Re: High School Graduation Requirements

Society tells us that we should all be alike, particularly in the aspect of education. The reality is, everyone is different. Not every child will or should go to college. Our schools do a tremendous job of preparing our students for college. Our teachers and counselors guide college bound students through their high school careers and work with them and their families to make sure they are prepared for college even though our graduation requirements are less than college entrance requirements.
Students who are not college bound also receive a quality education despite not taking as rigorous a course load. The district offers a curriculum that also prepares these students for the work force or technical trades through the schools' curriculum or in conjunction with ACTS in their many programs such as builing trades, auto technology, photography, cosmetology, etc. I had the opportunity to tour this program last year. This program is wonderful!! Teachers and counselors also work many hours to assist non college bound student with their choices. Whether one chooses to attend college or not, LPS currently offers pathways in both directions that can lead to a successful post high school career. The state may eventually mandate higher graduation requirements at our expense, another unfunded mandate. I hope LPS will be able to balance the new financial responsibilities that come along with these added requirements without losing site of the needs of all the students. Like so many of the states ideas, it sounds good, but so did TABOR until it was enacted.

Re: High School Graduation Requirements

Time spent is not nearly as important as achievement level. I believe this is true for any student in any program. Time spent may be easy to measure, but it has no real meaning. True achievement level is difficult to measure, but if done correctly, it has real meaning for the student as well as anyone interested in hiring the student or accepting the student into higher education programs.

Re: High School Graduation Requirements

Achievement level for one child may be different for another. I think it is important that our children function at the highest level they are capable of. However, I find it just as important to teach children how to function in life. Many of our students who graduate even at a high level have no idea how to function in everyday life. Budgeting money, making common sense decisions. This is so very important to be able to grow as an adult.

Re: High School Graduation Requirements

In regards to Graduation Requirements, I think we have to begin building the blocks of education from elementary schools. We can not solve this problem at the high school level, it is too late by then! We need to start a system from elementary to high school. This is critical! No child or student should pass from one year to another without successfully completing the curriculum and knowing the minimum basic knowledge and content in each subject (at least 80% of the subject). If necessary, we need to create programs such as a post-test two months after the school year ( or a Summer School program). The student come back for further testing after Summer School. A decision is made based on the new testing during summer if the students should be retained or move on to the next grade. During this two months, either teachers, parents or tutors or the student should review the subject with the student and the student should have improved and learned the subject. This will teach not only each student the responsibility for learning and also there is a consequence. This system should be carred on until high school. No student should pass without knowledge of the subject. If the student needs to repeat in that particular subject and keep working the rest of the academics is just fine. Time and the cost of learning should not be a priority, but the quality and training should be key factors in education. We are all have different learning abilitities and different preferences to what we like to learn. Shoudn'd we have at least the same basic standards knowledge before we enter the work force? I believe this should be at least the minumum requirement for any nation. As a strong nation among other nations in the world, we need to prioritize the quality of our education first so that economics will follow the into the right path. In my opinion we need to improve our education system to be competitive to other nations in the world. So far we are so behind and that is reality. We give so much emphazes in the wrong area of the individual self-esteem of student worried if the student repeat the grade that this will harm his or hers ego, but what is more important? Forming students with solid and strong academics or looking into a momentary stroggle? If we truely care for our children and the future of our nation, we must work together to make efforts to change and improve the quality education, as parents, teachers, and adminitrators. The future is in our hands! Please feel free to contac me for any further discussion at mimiliu_323@hotmail.com. I came to this country with no English, and I worked and raised my family here in Colorado. I am pround to say, I have raised three wonderful boys! My oldest son is a doctor practicing at Children's Hospital. My second son is also finishing his doctor degree and my third son is pursuing his college degree. I am just a mom, teacher I truely believe that high quality education is a must.

Re: High School Graduation Requirements

What about pre-school, elementary school, middle school requirements
seeing and helping meet the demands of high school requirements.

