The Maryland State Board of Education is expected to adopt an emergency regulation today to allow superintendents to waive passage of the high school assessment as a graduation requirement in certain circumstances.
The superintendents in each district would gain the power to rescue hundreds of students who would not graduate from high school in June because they have been unable to pass four subject exams or complete projects.
Some educators had raised concerns that whole groups of students in certain school systems had not taken government until their senior year and might not have enough time to take the test and get extra help if they failed. Others were concerned that special education students and recent immigrants would be unfairly denied a diploma.
"We have a lot of new immigrants who haven't been in the system. We have a lot of special education students who have been in more segregated settings and haven't been exposed to the regular curriculum," said state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick.
State board members appeared to support Grasmick's proposal for an appeal process, although at a meeting yesterday, they requested some small changes. Their intent is to give parents and guardians the greatest chance to state their cases in an appeal process that begins with the student's principal.
Board members Dunbar Brooks and Kate Walsh raised concerns that principals might not waive students who deserved it and asked for safeguards that another authority would consider their cases.
The board agreed that the local superintendent and the state superintendent would be given a list of all students who met a set of criteria for the waiver.
The process would begin in February when parents would be notified that their children have not met the graduation requirements. By May, the principals would give local superintendents a list of names of students who should receive the waiver. Shortly afterward, the local superintendent would make a decision. The student and their parents could appeal the decision to Grasmick.
The Class of 2009 is the first to have to pass the tests for graduation. There are concerns that thousands might be denied diplomas without the waiver, which would only apply to this year's seniors. To be eligible, a student would have to have fulfilled all other graduation requirements, have taken all four tests and failed one or more and have taken advantage of any remedial help that was offered.
