What is more important for high school .... participating in the graduation ceremonies regardless of whether you receive a diploma or not, or actually earning a diploma??
I know this may sound like a silly question ... but Texas High Schools are dealing with this very question right now ...
8 comments:
No ticket, no laundry! Period end of story. Anything less cheapens the graduates who have earned the right to walk down the aisle.
I agree with PEF. While I don't agree with the standardized testing being the end all, I do agree that if you are not getting a diploma, you don't to participate in the event where the MAIN reason for the event is to get a DIPLOMA!
the diploma - it is nice to walk across the stage, I guess, but if you didn't earn the diploma, the walk is meaningless
Walking across the stage is meaningless unless you are actually receiving the diploma. If the kids did not put forth the effort to study to pass the test, then they do not deserve to walk across the stage with all of the others that did.
I think it depends on why they aren't getting the diploma. The bigger questions is it fair to make them pay the high cost they are for a test that many people are say it is unfair.
If they didn't put forth an effort to pass there classes by all means don't walk the walk what is the point.
But what about the kid that has worked there but off and just can't pass the test for what ever reason. There are people that don't test well I happen to be one of them.
What would the student not receiving a diploma do....just sit in their seat as opposed to walking across the stage and receiving a "fake" diploma? And as Lisa stated, sometimes you have to look at each case individually. If the only thing that separates the student from his diploma is the TAKS test, let him participate,but not receive the diploma until he passes the test. I think it might be far more damaging to penalize someone who worked hard for 4 years to be barred from all the pomp and circumstance with his fellow classmates because he's having a rough time with a Standardized Test only. Once he passes the test, they can mail him his real diploma to be inserted into the holder they hand out at Graduation.
The diploma is more important than the ceremony. Frankly High School graduation was a pain, but then again there was 1200 of us in a stadium.
I'm with PEF, no ticket, no laundry. We get the government we vote in. I know this since we recently had City Counncil elections and although we didn't exactly get the candidates we would have hoped for, we got a City Council and one run-off election. My point is this -where were the parents in all of this when they were voting in the TAKS test and the non-graduation clause? If eneough people had complained to their representatives about the situation, the TAKS wouldn't have come into effect. Feel free to comment CinCin as you were on the forefront of that issue.
Wellllll .... I'll tell you what ... Homeschoolers can waltz into college with a diploma printed on their home computer ... Private schoolers don't have to take the TAKS and their education programs are not monitored by the State ... but THEY get a diploma and can go to college ...
Meanwhile ... their public school counterparts who have had, IMHO, a FAR BETTER education than most Homeschoolers and Private schoolers .... get tripped up by a seriously flawed standardized test.
It isn't the Walking or Not Walking that bothers me ... it is sending 40,000 students out of the school system w/o a diploma that bothers me.
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