B Eric Mathison
Who walks?
That's what the Highline School Board decided on Feb. 13.
The district was facing a dilemma over the requirements for district seniors that are permitted to walk in high school graduation ceremonies in June.
Board members unanimously agreed that all students with a reasonable chance of completing requirements for their diploma before the start of the next school year and have a plan to complete the requirements would be allowed to participate in the ceremonies.
Special education students with an individual learning plan may also walk in the ceremony if they continue their education as an 18 to 21 year old.
Students in the Class of 2008 are the first ones who must pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) in order to earn a diploma.
But district administrators reported that 99 students have sufficient course credits to graduate but have not passed the reading and writing portions of the WASL.
Results from the spring WASL will not be known until about 10 days before the graduation ceremonies. Many may have invited relatives or printed announcements in anticipation of passing the WASL.
Besides the credit and WASL requirements, regular graduates must have completed a senior "culminating" project and a "13th year/high school plus" plan.
In the future, board members will review the graduation policy by the first board meeting in January or by Jan. 15.
The board also passed a resolution supporting revisions to the federal "No Child Left Behind" Act.
They urged U. S. Reps. Adam Smith, D-9th District, and Jim McDermott, D-7th District, to co-sponsor proposed legislation by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska.
Young's bill would make numerous changes to Adequate Yearly Progress and assessment requirements that can lead to federal sanctions on schools and districts.
These include allowing test score improvements to be included in adequate yearly progress, allowing states flexibility to develop alternate progress measurements and limiting the designation of a school as needing improvement only when the same subset of students fail in the same subject for two consecutive years.
