Ibrahim Barrie, 18, reads at a second- or third-grade level and does math at a fourth-grade level, but he got A's and B's on his report card and a high school diploma, instead of the certificate of completion he was expecting. A special-education student who's partially deaf and learning disabled, he didn't actually master high school English, algebra or other courses, but he met the low expectations of his Individual Education Plan (IEP).
The diploma means he's not eligible for special-education help to attend adult school that offers job training, reports Candice Nguyen for NBC News. Under California law, a special-ed student is eligible for services until the age of 22 or until completing a diploma. So, his diploma isn't just worthless. It's denying him the opportunity to learn job skills.
He's been sitting at home since June while his mother has negotiated with the County Office of Education. She pressured the office to offer him four years of adult school, transportation and sign language help, if he agrees that he earned his diploma and is no longer entitled to special-education services. The family hasn't yet signed the contract.
California dropped its graduation exam years in 2016, in part because it made it harder for special-education students to earn diplomas. Only seven states still require exit exams, and New York plans to drop its Regents requirements, reports Stateline's Elaine S. Povich.
She spotlights two mothers on opposite sides of a Massachusetts referendum on ending the state's graduation exam. Jill Norton, whose teenage son has dyslexia and ADHD, believes passing a standard exam is a motivator, while Shelley Scruggs, whose son has ADHD, wants alternatives to an exam.
“I worry that kids … are going to end up graduating from high school without the skills they will need,” Norton said. “Without the test, they will just be passed along. . . . I need a bar set where he will get the level of education he needs.”
The ballot measure ending the exam, backed by the state teachers' union passed by 59-41 percent margin.
It's time to rethink graduation requirements, writes Fordham's Michael Petrilli. He envisions exams at the end of 10th grade to ensure that students "master core academic knowledge and skills" before choosing among pathways that would prepare them for selective colleges, not-very selective colleges, technical training, the military or entry-level jobs. Those who fail the exams would keep working on core skills.
All postsecondary options would "set and enforce admissions standards," in his plan. That includes technical and community colleges, which enroll many poorly prepared students. Few earn a certificate or a degree.
Petrilli also calls for "closing the funding gap between career and technical education (at the high school and postsecondary levels) and traditional higher education."
This young man, and youth like him, should have gotten a leaving certificate after completing compulsory education at age 15, followed by transitioning into a secondary school, and apprenticing as an auto mechanic with a host company willing to train him: he may have qualified for a state certificate of cooperative education & training after learning the mathematics and English appropriate for his vocation, which may have required continuing in accordance with his IEP to age 22, but even if never being thus certified, at least he would have a better chance of being employed and having a future, rather than continuing to suffer under the incompetent bureaucrats in the Santa Clara County Office of Education (full disclosure, under whose…
Many of these policies are mandated at the state level. I have expressed frustration on more than one occasion when a student of mine had an IEP that was meaningless or didn't help advance his or her education, but was told "this is what the state says we have to put in here". Doesn't make it better for the student but it's not always the fault of the teachers and administrators.
Too bad that tar and feathers aren't an option. The schools and administrators are abject cowards. Instead of insisting on standards with meaning, they elected to go the lowest possible road and just hand out diplomas. In a just world, Mr Barrie and his parents would be able to sue the pants off of them for educational malpractice.