3/11/09
School board delays vote on diploma options
Superintendent Sam Houston presented more changes to proposed diploma options during the Decatur school board’s monthly meeting Tuesday. While the changes were minor, the board followed Houston’s suggestion to delay voting on the options, which would affect the Class of 2014. The board will vote at a called meeting at 4:30 on March 24. Houston presented the original proposed diploma options in February. A committee of the principals and guidance counselors from Austin and Decatur high schools studied the issue and suggested a few changes. The state is changing diploma options so that current eighth-graders start high school next year pursuing an advanced academic endorsement, also known as the First Choice option. Students would meet the minimum collegiate entrance requirements if they choose First Choice. Parents will have to approve their child’s option to opt out of the First Choice and pursue the standard diploma option. Currently, students begin the standard diploma and then choose to pursue the advanced diploma. The Decatur school board is considering adding a third diploma option, which Houston calls advanced academic endorsement with honors, which goes beyond First Choice. That would give Decatur two diploma options, including International Baccalaureate, that go beyond state requirements. Proposed changes Among the changes to the advanced endorsement with honors are: Houston said a 1.25 weighting for taking honors class bumps students who earn a B to the required 90. Austin counselor Lewis White and Decatur High counselor George Sims said their schools have problems with students taking honors classes as underclassmen and then changing to easier classes so they can have an easy senior year. This change would help the schools continue challenging the students through their senior year. School officials said they don’t think the change would affect more than 10 to 15 students at each school. The principals said they have two concerns with the new diploma options. They are emphasizing to parents that the opt-out option is available through 10th grade. Austin Principal Don Snow said he is concerned that there will be a large number of freshmen failing math at the end of their first semester because they get in over their heads. Decatur High Principal Mike Ward said this places a heavy burden on the middle school counselors to guide the students and parents toward the right classes during spring registration. Ward said he is concerned that students will take Algebra II with trigonometry during their senior year, fail and not get to graduate because they didn’t pass their four required classes. “That puts a lot of pressure on their senior year,” Ward said. On the Net: For full breakdown of the diploma options see:
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