Strict education standards in Alabama - later
Posted by BrianFrom the Montgomery Advertiser:
The State Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to strengthen requirements for Alabama high school diplomas, but also passed an emergency amendment to potentially allow hundreds of lower-scoring seniors to graduate this year.
The emergency rule amendment covers graduations over the next 35 days and allows students who haven’t passed all five sections of the state’s high school exit exam to graduate if they passed three, including English and math.
I wonder if this will become an annual spectacle. I’m sure more kids won’t pass all five sections next year and I’m sure moms and dads will haul their precious little offspring before the State Board of Education and demand a variance because their children put in twelve years of effort. And the board will yield.
The “strengthening” of the diplomas comes in the form of forcing each student into the “advanced diploma” option by default. Parents will have to choose to downgrade their kids to the basic option. I don’t really have a problem with making the default curriculum more rigorous. I don’t think all kids can handle it and graduation rates are already abysmal, but give it a shot. What I find ridiculous is calling the default option advanced. No, the default is the new basic.
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May 9th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Alabama’s kids are like Lake Woebegone’s, all above average.
The real annual spectacle is though is how many bright upper to middle class kids are classified as “Gifted - LD” as a way of helping inflate their GPA and/or ease their way into college.