Graduation Requirements

As college-bound high school seniors nationwide scored their highest average SAT math score in 26 years, students in Maryland marked their sixth straight year of improvement on the tests -- signs, state school officials assert, that new academic standards are working.Maryland seniors scored an average of 507 on both tests -- slightly higher than the national verbal average of 505 but just under the 511 average in math -- according to results released yesterday by the College Board, the New York-based coalition that sponsors the test.

About 20 Western Maryland College students protested Wednesday an administrative policy that prohibits students who fall short of graduation requirements from participating in Saturday's commencement."

In 1776 Thomas Jefferson wrote that ''all men are created equal.'' Ten years later he and many of the co-framers of theConstitution continued to participate in the enslavement of Africans in America. . . . Two nations.In 1983 the National Commission on Excellence in Education in its report, ''A Nation at Risk,'' declared that ''Our goal must be to develop the talents of all to their fullest. Attaining that goal requires that we expect and assist all students to work to the limits of their capabilities.

Maryland's latest proposed high school graduation requirements would give new meaning to "accountability," a favorite education buzzword, with this ultimatum: Learn the right stuff, and prove it by passing the toughest statewide tests ever, or you get no diploma.Throughout the Baltimore area yesterday, school officials welcomed the proposed "performance-based" tests that would be designed to measure what students need to know to succeed in jobs or college, beginning with ninth-graders in 1996.

A Baltimore woman warned of "witchcraft, drugs and sexual deviation." A Gaithersburg couple called it "social engineering." A Hampstead woman called it "mind control" in the classroom.Bad notices for something as simple as high school graduation standards.The letters and calls of outrage from around Maryland led the state Board of Education yesterday to decide it needs to do a better job of explaining what the proposed standards will be -- and, more important, what they won't be: "outcomes-based education."

Citing complaints from students and teachers about tobacco smoke, the Baltimore school board voted unanimously last night to ban smoking in all city school buildings.The action came at a meeting at which the board also set a March 18 public hearing on a revised school rezoning plan, and received recommended changes to the city's high school graduation requirements.The smoking ban would go into effect at a date to be set by school Superintendent Walter G. Amprey, who said he would move quickly.

August is traditionally vacation month, a time for suntans (can we still do that?) and a little rest and relaxation.Yet as I sit down to write, San Jose, Calif., school system leaders are debating whether to lower high school graduation requirements -- to deal with their hopeless budgetary situation.What a strange time it is! The "golden state" of California has been reduced to issuing IOUs in the face of a lingering budget impasse. Unemployment in the state is sky high.President Bush (I write before his convention)

While the Anne Arundel County school board approved a new set of graduation requirements yesterday to bring them in line with state policy, it decided against following the state's lead and reducing the number of credits needed to graduate."

After several months of debate, the Baltimore County school board last night adopted high school graduation requirements that exceed state standards in social studies and physical education but are lower than current county requirements.The vote was 5-3.The majority was concerned that students would not get all the lessons they need to become good citizens if the social studies requirement was lowered. They also felt that students would not get enough exercise and would not get in the habit of healthy exercise with a lowered physical education requirement.

Proposed changes in Maryland high school graduation requirements could cost the county school system $2.2 million.School officials say they will have to add mathematics, science and foreign-language teachers to meet additional course requirements and spend $500,000 on equipment, most of it to update computers for a proposed technology education program.Maryland school systems projected a total cost of $38 million forthe changes, a figure that state Board of Education members greeted with skepticism at last month's board meeting.

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.

The Carroll County Board of Education is considering a request that would reduce the graduation requirements for students who attend the Forbush School, a nonpublic school for Carroll students with significant mental, behavioral or emotional challenges. If the board approves the change, Carroll students at the Towson campus would need only 21 credits to graduate, instead of the 25 required by county public schools. It could also save money -- namely, the average $50,000 per year for each student in nonpublic schools.

Howard County school officials hope that providing new graduation requirements to Hispanic parents in their native tongue will help create comfort and awareness during a workshop tomorrow at Wilde Lake High School. "We want to make sure that parents understand the importance of the [high school assessment] test," said Clarissa B. Evans, executive director of secondary curricular programs, who will be leading the two-hour presentation that starts at 9 a.m. According to new state standards, current freshmen and students thereafter will be required to pass a series of assessment tests to graduate from high school.

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.

Changes in course offerings, graduation requirements and the grading system for high schools, beginning in the 2005-2006 school year, were proposed last night by Carroll County school officials at a meeting of the school board. The number of credits required to graduate would stand at 25, but officials recommended adding several new courses while eliminating a few others. Those changes are intended, in part, to advance a school board goal to offer more Advanced Placement classes, according to Steve Johnson, director of curriculum and instruction.

Anne Arundel school officials are considering whether to require four more credits for a high school diploma under a proposal aimed at helping students make the most of the four-period day that high schools began last year. Under a plan that goes before the school board for a first look Wednesday, students would have to complete an additional period of math every other day, as well as a freshman seminar and a personal finance course that would be worth half a credit each. Students also would have to take an additional 1.5 credits of electives and half a credit of physical education, bringing the total needed for graduation to 26 credits.

Anne Arundel school officials are considering whether to require four more credits for a high school diploma under a proposal aimed at helping students make the most of the four-period day that high schools began last year. Under a plan that goes before the school board for a first look Wednesday, students would have to complete an additional period of math every other day, as well as a freshman seminar and a personal finance course that would be worth half a credit each. Students also would have to take an additional 1.5 credits of electives and half a credit of physical education, bringing the total needed for graduation to 26 credits.

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.