Graduation Options in New York

We continue to speak with parents of public high school students who are concerned and confused about the diploma options available in New York for their students, especially those with with learning and other challenges.

For many years, students in New York had the option to graduate with a high school diploma without taking Regents exams, the New York Statewide tests that were first administered in 1878.  At least until the era of Advanced Placement exams, Regents examinations were considered the "gold standard" for New York State students, but all students had another path to a diploma available to them if they could not pass a sufficient number or Regents exams. This was the "local diploma."

Local diplomas, which are actual graduation credentials and recognized by such by colleges, the military, and employers, were available for a number of years to students who could not achieve a passing score on sufficient Regents exams, but who could pass a less difficult Regents Competency Exam. However, as we wrote back in 2011, Regents Competency exams were being phased out and, at this point, are no longer available to most students. Local diplomas are no longer an option for students in public schools who do not have an IEP or 504 Plan and cannot pass the required Regents exams. 

So, what can students with or without IEPs do if they are struggling to pass Regents exams?

• There is an appeal option, available to all students who score 62 or higher on their Regents exam. As explained in an excellent fact sheet from Advocates for Children of New York: "Students who successfully appeal one Regents Exam and meet all other testing and course requirements will be awarded a Regents Diploma. Students who successfully appeal two Regents Exams will be awarded a Local Diploma. Students cannot appeal more than two exams." Note that a student will still have to have an IEP or 504 Plan to be eligible for a Local Diploma (and students with Section 504 plans must have plans that specify that they are eligible for the Local Diploma).
• Students with IEPs or 504 plans who score between 55-64 on required Regents examinations can receive a local diploma. This option is not available to general education students. The rules are complicated and we suggest you review the advisory from the New York State Department of Education on this "safety net" option. Note that there are also special graduation options available to English Language Learners.

For students with disabilities who had an IEP, there had been another option, but its name was misleading to all concerned. Called an "IEP diploma" it was not a true graduation credential and not an actual diploma. Instead, all it signified was that the student had met the goals of his or her IEP. It was not accepted by colleges, the military, or many employers who required a high school diploma. This option has been replaced by two others, the  Skills and Achievement Commencement Credential (SACC) and the Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) Commencement Credential. The SACC is for students with significant disabilities who take alternative assessments. The CDOS is designed to indicate readiness for work, and can be awarded on its own or in conjunction with a Regents or local diploma.

As you can see from the information and links above, this is a complicated subject. The best resource for all families is the high school counselor, among whose responsibilities is making sure that all students are on track to graduate with the highest level credential they are able to achieve. If you are not fully comfortable with where your student is in the path to graduation and what kind of diploma they are entitled to receive -- and are going to receive -- you need to meet with your student's guidance counselor without delay.

Searching Far Afield for Schools

We live in a mobile society; the U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 2010, 6.7 million people moved from one state to another. When families with school age children are involved, moving becomes especially complicated. How can parents learn about schools and school systems that are far away from their home town?

There are several websites that can be helpful in this process, and can be at least a starting point for gathering information. One is the site Great Schools, a national nonprofit whose website notes that it has "profiles of more than 200,000 PreK-12 schools and more than 1,000,000 parent and community ratings and reviews of schools." Parents can search for reviews of schools by location and schools are rated based upon their general performance and such specific areas as test scores. Great Schools also has information on topics of general interest, including a guide for families who are moving and need to consider a new school.

For parents interested in private schools, the National Association of Independent Schools has a good deal of information on its website, as well as a "school search" feature that allows for selecting such desired features as specific sports programs (from archery to wrestling and just about every sport in between) and the level of support available for students who learn differently -- "focused on learning differences" or "supports learning differences".

For parents looking for information about public schools, a number of cities have websites dedicated to providing information and reviews. In Philadelphia, the Notebook, a nonprofit website that also publishes a print edition, describes itself as "an independent voice for parents, educators, students, and friends of the Philadelphia Public Schools," and has search features for schools on every level. Here in New York City, parents turn to a website we have often mentioned, InsideSchools, for well-respected school reviews and general information about the New York City Public Schools.

Of course, these sites should only be starting points. Additional research, school visits, and conversations with anyone who might be knowledgeable about the educational landscape in your new community are all vital. But when you need a place to begin, these sites might just point you in the right direction.

Photo Credit: John Benson via flickr

The Changing Nature of High School

A number of recent articles on how high school education is changing seem to all respond to the same set of observations: too many students graduate from high school unprepared for college or the workplace, and the current national economy is less than hospitable to these high school graduates.

Several innovations -- both locally and nationally -- are attempting to address this situation. Here in New York, a new diploma credential, designed for regular and special education students who will be graduating with a Regents (academic) or local diploma,  is the Career and Technical Education Endorsement. As described by the New York State Department of Education, this credential requires coursework that combines career and technical education, as well as academic components, and may be jointly developed and taught by an academic subject teacher and/or a career and technical education teacher. It also requires that the student satisfactorily complete a "technical assessment." This assessment can be developed by a particular industry (such as the exam necessary for a student to obtain certification as an Emergency Medical Technician) or, if no specific assessment is available, can be developed by the school district in conjunction with local businesses or professional organizations. Such an assessment should include: written examination(s), student project(s) and student demonstration(s) of technical skills to measure proficiency.

