Author develops a plan to meet some of the major objectives to general education programs and preserve the reasonable awareness of the world in general that has been its goal. (Author/MB)

Relates that all students in all 24 academic disciplines in Bethany College in West Virginia are required to complete one or more internships before graduation and discusses the internship requirements of communications majors. (HOD)

Argues that an understanding of American ideals and democratic values should be part of high school minimum graduation competencies. (Author/SJL)

Survey results of a sampling of parents of vocational education students at a California high school are reported. Areas of interest included vocational information, vocational counseling, parents' perceptions of the need for vocational education, costs of these programs, high school graduation requirements, and the importance of particular…

Describes the graduation exhibitions--a student-centered culminating project that each graduating student at the Greenwood Laboratory School in Springfield, Missouri, presented to an audience for review. Notes that the graduation requirement is intended to hold graduates accountable for their learning. (SR)

Found, based on data from 28 states, that there is scant evidence to support the proposition that high-stakes tests, including high-stakes high school graduation exams, increase student achievement. Also found that adoption of high-stakes testing policies leads to increased dropout rates, decreased graduation rates, and higher rates of younger…

Describes one high school's "senior project," a graduation requirement for all students which involves: (1) writing a research paper; (2) developing a project related to the paper; and (3) delivering an oral presentation to a panel of judges selected from faculty, administrators, classified staff, and community members. (MM)

Examines the experiences of New York State school districts that increased student participation between 1992 and 1996 in a statewide testing program. Increased participation rates were associated with modest declines in the percentage of passing students, unchanged dropout rates, similar spending patterns, and increased staffing levels. (MLH)

Argues that middle and high school educators (as individuals and via their professional organizations) must create opportunities to influence decisions about the contents of high school exit tests, remembering that they have allies in parents and higher education officials. (SR)

Less than six months after the nation's governors gathered for a summit on high schools in February 2005, at least half a dozen states have already enacted policies that require students to complete tougher academic programs to earn a diploma. This flurry of activity is evidence that demands for making high school more rigorous, which state and…

The chronic academic underperformance and student failure of most American urban high schools are actually created by the antiquated way that schools evaluate student academic performance and award (or deny) course credits. When the school leaders in a small inner-city high school in Chicago began to question the "received wisdom" of…

For more than 50 years, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has been instrumental in developing an analytical model for understanding the relationships between educational policy (the intended curriculum), classroom and instructional practices (the implemented curriculum), and educational learning…

Afterschool provides older youth with critical academic supports including credit attainment and recovery opportunities. Many educators are turning to afterschool programs to reach students who fail one or more courses, become disengaged, or want alternatives to the traditional path to graduation. Credit recovery refers to recovering credits that…

In 1996, New York State began requiring all graduating high school students (starting with the Class of 1999) to pass rigorous end-of-course exams in five subjects. This study explores whether high school resources have been reallocated in the wake of these new standards and whether reallocation patterns differ among high- and low-graduation-rate…

Rhode Island has recently mandated a new kind of arts requirement for high school graduation that involves proving proficiency in one of four art forms: music, visual art, theater, or dance. How the state came to mandate this law, how proficiency is currently defined and assessed in dance, and what effects the cuts in arts education funding will…