I took a moment to read the post by kctenac16. In retrospect, please understand that a diploma is anything but worthless. I worked diligently to earn my advanced diploma and I am glad that I chose to do so. If you truly earn it, it instills a sense of accomplishment and shows others your determination to succeed. Granted, it is only one part of a much larger picture, but an integral part indeed! Obviously, you should have completed the advanced diploma. Perhaps you should check your punctuation, capitalization and sentence structure. Oh, and, while you are at it, you may want to proofread your resume...just a suggestion. Good luck in your endeavors and congratulations on your graduation.

I’s interesting that many students who fail the Exam Exams have report slips showing they passed all their classes.  Do they know the subject materials or not?  I think the daily work in the classroom, evaluated by the teachers, is a trurer picture of what each student has learned than those Exit Exams.  If the teacher is empowered to award a passing grade to a student, I think we should trust the teacher’s judgment!  Our daughter failed her Exit Exam, but earned all the credits she needed to graduate.  A friend told us about THE OAKS PRIVATE SCHOOL http://www.theoaksprivatechool.com in Florida.  They are a legal, FLDOE recognized school who awards Diplomas to students throughout the US who’ve earned enough credits to graduate.  They ARE NOT a diploma mill.  The student must have truly earned enough credits.  The school does charge for the service, but it’s not too much, considering our daughter now has a real diploma - not just a certificate.

i also wonder if the drop out rate will decrease if children are challenged more, through the Advanced Diploma. How many kids have dropped out of school, because they were bored, or goofed off and failed because they were bored? Why not set our expectations of our kids high?

It also concerns me, that some of the posters that brag about the graduation exam, are writing functionally illiterate sentences. Perhaps they were typing too fast and did not realize. If though, the end result of a “graduation exam” is to pass a test, but not be able to write a sentence, then perhaps it has worked. I personally think we need to give the classrooms back to the TEACHERS and not to the political system-the State Department, Barton, etc. JMHO

I do not understand what all of the confusion is about. Twenty five years ago I could understand all of the contoversy over this new rule . Who cares what weighs on a High School Diploma today? If you plan on getting a College Degree you are going to have to pass the entry exams. No shortcuts. No exceptions. If you emphasis to your child that a High School Diploma alone will allow them to make a decent paycheck you might as well expect that child to live at home for a long time. Wake up parents this is not the 70sor 80s. In todays world a normal education is not a High School Diploma. Well, it is if you do not intend on paying rent/mortgage, untilities, food, car note, savings or decide to have children. If you want to literally be poor for your entire adult life, just stop at that High School Education. Basic Diploma, Advanced Diploma, unless you futhur your education in a technical field or get your College Degree you will struggle all through life and end up with nothing.

I really do not understand their way of thinking. If you can not pass a test and have the oppurtunity to take the test more than once and then are still unable to pass, then why should they get away with passing at all. I know a student at MGM that does not have all the required credits needed for graduation but is still being allowed to walk. She told me last summer that after graduation she will go to summer school to make up the credits she needs. Now correct me if I’m wrong but if she and her parents knew last summer that she was lacking credits then why was she not required by the school last summer to make up the credits in summer school or required to go to night school instead of waiting until after graduation to make up anything. I mean really this is unreal these are credits she missed from ninth or tenth grade.  Come on either you earn it or you don’t. Why just give it to them, make them work for it. They are suppost to go to school to learn. What is this teaching them!!