Superintendent Harvielee Moore
(Deming) – Deming School officials are standing by the information disseminated – or not disseminated – to Deming High seniors before the October retakes of the Standard Based Assessment
Superintendent Harvielee Moore said she believed all information received by the district had been adequately communicated to students – although she admitted that she was not personally aware of exactly what seniors were told about state-mandated graduation requirements for the class of 2013. Moore, and Assessment and Accountability Director Terri Trejo, both pointed to a memo from State Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera to school superintendents dated August 31st which said students must “exhaust all opportunities to show competency on the SBA” before alternative demonstrations of competency can be considered.
But the same memo lists alternative demonstrations of competency as simply passing the courses required for graduation.
So this year’s seniors who do not pass the SBA with a score of 73 or better will still receive a diploma as long as they pass Biology or Chemistry, Algebra II, Language Arts III and U.S. History, along with other credit requirements.
Moore said the information coming from the state department of education is constantly changing and often confusing, but that she and her administration were acting in the best interests of the students by telling them that the safest path to a diploma was to do their best
on the retakes.
Scores achieved on the retakes will not be known until next month. And to further confuse parents, the graduation requirements for the class of 2014 include passing the SBA or passing
end-of-course exams for the four targeted classes – even if students took the classes as a freshman or sophomore.
And the class of 2015 could have an entirely different set of state-created graduation requirements since those students will come under the new Common Core Standards curriculum.
Superintendent Harvielee Moore said she believed all information received by the district had been adequately communicated to students – although she admitted that she was not personally aware of exactly what seniors were told about state-mandated graduation requirements for the class of 2013. Moore, and Assessment and Accountability Director Terri Trejo, both pointed to a memo from State Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera to school superintendents dated August 31st which said students must “exhaust all opportunities to show competency on the SBA” before alternative demonstrations of competency can be considered.
But the same memo lists alternative demonstrations of competency as simply passing the courses required for graduation.
So this year’s seniors who do not pass the SBA with a score of 73 or better will still receive a diploma as long as they pass Biology or Chemistry, Algebra II, Language Arts III and U.S. History, along with other credit requirements.
Moore said the information coming from the state department of education is constantly changing and often confusing, but that she and her administration were acting in the best interests of the students by telling them that the safest path to a diploma was to do their best
on the retakes.
Scores achieved on the retakes will not be known until next month. And to further confuse parents, the graduation requirements for the class of 2014 include passing the SBA or passing
end-of-course exams for the four targeted classes – even if students took the classes as a freshman or sophomore.
And the class of 2015 could have an entirely different set of state-created graduation requirements since those students will come under the new Common Core Standards curriculum.
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