Some seniors fail exit exam, will not receive a diploma

Fourteen Juneau-Douglas High School seniors who haven't passed the state exit exam will receive certificates of achievement rather than diplomas on graduation day, Juneau School District officials estimate.

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There are 347 seniors at JDHS.

The Class of 2004 is the first to have to pass the Alaska High School Graduation Qualifying Examination as one of the requirements for a diploma. Students also must earn a certain number of credits by passing courses in various subjects.

The number of seniors who wouldn't earn diplomas this year would have been higher. But the state has exempted special-ed students from the requirement as the state looks for a way to settle a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit charges that the test discriminates against students with disabilities.

Among the 26 JDHS seniors who receive special-ed services, 15 haven't passed the test, said Stephanie Hoag, the Juneau School District's curriculum coordinator.

Also, two Juneau seniors are likely to be granted waivers from the testing requirement because they moved to Alaska recently.

And five seniors are so severely disabled, such as with severe mental retardation, that they have taken a different test and will receive certificates of achievement.

Apart from the exit exam, there always are a few seniors who don't get their diplomas on graduation day because they failed courses in the final semester and don't have enough credits, Hoag said. Those students usually take summer courses or correspondence courses.

Students who haven't passed the exit exam - which consists of separate tests in reading, writing and math - can retake the portions they failed. There's no limit on the number of retakes. But the test is offered only twice a year, in early October and early April, and it takes several months to get the results.

The state Department of Education may ask the test contractor, Data Recognition Corp. of Maple Grove, Minn., to devise an online version that could be offered more frequently in regional test centers, said Les Morse, the agency's assessment director. But that will be at least two years away, he said.

Employers and institutions such as the military and colleges vary in their stance toward people who hold only a certificate of achievement.

Without a diploma, students aren't eligible for apprentice programs in the trades, said Jim Williams of North Pacific Erectors.

The University of Alaska Southeast has open admissions, but it requires incoming students to have a high school diploma or a GED certificate, said Chancellor John Pugh.

Seniors who have been admitted to UAS but won't receive a high school diploma may be able to take preparatory courses at the university, but they can't enroll in a degree program, Pugh said. Such students also wouldn't be eligible for state or federal financial aid for those prep courses, he added.

On the other hand, state universities in Washington don't require students to hold a high school diploma, although nearly all of their students do have one.

Colleges want to accommodate home-schooled students, who sometimes don't have a diploma, and older students who dropped out years ago and get a GED certificate. GED stands for general educational development.

Washington state schools such as Eastern Washington University, which some JDHS graduates attend, judge applicants on a sliding scale of grade point average in a core curriculum and scores on standardized tests such as the SAT.

Not having a high school diploma might affect the admission of marginal students, said Eastern Washington Director of Admissions Michelle Whittingham.

"Clearly, we want every student to have a high school diploma. We want every student to do their best and take (exit exams) very seriously," she said.

The Army will accept people who have a certificate of achievement if they enlist within a year of leaving high school, said Capt. Kevin Lasater, company commander for Army recruiting in Alaska.

If certificate-holders wait a year before enlisting, they would have to pass the exit exam and get a diploma, he said. Or they could take a chance on a GED certificate. The Army accepts some people with GEDs based on the service's need for enlistments.

"It is extremely important for students to know how important it is to get their high school education," said Lorene Palmer of the Juneau Convention and Visitors Bureau. "The short answer to whether or not leaving school without a diploma will be a hardship is a resounding yes.

"From the employer's perspective, who would want to put their business and their customers at risk with someone who couldn't or wouldn't meet the minimum requirements of a high school diploma or GED?

"A high school diploma is symbolic as well as a measure of a person's education level. A student who doesn't have the fortitude or discipline to finish school (and finish it with decent scores) raises doubts about their ability to handle the discipline and responsibilities of being a trusted employee."

Jim Scholz of Northland Services said he's glad employers "can look at high school graduates that have passed the test and be assured that they might actually have some basic skills in important subjects like reading, writing, and arithmetic."

Juneau School District administrators have talked about offering programs to exiting seniors who didn't pass the test, said Superintendent Peggy Cowan. But officials haven't firmed up anything yet.

"We are looking at creating some different types of courses or study sessions," JDHS Principal Deb Morse said.

It's an issue school districts will have to face because diploma-less students don't have to fade way just because they completed 12th grade.

Alaska residents are entitled to attend public school from age 6 to 20 as long as they haven't received a high school diploma, said Harry Gamble, spokesman for the state Department of Education.

The Anchorage School District has prepared courses for the summer and the regular school year for post-seniors who didn't pass the exam.

"It makes a lot of difference to these students if they get a diploma or not," said Mike Henry, executive director of high schools for the Anchorage School District.

About 95 regular-ed students, out of 3,500 seniors in Anchorage, haven't passed the exit exam, he said.

The Anchorage district modified a computer-based math course to teach what is on the exit exam. Students can enter and leave the self-directed course at any time, and take it during the school day or after regular hours.

Students who need a lot of help in reading are given a computer-based reading course and the Fast ForWord program. The latter, which also is computer-based, helps students learn language better. The Anchorage district offers remedial writing courses partly online and partly through a teacher.

High school officials in Anchorage, like Juneau, worked this year to reduce the number of 12th-graders who would find themselves without a diploma in June. In Juneau, the number went from 75 who hadn't passed the test by December to 29 now, some of whom ended up being exempt from the test.