A High School Diploma is supposed to mean something.
I heard somewhere that the high school exit exam actually tests 8th grade proficiency in these subjects.
Even if that is not true I have no sympathy for these students. You should know this stuff to graduate.......period.
...snip...
She does not qualify for a diploma after failing the English part of the high school exit exam
Obviously, the honor roll at Richmond High doesn't mean much.
Valenzuela wants to be a nurse. I want my nurses to speak, understand and use the English language proficiently.
How can you be on the honor roll after failing your exams?
Valenzuela held her own certificate. But in a way, she left empty-handed. She does not qualify for a diploma after failing the English part of the high school exit exam -- a denial she keenly felt during the ceremony.
If she wants to go into nursing she absolutely needs to be fluent in English. Jumping into college immediately would be a mistake, she ought to take English classes now and then go to college.
A lot of people are going to college unprepared, having to take remedial courses to get caught up, and then still dropping out.
Boo-freaking-hoo... Whiners all!
No sympathy. Tired of graduating idiots with high self esteem.
Don't want to learn to speak english? GO BACK TO MEXICO!
Wow...who would have thought the purpose of school was to learn silly things like English...
Stupid is as stupid does.
Is this an article or an editorial? It's thick with touchy feely crap! The kids FAILED! No diploma, no celebration.
If this really is testing 8th grade proficiency, those kids should be denied a diploma and be required to take the necessary classes to get up to speed. I wonder f lack of English fluency is part of the problem. The names were all hispanic. If they can't bother to learn English properly, then it is their own faults, not the test's.
A school board member who thinks speaking spanish in this country is a good thing. He sets a good example - NOT.
When our new principal came in, he established a similar program, albeit more severe. If you don't pass all sections of the test, you don't participate in graduation, period.
When it first happened, parents went bonkers, complaining that it was unfair and the kids had worked so hard and blah blah.
What they failed to mention is: 1.) the students were warned well in advance, around a year; 2.) tutoring for each test was provided free to any student; 3.) some students were pulled out of classes to attend other classes reviewing the same information on the tests; 4.) the local media, press and letters were sent to parents in English and Spanish, informing them of what was going to happen.
I am hard pressed to believe this article completely. I refuse to believe that the teachers and adminstration would leave these kids hanging without some auxiliary assistance. Leave it to the MSM to not cover the entire story.
After four years at Richmond High, both girls captured a spot on the honor roll. Both plan to attend college. Both dream of entering medicine; Mallory for physical therapy, Valenzuela for nursing.When Mallory descended the wooden steps, she left proudly clutching a facsimile of the diploma she will pick up next week.
Valenzuela held her own certificate. But in a way, she left empty-handed. She does not qualify for a diploma after failing the English part of the high school exit exam -- a denial she keenly felt during the ceremony.
The fact that this girl somehow made the honor roll without being able to pass the English portion of the exit exam is a stinging indictment on the quality of education in the state of California.
man !
how rude to expect these kids to actually have learned something and be able to prove it !
I always thought a diploma was a decent attendance award...
*rolls eyes*
The girl that actually did graduate is going to Knoxville College? Well, I guess if she's from the slums of LA, she'll feel right at home...
KC is a "traditionally african-american" college which lost its accreditation several years ago. I did remodeling work at KC in the main dorm years ago, when the building was on the verge of being condemned. (It was only about 15 years old, but the kids had destroyed it) The students, 99% of which hadn't been on campus before arriving, had rioted over the living conditions, so the "college" did just enough work to make them semi-livable.
Although I hate to say it, the students appeared to be a rowdy collection of kids that wouldn't have qualified to attend college elsewhere. A KC janitor I talked to said the "college" busses in kids from the inner cities, and most have no means to leave when they see what the place is like. There is no discipline, and Knoxville College was at that time complete chaos.
Fletcher J
Let me get this straight: this cage liner is claiming that a kid that cannot pass 10th grade English "is being thwarted from her desire to go into medicine by an evil school administration." I didn't realize that careers in medicine were available to people who cannot graduate from high school. I'm REALLY GLAD, however.