It looks like students graduating in 2011 are also off the hook now for the Graduation Project.
Wake school board members agreed today to recommend not making a local version of the Graduation Project a requirement for the Class of 2011. The recession drew the blame.
School board members said the resources don't exist to properly implement even a scaled-down local version of the Graduation Project.
Today's decision is technically just a committee recommendation. But with eight of the nine board members present, it should stand.
Today's meeting had a far different outcome from what took place in April.
Back in April, the board had agreed not to make it a requirement for the Class of 2010. But they said they wanted to make it clear to students graduating in 2011 that they'd be expected to complete a major research paper to graduate.
But lack of money was brought up repeatedly today.
Also since April, the General Assembly has passed a bill saying that the Graduation Project can't be made a statewide requirement until the Class of 2015. They did leave it up to individual districts if they wanted to have their own requirement.
Comments
This is very bad news for
Wed, 09/02/2009 - 05:36 — blog85491This is very bad news for local graduate students. The department should arrange funds fot it immediately . Thanks for this great article. fetal heartbeat doppler
No project
Wed, 06/10/2009 - 09:59 — mommy59As a mother of an incoming freshman I hope they do away with the graduation project.They already have to pass many EOG test and the Computer skills tests to graduate.Already enough stress.
Thank you BOE!
Tue, 06/09/2009 - 23:49 — momof2goodboysThis is one time when they got it right!!!!! I agree with Chris H. Magnet schools can maybe pull it off. Just looking at their web-site shows how different they are. Daily "AC"? Not in a regular high school. Also, to ask our teachers to take ANY MORE resposibility when they are having their salaries cut, more students, etc. would just be a slap in the face - icing on the cake to their year! At our school, the teachers are the advisers using their time to advise the students, judges as to topics, product ideas, etc., and are on the panels to hear the presentations and judge the product.
I still firmly believe that it would have been a deterrant to many students in graduating. For many, just getting through school is a chore. What good would be served in discouraging so many students from getting their HS diploma? They say that it prepares them for college, but if it keeps them from graduating, what good is it?
One place where lots of $ has to be spent was the complete background check that each and every mentor has to have done. This is paid for by Wake County. Imagine how much that would be! # of jrs. every year x cost of the background check = a lot of $ that Wake county does not have to spend!
Just to give you an example of the interest in it, when given the choice, less than 10 of the whole jr. class at our HS chose to go on with it. The research papers were done in English, so there was no loss there.
I am so glad that for once, the BoE made that right decision!
I hope they will just let it go until things get more normal and then ,if it is done, it is done right. Thank you BOE!
YES Graduation Projects
Tue, 06/09/2009 - 18:17 — thewomacksAs President of the PTSA at Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School I feel that I need to say something about Graduation projects. SRMHS opened in the summer of 1997 and required all seniors to complete a graduation project. This has been a requirement of our seniors ever since. It doesn't cost our school anything to have this requirement. This project is completed through our student's English class as well as planning in Academic Coach (AC). During their junior year, our students write their term paper answering their essential question. During English of their senior year they complete their product and present their product to a team of 3 volunteer judges. There can be some cost associated with the student's product but this depends on what they choose for their product but many students do not spend any money on their projects. We have a team of teachers who coordinate the project days (one in the fall and one in the spring), again at no cost to the school. My family and many others feel that graduation projects are beneficial to the development of our students. It provides many good experiences including writing a term paper, planning, and presenting. Maybe those schools opposed to graduation projects should learn how the schools that do require projects do them successfully!
Magnet High Schools
Tue, 06/09/2009 - 21:01 — Chris_Hhave some perks that other high schools do not. This would have fell to the parents of the child in the regular high schools and they woulkd not have gotten the direction you have spoken about. I believe your intent is good but all is not equal in WCPSS.
No Graduation Project
Tue, 06/09/2009 - 16:55 — jodi37Hallelujah! I am all for NOT having a Graduation Project. This is a nightmare for Language Arts Teachers as well as others. It has not been properly explained to the faculty members that will have to implement the project with the students. There is no money to pay the teachers and others for reviewing them. There is also not enough outside mentors to support the program. Come on people! Scrap this idea! If you want the students to write a term paper make it part of the English classes. If you want them to do community service, just tell them to go and do that but quit wasting the teachers time and efforts.
At this point
Tue, 06/09/2009 - 15:16 — Chris_HI think they should scrap it indefinitely and if they do bring it back have a complete plan themselves on how to do a Graduation Project and the review and grading procedures. This just looks silly at this point - I know it was a state initiated thing but it really was not well thought out.