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1 in 7 Seniors Fail to Graduate
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In the class of 2009 in Texas, at least 1 out of 7 seniors did not get a diploma. 14% of the class of 2009 failed at least one section of the TAKS tests, even after multiple retests, and therefore did not graduate. That is 36, 568 students. This is not unusual. Over the past several years an average of 40,000 students a year have not received a high school diploma in Texas. I have been watching these figures closely since the Class of 2005 graduated. In the past 5 years roughly 200,000 young people have left the halls of their high schools with nothing to show for the 13 or so years they spent in public education in Texas.
I have a question. Where do all these people go?
Many of these students completed all the coursework needed to graduate yet they were unable to pass the State mandated TAKS tests .... a requirement for graduation. These students might have been allowed to participate in their school's graduation ceremonies where they were awarded a "Certificate of Completion" instead of an actual High School Diploma. The certificate of completion basically states that a student has completed all the coursework required to graduate but they did not manage to pass the required Exit Exams. A Certificate of Completion is not good enough documentation to get a student into college, not even a community college ... nor into the armed forces.
So I ask again .... Where do all these people go?
And now, even though they completed all the coursework successfully, students who cannot pass the TAKS tests are counted as Drop-outs in the school's accountability ratings. And the Texas education chief is calling on all employers to have a voluntary ban on hiring dropouts!!
So .... at least 200,000 young people are ....
- NOT welcome back at their high school because they have finished all their coursework ....
- NOT welcome in community colleges because they do not have a high school diploma ....
- NOT welcome in the armed forces because they do not have a high school diploma .....
- and NOT welcome on the job because they are "dropouts".
Prepare for this to only get worse. The class of 2012 is now required to have passed 4 years of Math and 4 years of Science .... along with the 4 years of English and Social Studies already in place, in order to graduate from High School. REQUIRED of EVERY student. And they, of course, are still expected to do all of this in 4 years time. AND with the Class of 2016 the TAKS requirement will be replaced by a much more challenging set of tests called EOC's.
Expect the number of people seeking GED's to increase.
Is this really how we want our Texas education system to work?
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