Issuing Retroactive Diplomas is Not Charity
Today we are reposting a blog by OSOS member and co-founder Joanne Yatvin. Joanne's career as an educator includes the following: high school English teacher and English Department Chair, former Wisconsin Principal of the Year, superintendent/principal of a rural Oregon district, member of the National Reading Panel, adjunct professor at Portland State University, and former Vice President and President of the National Council of Teachers of English.
We are proud to work with such a distinguished educator. If you would like to follow her blog, you can find here here, at The Treasure Hunter. Below is her blog post as it appeared there.
Issuing Retroactive Diplomas is Not Charity
In Education Week last month I read an article about six states, including Georgia, Texas, and California, that are issuing retroactive high school diplomas to students who did not pass the required exit exams over the past several years. The numbers quoted in the article show that tens of thousands of former students have already received diplomas and many more are awaiting confirmation of their eligibility. Some of the states justify their actions by explaining that the exit exams for high school graduation that were mandatory over the past 20 years or more have now been replaced by end-of-course tests which more fairly and comprehensively measure students’ knowledge and skills in various academic areas. Looking back, school officials see many weaknesses in those exams that made them unreliable. What they also recognize, belatedly, are the crippling effects that a lack of a high school diploma has on the futures of young people. Countless numbers of intelligent and hard working individuals have found it impossible to enroll in college or get a decent job without that credential. They wind up being considered as undesirable as those who have a criminal record.
As might be expected, the distribution of retroactive diplomas Oregon Save Our Schools: Issuing Retroactive Diplomas is Not Charity:
