Post by doctorwho on Jun 24, 2009 13:32:40 GMT -6
OMG - 15 kids -0 where ever will they put them ? The assignments have been set and one can't change anything now.... 
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1635697,naperville-D204-home-school-policy-na062409.article
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June 24, 2009
By TIM WALDORF twaldorf@scn1.com
Home school students who want an Indian Prairie School District 204 diploma will have to spend much of their senior year attending an actual high school, but they won't have to worry about their earlier work being rejected.
District 204 officials presented Monday a revised "compromise" version of a policy change regarding graduation requirements for part-time students.
The first draft of this policy, presented at the May 25 board meeting, upset some home school families, who argued it would effectively prevent home school students from ever graduating from the district because their programs more often than not aren't and can't be accredited.
"The difference that you're going to see in this new version versus the old is that in the old we indicated that we were not going to accept any credits from a no-accredited school toward graduation. So they would all have to be accredited or else we weren't going to issue a diploma," said Mike Popp, District 204's school improvement and planning director.
"In this version, we're saying, 'You know what? That's not appropriate.' We're going ahead and saying we are going to accept those credits, but we put in what you talked about last time: is there a way for us to sit down with an individual student and talk about those individual courses to go ahead and honor the credit that he or she earned?"
However, honoring those credits is one thing. Honoring the grades attached to them is another.
District 204's transcripts would separately list the unaccredited coursework, and not assign a letter grade to any of it. They would only note whether students passed or failed these unaccredited classes.
Consequently, home school students would have to turn in two transcripts — one from District 204 and one of their own making — when applying to colleges.
"We feel pretty strongly that it is completely inappropriate for us to make an assessment and assign a grade," said Nancy Valenta, District 204's assistant superintendent for human resources. "That is getting into the business of the accreditation, and it is really putting our name on something that we haven't done. I think that's a really big, slippery slope … It's not appropriate. We haven't done any of the instruction. We haven't done any of the curriculum. We have had nothing to do with that, and to assign a grade is really, really out of our league, I think."
The policy will also require these students to complete two credits in a District 204 high school in each of two consecutive semesters prior to graduation. So, in their senior year, these home school students seeking District 204 diplomas — District 204 estimates there are roughly 15 of them a year — will have to attend a District 204 high school on nearly a full-time basis, and pass four senior-level classes in order to graduate.
Previously, these students only needed to amass two and a half credits for a District 204 high school over the course of their high school career to earn a District 204 diploma.
Home school families whose students don't meet these criteria would, instead, have to issue their own diplomas.
"The example, by way of analogy that's in my head, is that it's what a university would tell you," said board member Mark Metzger. "You can't accumulate credits at Eastern and Western and Southern, and then call up U of I and say, 'I'm going to take a class there, and I want my diploma from you.' It doesn't work that way."
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1635697,naperville-D204-home-school-policy-na062409.article
---------------------------
June 24, 2009
By TIM WALDORF twaldorf@scn1.com
Home school students who want an Indian Prairie School District 204 diploma will have to spend much of their senior year attending an actual high school, but they won't have to worry about their earlier work being rejected.
District 204 officials presented Monday a revised "compromise" version of a policy change regarding graduation requirements for part-time students.
The first draft of this policy, presented at the May 25 board meeting, upset some home school families, who argued it would effectively prevent home school students from ever graduating from the district because their programs more often than not aren't and can't be accredited.
"The difference that you're going to see in this new version versus the old is that in the old we indicated that we were not going to accept any credits from a no-accredited school toward graduation. So they would all have to be accredited or else we weren't going to issue a diploma," said Mike Popp, District 204's school improvement and planning director.
"In this version, we're saying, 'You know what? That's not appropriate.' We're going ahead and saying we are going to accept those credits, but we put in what you talked about last time: is there a way for us to sit down with an individual student and talk about those individual courses to go ahead and honor the credit that he or she earned?"
However, honoring those credits is one thing. Honoring the grades attached to them is another.
District 204's transcripts would separately list the unaccredited coursework, and not assign a letter grade to any of it. They would only note whether students passed or failed these unaccredited classes.
Consequently, home school students would have to turn in two transcripts — one from District 204 and one of their own making — when applying to colleges.
"We feel pretty strongly that it is completely inappropriate for us to make an assessment and assign a grade," said Nancy Valenta, District 204's assistant superintendent for human resources. "That is getting into the business of the accreditation, and it is really putting our name on something that we haven't done. I think that's a really big, slippery slope … It's not appropriate. We haven't done any of the instruction. We haven't done any of the curriculum. We have had nothing to do with that, and to assign a grade is really, really out of our league, I think."
The policy will also require these students to complete two credits in a District 204 high school in each of two consecutive semesters prior to graduation. So, in their senior year, these home school students seeking District 204 diplomas — District 204 estimates there are roughly 15 of them a year — will have to attend a District 204 high school on nearly a full-time basis, and pass four senior-level classes in order to graduate.
Previously, these students only needed to amass two and a half credits for a District 204 high school over the course of their high school career to earn a District 204 diploma.
Home school families whose students don't meet these criteria would, instead, have to issue their own diplomas.
"The example, by way of analogy that's in my head, is that it's what a university would tell you," said board member Mark Metzger. "You can't accumulate credits at Eastern and Western and Southern, and then call up U of I and say, 'I'm going to take a class there, and I want my diploma from you.' It doesn't work that way."