The fiber-optic LAN in each type of school with WLAN attachments could be seen where every concept, experience and discovery activity of each type at each level could become from create, share, support and reward fee use open course ware. Yes, with MIT being a prime example. Yes, beginning with bare bones hardware, open source software, open spectrum and a common set of cyber-security tools. Aspects of Open Office K-20. Aspects of the Standard Portable Applications Suite to follow.

All the aspects of the EeePC and moving to the Eee PC II for novices, casuals, newbies and even techies.

Our students have been entertained to death as consumers. How can they be revived and restored based on learning, caring and sharing based on community values and not commercial values.? Especially in lean times.

I agree there needs to be come standardization, interation and inter-operability with the common sense of autonomy, privacy and security.
In the beginning off-line and later on-line.

And LPS having a vision where a free use of open course ware could be produced by LPS teachers-parents-students and even pastors and proprietors based on community (Second Great Commandment).

With the term recession dominating lives we have a test of character.
Yes, where we have to do more with less. Yes, in the midst of an energy crisis (telework), pandemics (on-line education) stockpiling (disaster) and saving (recession) instead of spending and borrowing.

The Agrarian Crusade by Solon Buck is a history of the abuses of the industrial robber barons. Here are some providential details. There was a panic of 1907 and the begginnig of a panic in 2007. The greed that influenced power in 1907 and the greed that influenced power in 2007
came to rest on industrial robber barons and now electronic highway robber barons that are global (multi-media that is multi-cultural, cross-cultural and inter-generational).

How will the DNC in 2008 in Denver compare to the DNC in 1908?

Re: High School Graduation Requirements

I can be contacted at (901) 336-1046 or e-mailed at latriciawilsonworthy@yahoo.com


How High stakes Exit Exams Deprive youth of Educational Advancement



Tennessee Exit Exam Statistic Data
The Tennessee Department of Education Data reflects: 19,674 students who were in the ninth grade in the fall of 1999 had not passed the math portion of the TCAP by the summer of 2003.
According to the Tennessee Department of Education Annual Statistical Reports a total of 8,397 students were denied high school diplomas and issued certificates of attendance statewide from the years of 2006-1995.In the city of Memphis from 1995 until 2006 a total of 1,221 students were issued Certificates of Attendance.
Furthermore, Certificates of Attendance are only awarded to students who meet all the requirements for the regular high school diploma but do not pass the Tennessee Proficiency test. The Tennessee Department of Education failed to include the limitations of receiving such a document such as lost of scholarships, ineligibility to enter the military, to receive federal pell grant funding for post secondary education, automatic exclusion from technical, community colleges and universities. Other limitations are exclusion from federal employment.

Overall issue

Many states have adopted exit Exams for making high school graduation decisions, in some cases resulting in denial of a diploma to thousands of students based upon a single test. The state of Tennessee is one of the states that have chosen to adopt high stake exams, without regard to classroom performance, teacher recommendations or access to adequate classroom resources, quality instruction, or pupil services support. The graduation exit exam administered within this state is the Gateway exam. The Gateway exams are course-level exams for students in high school. High school students began to take this test for first time in the tenth grade. The course level exams are English 10, Algebra 1, and Biology.

Why student systematic accountability for Gateway Exam is Wrong

Student Systematic Accountability for the Gateway Exam is wrong because there are key issues that affect students within the public school system. Those issues are:

*Students attending schools that have been identified by the state as failing to provide an adequate {Quality} education to its students; therefore they are deprived of having a comprehensive opportunity to learn the material for which they are tested.

