They also have pointed out that special education students and those with limited proficiency in English may have had limited access to the standard curriculum. Some school systems made mistakes in the sequence of courses they scheduled for students. For instance, they teach biology and government late in high school, giving students little time to take the test more than once or to get extra help and try again.
"I think [the board members] were clearly struck by the notion that many students may be seniors and not have had access to the HSA courses until their senior year," said John Woolums, a spokesman for the Maryland Association of Boards of Education. Woolums said his association may file a complaint with the state because it contends local school boards should not have been cut out of the process.
By Feb. 1, schools must send a letter to all parents of students who are at risk of not graduating to inform them that their child may be eligible for a waiver.
By April 1, the local superintendents will report to the state superintendent the names of all students who appear unlikely to graduate, and by May 1, the students will learn whether they have gotten a waiver.
In order for students to be eligible for the waiver, they would have to have taken all four tests, be on track to complete their high school course requirements and have taken advantage of any remedial or extra help that was offered to them by their school to help them pass the tests.
Students who might qualify include those who did not take an HSA course until senior year, were not given extra help if they failed the test, or were not given adequate access to the standard curriculum.
School board members did not question the need for the waiver, but confronted Grasmick over what they believe is the department's failure to provide the board with timely information on the number of students who currently are at risk of not graduating because they haven't met the requirements.
When board member Blair Ewing asked Grasmick for her estimate, she said it was several thousand students. When Ewing and Kate Walsh asked again, Grasmick said it was about 4,000.
"We have been told that every principal and every superintendent knows which students haven't passed," Ewing said. "It puts the board in a peculiar situation," when the board is asked by the public how many students haven't met the requirement and board members have to say they don't know because they can't get information. "I would hope we would get this routinely," he said.
