Graduation project signals confusion

Melissa Rhoad
May 29, 2009
Filed under News

       As thousands of high school juniors were anxiously preparing the last minute details on their graduation project papers, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI) was busy approving a one-year delay to mandating the graduation project as a state pre-requisite to receive a high school diploma.

            For students who entered ninth grade in 2007-2008 (Class of 2011) this action means that the project requirement throughout the state will now be required.  The delay was implemented because NC DPI felt that communities across the state needed more time to prepare for the statewide implementation of the four component graduation project.

             “The CMS Board of Education just voted on how to handle this as a district,” says Lauren Cummings, science teacher and graduation project coordinator for East Meck. “I expect to hear something soon.”

            CMS has carried out a graduation project known as the “Senior Exit” Project (SEP) for many years.  The SEP was a district wide exit requirement for CMS high school students to graduate and receive a diploma.  Now, given the state-wide delay to the new project as a graduation requirement for all high school students, the CMS Board of Education must make a decision on how to handle this situation for students.    

“The Board was scheduled to vote on recommendations based on feedback from various high school staff members on April 28,” says Cummings. “We have not heard anything as of recently.  I expect to hear something soon.”

However, the Board reminded staff that graduation project papers were still due on the April 3 deadline and these papers will still be evaluated using state rubrics.  A decision on exactly how evaluation of the papers will be handled as a district will be announced soon.