*Students with disabilities are being disproportionately being left behind because this state has failed to ensure that these students are provided reasonable accommodations, and that they are tested on material that actually reflects the level they have been taught. In doing this, Tennessee Department of Education has consistently and willfully ignored both Federal and State Statutes that would have prevented this tragedy in education. The Federal laws and requirements ignored by the State Department of Education are the provisions as set forth under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2002, also known as “No Child Left Behind”, The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 sect 503, {IDEA} Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and The American Disability Act {ADA} of 1991.
Results of linking Gateway Exam to NC LB assessment
*Some teachers within the Memphis City School district have resulted to opting certain students out of taking the test that they feel would not pass, in fear that the school would end up on the high priority lists, even though these teachers are well aware that the Gateway Exam is a graduation diploma requirement. *Other factors that are problematic are school closings. For every school that closes there must be a new school facility to place students at the time of school closure. When those facilities aren't in place the public school closet to the school closed is where the students are placed. This causes overcrowding in the some schools; therefore teachers have a great difficulty teaching core subjects such as English, Science, and math with 40 students enrolled in one classroom. *Additionally, the Memphis City School report card data reflects that 6,653 teachers were teaching core courses they weren’t highly qualified to teach,in the year of 2005. Even though the school districts and state department heads were well aware that for every child that are instructed by teachers half equip to deliver, the school system has failed that child by providing inadequately trained teachers in the classroom. Rather than address the issue of ill-equipped and inadequately trained instructors, which leads to the high failure rate of Tennessee students to graduate high school, the Tennessee Department Of Education and State Board Of Education state chose to continue to withhold diplomas from students, in the name of “systematic accountability” . Systemic Accountability to whom and to what authority? I often wonder how could they continue to eliminate children from the system, preventing the youth from getting on with life in GOOD CONSCIOUSNESS.

*The Tennessee Department of Education refuses to release test information that students missed, or may have poorly performed on in their examinations, which would assist them in being tutored and prepared to retake the exam when necessary. The withholding of this relevant information places teachers at an extreme disadvantage in preparing students to retake the examination, because the teachers have great difficulty in giving students remedial assistance when teachers or students are not allowed to know what portions of the Gateway Exam where students are weak in testing.

Effects on Society
The individual and societal costs of denying a diploma based on a state test score, without providing other alternatives for compliance with Federal and State laws are painfully high. Students without diplomas earn much less in the workforce; are far less likely to maintain stable families as a result of unemployment or under-employment with the low wages that entails, and are far more likely to turn to other means of earning financial resources that may facilitate criminal activities that lead to prison. The stigma of having failed to complete their education silences them.



*Personal Experience

I conclude my remarks by sharing my own experience at the hands of the public education system in the state of Tennessee . I was one of the former students denied a high school diploma for failure to pass the Tcap exam in 2002. I received a modified document after having passed all other required subjects and having persevered through thirteen years of school. I had a mild learning disability in math only. I was told that I could still further my education to some degree. I later learned that no vocational, technical, community college or university would accept my “conditional” diploma, because it was not considered by these learning institutions a bonafied certificate of graduation from the public school system. I was ashamed, and because of that shame, I was silenced, just like thousands of students that FAIL THESE STATE TESTS EVERY YEAR.
One day, while contemplating my future and in growing frustration at the system, I decided to appeal the issue of substitute diplomas and high-stake examination requirements that a student cannot pass because they are set up for failure under the current system before the Memphis City School board, then the state legislature and all the news stations in the city of Memphis. I have appealed this issue in a personal one-on-one meeting with with Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) in Washington D.C. Currently I now attend Tennessee Technology Center as a STUDENT.I must say that a Federal Class Action Lawsuit was recently filed against The Tennessee Department of Education on behalf of all former students that were denied high school diplomas for failure to pass the Gateway Exam ,in which I am one of the plaintiffs.The Tennessee State Board of Education responded to the lawsuit by eliminating the Gateway Examinations as a diploma requirement.In the 2009-2010 school year no student in the state of Tennessee will be required to pass any test to qualify for a High school Diploma.The Tennessee State Board of Education eliminated the requirement January 25,2008. It is because of GOD that this has been possible. While I failed the TC AP and even failed the Gateway Exam because of the failures of the public school system here in Tennessee , I do NOT consider that I am a failure. I am determined that I will not be deemed unemployable and incapable of pursuing my career goals because of a high school test score. I refuse to be labeled as functionally illiterate.

Abraham Lincoln Quote
''The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me.''

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