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I think the headline for this story says it all. A high school diploma should mean something, but we have diminished its value. Bill Hammond
CEO
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/local/law-change-leads-to-jump-in-texas-graduation-rate-/nsdmN/
Law change leads to jump in Texas graduation rate. But is that good?
Graduation rates in Texas once again have hit an all-time high — and the latest uptick can be attributed to a recent law that allows seniors to graduate high school without passing high-stakes, state mandated exams.
More than 5,800 students statewide, and at least 150 in the Austin area, were able to graduate in 2015 despite failing at least one of five end-of-course STAAR exams.
The state’s graduation rates actually would have dipped slightly to 87.3 percent, had it not been for the law change. In the Austin district, the new rules boosted the graduation rate by 2.5 percentage points to 89.7 percent, another all-time high.
Preliminary data for the 2016 graduating class indicates that even more students were able to walk the stage in the spring under Senate Bill 149, which allows some students to bypass the requirement that they succeed on the exams to get a diploma.
The new rules, which went into place just weeks prior to 2015 graduations, allow districts to form review committees composed of teachers, principals and parents to determine whether seniors who fail the required STAAR exams but have met the other course requirements should graduate.
Proponents of Senate Bill 149 – many of whom are also critics of high stakes testing in general – say it has provided opportunity for students who struggle because of language barriers or learning disabilities. Now instead of dropping out because they know they can’t pass all the tests, those students have a way to succeed in high school.
But others criticize the rule change as a way for Texas to pad its graduation numbers by handing diplomas to students who cannot demonstrate they have the knowledge they’ll need in college, jobs or technical education.
And it sends a bad message, says Bill Hammond, CEO of the Texas Business Association and an ardent supporter of rigorous testing. Students who fail STAAR are now essentially being told they were successful in high school, Hammond said, “but nothing has been further from the truth. It’s a minimal standard at best, and yet after 12 or 13 years in school these kids are allowed to graduate without the rudimentary skills needed to be successful.”
The five end-of-course exams are biology, algebra I, English I, English II and U.S. history.
The English II test was the stumbling block for Juana Cano, 18, who moved from Guanajuato to Austin her freshman year of high school. Despite being a straight-A student, Cano struggled with the English language and failed the test multiple times.
If she did not graduate, she would have lost a full scholarship to attend University of Texas-San Antonio.
The law gave her a way forward. Cano, who graduated from Eastside Memorial High School in June, is the first in her family to attend college.
“That was a big impact in my life,” said Cano, who is studying to become a physical therapist. “They gave me the opportunity to graduate. I never thought I would go to college … The law helped a lot of students.”
Edmund Oropez, chief officer for teaching and learning for the Austin school district, said he has no concerns that graduates who benefit from the new rules won’t have the skills they need.
“It’s a positive thing because the kids shouldn’t be accountable to just one test. They should be accountable for everything they worked on during their high school years: their grades, their attendance,” he said. “Kids who graduate from high school now are much better prepared for college and career than they were 20, or even 10 years ago.”
Across the state, many of the students who benefited from the new rules were those learning English, said Penny Schwinn, deputy commissioner of academics at the Texas Education Agency. Graduation rates for those students improved by 10 percentage points or more. In the Austin district, 57 percent of the students who graduated in 2015 with help from SB 149 were students with limited English proficiency. Educators said SB 149 has also helped more students with learning disabilities, who often struggle with standardized tests, to get diplomas.
“This is a group of kids who have otherwise met requirements,” said Theresa Treviño, president of Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment. The law “puts the control in local hands. It’s a more holistic view of the students. … It’s not going to affect a large number of kids, but it can affect the lives of kids caught up in the cycle of not being able to get a diploma.”
Treviño said in the group’s study of other states, only 14 states require students to pass exams to graduate. Five years ago, it was 25. In 13 of the 14 states, there is a backup option for students who did not pass to graduate, like the one Texas enacted, she said.
Treviño’s group is supporting the renewal of Senate Bill 149 — which expires next year — and is hoping the sunset provision is removed. Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, who authored the bill, said he will push for it again and is seeking to remove the sunset clause.
Seliger said the STAAR can be an effective accountability program, but it’s not the definitive measure on whether a student should be promoted or graduated.
“The dialogue we’re getting from around the state is overwhelmingly positive that SB 149 did a good thing,” he said, pointing out that the percentage of students using SB 149 to graduate is small, about 2 percent. “Educators think it’s a worthwhile tool.”
If the law passes again, the Texas Education Agency plans to track the postsecondary performance of the students who graduated under the provision, Schwinn said.
Preliminary data for the class of 2016 show more area school districts formed the committees required by SB 149 and graduated more students under the provision. In Austin, the number of seniors who graduated in 2016 using the committees grew 35 percent, compared with 2015, to 151 students.
Hammond calls SB 149 a new way to inflate the state’s graduation rate, which has marched up more than 8 percentage points since 2009.
“I think there’s rampant abuse and the numbers are not substantive,” Hammond said. “In the blink of an eye, Texas has shot up with no stated reason other than, in my view, the gaming of the system. If we’re going to do better with our children, who are our future, we need to be honest about where we are, which we are not.”
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