Local schools a step ahead on 'senior projects'
By Kathi Keys
Staff Writer, The Courier-Tribune
ASHEBORO - New North Carolina high school graduation standards are being
finalized by the State Board of Education for implementation starting with
the Class of 2010 - this year's seventh-graders.
The new high school exit standards will include a senior project - now
already a graduation requirement in Asheboro City and Randolph County school
systems, but not in many other counties, such as Montgomery and Chatham.
Asheboro was one of the first high schools in North Carolina to not only
introduce the senior project, but make it a graduation requirement for all
students, effective with the Class of 2001. Asheboro has been a senior project
demonstration school for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
Senior project became a graduation requirement for all Randolph County
12th-graders, effective with the Class of 2004. The project was piloted
at Southwestern Randolph High School; the other three county high schools
instituted it by last school year.
The new state high school exit standards also require students to meet
end-of-course assessments in five required end-of-course subjects - Algebra
I, English I, biology, U.S. history and civics and economics - before graduating.
The two new requirements would replace the competency test which all
students now must pass in order to graduate.
However, the new standards will still include the computer proficiency
test and the present 20-course requirements for students who are taking
the career preparation, college technical preparation and college/university
preparation courses of study.
These standards, on which the public can comment this month, are the
first changes in state graduation requirements since 2000. Students entering
ninth grade for the first time in the 2006-07 school year will be the first
class expected to meet the new standards.
Six informational sessions about the new standards, along with options
for implementation, are being held throughout the state this month.
Parents - particularly those with children in elementary and/or middle
school - and educators at all levels are strongly encouraged, by state officials,
to attend a regional information sessions at which public comment will be
received on options for implementing the new standards.
The upcoming informational sessions are scheduled from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
and will include an informational presentation followed by approximately
90 minutes for public comment and questions.
This region's session will be held Wednesday, Jan. 19, at Guilford County
Schools' Weaver Education Center Media Center, located at 300 S. Spring
St., Greensboro. Both Asheboro and Randolph will have school district representatives
at this presentation.
Other sessions are planned as follows: Tuesday, Jan. 18, Jackson County
Schools' Scotts Creek School, Media Center/Auditorium, 516 Parris Branch,
Sylva; Thursday, Jan. 20, N.C. Department of Public Instruction Education
Building, Room 150N, 301 N. Wilmington St., Raleigh; Monday, Jan. 24, Bertie
High School Gymnasium, 715 U.S. 13N, Windsor; Wednesday, Jan. 26, Cumberland
County Schools' Education Resource Center, Room 3, 396 Elementary Drive,
Fayetteville. The first session was held Thursday in Gastonia.
The State Board of Education has not yet determined whether a student
must pass all five or four of five of the required end-of-course assessments
to meet the new standards nor addressed the retesting and review processes
to follow if a student fails one of the courses. The board is also examining
special considerations for students enrolled in the occupational course
of study and those who transfer into the state's public school system.
Public input gathered at the information sessions will help the state
board make the decisions.
The implementation options being considered by the State Board are available
online in both English and Spanish at <www.ncpublicschools.org>.
In addition to the six public input sessions, the N.C. Department of
Public Instruction has developed a survey on the implementation proposals
for the exit standards. Citizens are encouraged to first review the implementation
options before participating in the online survey at <www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB223Z4QK9EC4>.
Copyright 2002, Stephens Media Group
|