STATE LOOKING TO EXTEND HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION TIME
The Department of Education is hoping federal officials will allow more Michigan high school students some extra time to graduate as they run up against the state’s higher graduation requirements.
As part of its revised No Child Left Behind Accountability Workbook for the 2007-08 school year, the de-partment is asking that some students be allowed more than four years to complete high school. Under cur-rent federal regulations, students taking more than four years are considered dropouts and count against the school and the district on adequate yearly progress measures.
The proposal is aimed at allowing students in dropout recovery programs to be counted as graduates under the federal guidelines.
The U.S. Department of Education allowed extended graduation times beginning last school year for stu-dents with disabilities, English language learners and those who have missed school because of a serious illness. Students at middle college high schools, where some of the courses also count for college credit, have also been allowed additional graduation time.
Mary Alice Galloway with the state department said the number of districts and students affected by the current waiver would not be known until district report cards are issued later this year. And she said there was no way yet to determine how many students or districts might benefit from the proposed change because the department, if its proposal is approved, would have to create guidelines specifying what programs count as dropout recovery and when students in those programs could be allowed extra graduation time.
But she said the goal of the proposal was to encourage use of those programs. “We just don’t want to lose kids when they need at the very least a high school education,” Ms. Galloway said.
School officials expected the proposal would benefit both students and districts.
“Certainly we acknowledge there are students who need more than the usual 4 years to complete high school,” said Linda Wacyk with the Michigan Association of School Administrators. “It might be the case even more with the more stringent graduation standards.”
“If everybody started at the same place then finishing in a given time is an easier thing to accomplish,” said Ray Telman, executive director of Middle Cities Education Association. “Different students come into the timeline for graduation at different levels and they do that regardless of what the school districts are doing or have been doing. I don’t know that a school district should be penalized because they take a little longer because it necessary.”
The State Board of Education is expected to approve the proposed changes to the workbook at its meeting Tuesday, and Ms. Galloway said the department needs to submit its proposed changes to federal officials by February 15.
SUBGROUPS: One of the complaints the state department and districts have against NCLB is the groups used to determine the performance of minority students are too small. But those numbers will not change, at least for one more year.
Under the current standard, any district with more than 30 students in a prescribed minority group must ensure that subgroup has sufficient attendance, test scores and graduation rates to meet the federal stan-dards. The state in the past has asked to move that to essentially a percentage of the total student popula-tion, but federal officials have rejected the request.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan told the State Board of Education in a memo preceding its meeting next week that federal officials have said this year they will not entertain any requests to change subgroup sizes until the federal law is reauthorized later this year.