Posted on 09/20/2005 8:24:28 AM PDT by WestTexasWend
Displaced high school seniors may opt out of TAKS.
Byron Thomas stepped off the school bus at the Austin Convention Center Monday with a ho-hum attitude about his day at Lanier High School. After all, the 18-year-old resident of New Orleans' Third Ward never planned to spend his senior year in Austin.
But his eyes lit up when told he may be able to receive a Louisiana high school diploma.
"I was born in New Orleans — I'd rather graduate from one of them schools," he said. "I want to follow in my sister's footsteps and go to (the University of New Orleans)."
Texas officials said Monday they plan to allow students, like Byron, who are Hurricane Katrina evacuees from Louisiana and seniors in Texas high schools, to graduate with a diploma from their home state. A group of Texas education officials will travel this week to Louisiana to work out logistics and answer questions about who will administer Louisiana state exit exams in Texas and how the two states will reconcile their different graduation requirements.
"We assume the bulk of seniors would prefer a Louisiana diploma," Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Suzanne Marchman said Monday. "We're trying to work as quickly as possible on something suitable for those who have spent their whole school careers in Louisiana and now, unfortunately, are here."
The situation is an example of the critical decisions state officials have had to make after the influx of Hurricane Katrina evacuees into the state, decisions that deeply affect people's lives.
More than 41,000 students who fled Katrina are enrolled in Texas schools, according to state figures. Marchman said she did not know how many of those are high school seniors.
State education officials are trying to sort out the Louisiana graduation situation before October.
That's when Texas administers the exit-level Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, which high school students must pass to be eligible for a Texas high school diploma. Seniors who did not pass the exam their junior year take the test again in October, and have additional chances to pass it before graduation.
Seniors attending Texas schools because of Hurricane Katrina may opt of out the exit-level TAKS test, Texas Education Commissioner Shirley J. Neeley said Thursday in a memo to school districts.
Students in other grades will be required to take TAKS exams and will be held to the same standards as Texas students. Texas students must meet state standards for the third-grade reading exam and for the fifth-grade reading and mathematics exams to advance.
"It's clear from (Neeley's) letter that if you're here now and you're here at the end of the school year, you might as well take the test so we can start getting you some help," said Carmen Luevanos, spokeswoman for the Austin school district.
"If they take the TAKS test, that will provide assessment as to where the student is, and if they need extra tutoring."
"...I want to graduate from one of them schools."
I guess English isn't a requirement....
Groan.
Oh, just print a diploma from anywhere they want, for all it's worth.
"I'd rather graduate from one of them schools"
Did nobody care enough about this kid to correct his English by the time he's 18 years old?
Everyone who hears him talk (and that includes job interviewers) is going to think he is STUPID!
Black people are NOT unable to learn proper English.
Letting them slide is one of the most anti-black things you can do.
(Speechless)
"And I's want a masstur degree in Englich."
Why don't we just give everybody a diploma when they are in the 8th grade.
Then the only ones we have to pay for are the ones who actually want the education.
LOL - I thought the same thing.
I truly, truly love the South but southern english hurts my ears.
Trust me, the folks in Texas want you to have a diploma from one of them schools, too. Just out of the goodness of their hearts. No special reason they don't want you to have one of their diplomas...
Hey, he speaks English....that's progress in some Texas schools.
No doubt. I don't think it's possible for any of them to graduate from a Texas school this year.
No Child Left Behind, Unless They Opt Out And Choose To Be Left Behind.
And what, do you think, will be the opt-out percentages? 40%? 60%? Higher?
To hell with the eductaion and testing, let's get them a document and send them on their way to welfare dependency and jail prep.
LOL...well said! ;)
Ah, he's aiming for crew chief at McDonalds.
About time someone suggested that!!! But how many times do they get to go through the eighth grade, though?
I'm flexible. We can start at an earlier age if needed.
No, either they were black and didn't care whether this kid spoke 'like the white man,' or they were white and were too cowed by PC to correct a kid, who, after all, is just speaking his native language, Ebonics.
This kind of stuff makes me sick. I can't tell you how many black kids I've either not hired or relegated to positions where they don't interact with the client because their English was mediocre. And these were all college grads!
Then the race mongers want to say a college degree doesn't change things for blacks.
Both of these remarks are pretty funny. I thought about the 'plausible denial' aspect as well.
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