Graduation Requirements

Maryland's proposed new graduation requirements are too much of a good thing.Recent hearings drew 143 speakers and 693 written comments, an extraordinary outpouring. The most comment was on a mandate that students complete 75 hours of community service. Officials are worried about costs and headaches in administering the program. We stand by our support of the service requirement. Experience has shown that with creativity, this program can cost little yet yield substantial benefits.The problem we see in the new requirements is that the regulations specify too many courses.

In an effort to quell doubts about the city school system's graduation rate, school officials said this week that the district has ordered principals to take an extra measure this year to validate that all graduating seniors have fulfilled state requirements to obtain a diploma. "We are very, very conscious of making sure that everyone is abiding by [state regulation]," said Tisha Edwards, chief of staff for the school system. "So the high school validation process allows principals to be very, very specific about ensuring that seniors are meeting requirements.” The revelation about the new policy -- which requires principals to sign off that they personally know their seniors are eligible for graduation -- came amid a Baltimore Sun inquiry about graduation requirements being met at the National Academy Foundation high school, where officials confirmed that nearly half of the senior class was found to have not completed graduation requirements.

In an effort to quell doubts about the city school system's graduation rate, school officials said this week that the district has ordered principals to take an extra measure this year to validate that all graduating seniors have fulfilled state requirements to obtain a diploma. "We are very, very conscious of making sure that everyone is abiding by [state regulation]," said Tisha Edwards, chief of staff for the school system. "So the high school validation process allows principals to be very, very specific about ensuring that seniors are meeting requirements.” The revelation about the new policy -- which requires principals to sign off that they personally know their seniors are eligible for graduation -- came amid a Baltimore Sun inquiry about graduation requirements being met at the National Academy Foundation high school, where officials confirmed that nearly half of the senior class was found to have not completed graduation requirements.

An American government exam taken by all high school students in Maryland would be eliminated next year under the proposed state budget, a surprising shift in policy that comes just three years after the test was made a graduation requirement. Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal cuts $1.9 million from the Maryland State Department of Education budget that would pay for the test and its grading. However, the legislature could still restore the test if it found the funding. Some educators expressed immediate concern that social studies would get less attention in high schools if the test is eliminated.

The state's new high school graduation requirements may mean the Howard County school system will no longer offer such courses as home economics and industrial arts."

School officials in Harford County are moving to toughen high school graduation requirements by imposing extra courses and lengthy class projects - hurdles that in other states have sometimes spawned protests by parents whose children failed under the new standards. Students would be required to pick a career field in the 10th grade and then take four courses relating to that field. Under the plan presented this month, students would also take a senior-year math course, which is not currently required.

The State Board of Education edged away from sweeping changes in high school graduation requirements yesterday, voting tentatively to leave the number of required math and social studies courses unchanged while adding a third year of science.Board members agreed that students should complete three years each of math, social studies and science in order to graduate. In the area of social studies, they abandoned their original plan of requiring a half-credit each in economics and geography.

The state Board of Education moved yesterday toward stringent new graduation requirements that would add a fourth year of math and social studies, a year of technology education and community service to the hurdles students must clear to win their high school diplomas.After extensive debate, board members went far beyond the recommendations of their staff and of a January task force on graduation requirements -- increasing the total number of prescribed "core" courses from 15 to 17.Additional requirements would be imposed as students decided to continue their studies after high school or go straight to work.

ANNAPOLIS -- The State Board of Education proposed a compromise set of high school graduation requirements to a legislative review panel yesterday, including a revised but still controversial provision to require students to perform up to 75 hours of community service.To lessen opposition from local school systems that believe the community service requirement is inappropriate, too costly or both, the revised regulations would allow each system to design its own program provided it is approved by the state superintendent of schools.

Carroll County school officials are proposing changes that would provide more time for parent-teacher conferences as well as increase graduation requirements starting with the 2005-2006 school year. At last night's school board meeting, Superintendent Charles I. Ecker recommended eliminating one professional development day for teachers to add a parent conference day in the spring. The school calendar provides a conference day only in the fall. "It's important to have this extra day for parents to meet with teachers" before the end of the school year, Ecker said.

The Maryland State Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to make environmental education a part of every student's education, but put off making it a graduation requirement. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which had advocated for making environmental studies a part of the curriculum, had hoped for stronger requirements than what was passed by the board, but the nonprofit advocacy group said the board's action was a "partial victory. " Under the new regulation, high school students will not need to take any additional courses, but environmental education will be added into existing courses, such as biology.

Every child deserves the right to discover and enjoy our natural world — to catch a fish, camp under the stars, follow a trail and play and learn outdoors in countless other ways. These life-changing experiences help children grow stronger, smarter and healthier, and develop a sense of responsibility for our water, land and wildlife. This is why I created the Maryland Partnership for Children in Nature in 2008 to develop a plan to make sure every Maryland child has the opportunity to learn about and connect with nature.

After the years of worry about whether the newly instituted high school assessment test requirements for Maryland's class of 2009 would be so difficult that they would keep thousands from graduating, the results announced this week seem like pretty stark reassurance: Only 11 students in the entire state failed to graduate because of the tests. In fact, the figure was so minuscule that some are now questioning whether the requirements are too easy and should be stiffened. But the number 11 is not the one that we should be focusing on. There were another 2,280 students who failed the HSA but also failed other graduation requirements.

With 4,000 high school seniors in Maryland still failing to meet new graduation requirements, the state school board yesterday decided to allow principals and local superintendents to waive the requirements for students with extenuating circumstances. The emergency regulation, which passed unanimously, is designed for those students who can't meet the requirements "through no fault of their own," said state schools chief Nancy S. Grasmick. She estimated that a few hundred students would receive the waiver.

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.

Maryland's state school board made a final decision yesterday to hold firm and require this year's high school seniors to pass four subject tests to graduate in June, although it left open the possibility of exemptions for special education students and those learning English. The decision leaves 9,059 students across the state - or about 17 percent of the Class of 2009 - at risk of not getting a diploma, according to data released yesterday. Only 70 percent of African-Americans statewide and 50 percent of special education students have met the requirements.

Clarification: An article in yesterday's editions about the Maryland High School Assessments might have left the incorrect impression about when results of last spring's tests will be released. The results will be released to members of the state school board Tuesday morning, before board members might take a vote on whether to delay requiring that students pass the exams to earn high school diplomas, according to a state schools spokesman.

Maryland education officials said they will wait until late October to release detailed data on how many seniors in each county and school risk not graduating in June because they have not passed the High School Assessments. The delay pushes back the time when the state school board can take up the issue of whether to adjust the test policy for the Class of 2009, the first graduating class that is being required to pass exams to graduate. The data, which was expected this month, is not ready, state officials said, because local school districts have not given the state complete files on each student in the class and where he or she stands academically.