Re: private TX schools offer TAKS-free diplomas

["ElsaHaas" <ElsaHaas@si.rr.com>]

Carol, 

As you probably know, sometimes homeschool support groups even put together
graduation ceremonies. 

In the end, the kids who fail the TAKS but whose parents can afford to shell
out several hundred bucks to a private school will get a diploma and a
cap-and-gown ceremony, while the kids without the money will, as usual, be
out of luck. 

I'm not sure that a college would view somebody who didn't get a diploma
because s/he failed the math portion of the TAKS in the same way they view a
kid who has homeschooled for years and who has to establish his/her ability
to do college-level work without having to live down that stigma. But I
guess it depends on how many kids end up not getting a diploma because of
the TAKS, and whether the colleges end up saying, "Oh, another one of those?
Whatever. Here's the form s/he has to fill out." 

I'm pretty sure that in NYS there's some kind of law that says that nobody
who's not an accredited (approved?) high school can issue a high school
diploma. Homeschoolers in the know don't tend to care - by now most colleges
have an established procedure for homeschooled applicants. Homemade diplomas
for homeschoolers aren't as necessary as they were thirty years ago. 

In NYS, they make a big deal out of refusing to award "Regents diplomas" to
students who don't pass a certain number of Regents exams. But what I've
heard is that outside of NYS, a Regents diploma carries little weight anyway
- most people don't know what it is.

So what you need depends on what you want/need to do next (job/college,
in-state/out-of-state, private college/public university, financial
aid/not), and you usually have more options than they're telling you about. 

Three hundred dollars to me seems steep for what amounts to a very simple
transcript review (not even an analysis of "life experience" or having to
transfer lots of credits from different institutions onto a single
transcript, but just a check on whether you passed a bunch of courses at a
single high school) plus a chance to throw a mortarboard in the air, but
that's because I didn't spend years slogging through that particular system.


Elsa 

-----Original Message-----
From: arn-l-owner@interversity.org [mailto:arn-l-owner@interversity.org] On
Behalf Of kceh@airmail.net
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 8:05 PM
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Subject: Re: [arn-l] private TX schools offer TAKS-free diplomas

Guess these schools didn't tell the graduates that their parents could have
written up a transcript and issued a home-school diploma for their kids
without
paying a fee. However, colleges want students to pass all 3 sections of the
state
entrance test eventually. If they do so they can take classes without a
diploma.
It's ridiculously easy to do.

So why have parents, teachers, and students been so willing to accept the
"fact"
that the the almighty high school exit test test is so important and
necessary?

Carol


On Mon Jul 2 11:52 , 'Monty Neill' <monty@fairtest.org> sent:

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Students who fail TAKS still get diplomas

  By Rhiannon Meyers
  The Daily News

  Published July 2, 2007

  Kellie Hill did almost everything a senior can do to prepare for
graduation.
  Hill, who spent all her student years in La Marque public schools, passed
all
  her courses. [...]