway, and without leaving behind students who might do well in the traditional regular track but struggle with more challenging classes.
- posted by Michael Ciamarra
- 3:13 pm
- 0 comment
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