Another approach to integrating high school academics and career readiness is happening in several communities on Long Island, where school  districts are setting up technical and career programs in individual schools, rather than send their students out to a regional program at a BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services, which serves a number of regional school districts) campus. There are both budgetary and practical reasons for this trend. As noted in Newsday, reduced State funding to BOCES has increased districts' costs of participation and some districts find it cheaper to keep their students in their own building. In addition, integrating technical and career training with academics is easier when all courses take place in the same building.

On a national level, there is a program known as P-Tech - Pathways in Technology Early College High School, originally developed by IBM to provide a strong education in STEM skills (science, technology, engineering, and math) to students in inner city schools. These students graduate from high school in six years, instead of four, and emerge with both a high school diploma and a two year associate's degree, as well as the promise of a good-paying job. There is an excellent description of these programs and the positive impact they are having on their students (called "innovators" at some schools) in Time magazine, which is also available in a printer-friendly version.

Tips for Test-Day Success

Djenan Kozic

Studying for an exam in the weeks and days before test day is a critical skill needed for successfully completing academic courses. If you haven’t already done so, be sure to check out our last post about test preparation. But preparation for a test means more than just studying. Students need to prepare so that they are physically alert and ready to work on test day, and they should have some strategies in mind for taking the test and dealing with pre-test jitters. Here are some of our best ideas to help ensure that a student’s hard work studying translates to a successful test:

• Take care of your brain. To work well, your brain needs to be well rested. Be sure to get a full night’s sleep before the test; staying up late and cramming at that point probably isn’t going to help anyway. We think you should eat breakfast every morning, and it’s particularly important to fuel your brain on test day. Eat something similar to what you’re used to eating. If you usually have a banana and some toast, don’t sit down to a six-egg omelet, which may make you feel overly full and sleepy.

• Have strategies for dealing with test anxiety. Some ideas include talking or journaling about your worries, reminding yourself of all the work you’ve done to prepare, doing physical activity before the test, trying some deep breathing or muscle relaxation exercises, using positive visualization, or repeating a calming mantra to yourself. If all else fails, consider this: stress can actually enhance your performance! For more complete information on test anxiety, see our previous post on exam-based fears, and how anxiety can actually help you.

• Know some good test-taking strategies. For example:
• Flip through the test before you start to get an idea of what you’re up against. If there are different sections, you may want to think about where it’s best for you to start.
• For timed tests, skip hard questions initially. Be sure to circle them and dog ear the bottom of the page so you don’t forget to come back to them later.
• If you’re taking a multiple choice test, cover the choices, answer the question in your head, then choose the answer that most closely matches your idea. If you’re still stumped, eliminate as many answers as you can, then pick the one that sounds best.
• Jot memory aids in the margin of the test before you start working. This will save you from having to keep all that stuff in your memory, freeing cognitive energy to focus on the test content. For example, if you’re taking an algebra test, writing “PEMDAS” or “FOIL” at the top of each page can help you remember to use the right order of operations or guide you through the process for multiplying a binomial.
• Use the margins to plan your response to essay questions, too. Take a minute or two to list some ideas you could include in your answer to center your thoughts before you begin to write. You could even go back and number your ideas so you’ll know what you want to say first, second, etc. Your answer will probably be better, and you won’t have to try to squeeze in all the stuff you realize that you forgot to mention when you proofread your answer. (By the way, don’t forget to proofread your answer!)

We wish everyone the best of luck on finals, though with solid preparation, you shouldn't need much luck!

Test-Prep Tips: Studying for Finals

albertogp123

The school year is winding down, which means shows and concerts, yearbooks, and summer plans. But first, students in middle school and high school need to get through (sigh) final exams. For most students, the prospect of preparing for cumulative exams is a daunting one. Here are some tried-and-true ideas for students to help make their test preparation a success:

• Learn everything you can about the test. If your teacher has given you a study guide, great! If not, find out exactly which chapters or concepts you’ll need to know for the exam. If you don’t already know, ask how much time you’ll be given and whether your teacher will be allowing students extra time to finish if they choose to stay longer. It can also be helpful to learn the format of the test; ask your teacher if she will share the test directions with you before test day. Students who are slower workers can study the directions before test day so they don’t need to take time to read them while testing. 

• Devise a study schedule. Sit down with a blank calendar and your study guide and start planning. Figure out exactly which days will be devoted to covering which classes and which specific topics/chapters. Don’t be vague or general - really spell it out. Be sure to plan some “padding” so that your schedule isn't completely thrown off if you need an extra day here or there to cover a topic in more depth. Planning your schedule should be the first step you take outside of class. Do this before you start studying.

• Give yourself study breaks as you feel your mind starting to get tired. Taking breaks is not a waste of time, but studying when you’re mentally exhausted is. Your brain can’t absorb material when it’s worn out. Give yourself some time to recharge, preferably by moving around – just be sure your break doesn't last more than 10-20 minutes. When you return to hit the books, cover your notes and summarize for yourself everything you learned before your break. Then check your summary against your notes to make sure you didn't forget anything. This will help you get back on track, and will give your memory an extra workout. 

• Test yourself. The biggest mistake we see students make is to read over their notes and believe this prepares them. It doesn't. To be truly ready for a test, you need to practice retrieving the information from your long-term memory. Instead of reading over your notes, cover them and ask yourself questions, answer the questions in your head or on paper, then check your answers against your notes. Flashcards are another great way to test yourself. You could also plan a study session with a friend and take turns quizzing each other. One of our favorite study strategies is to make your own practice test! Make up questions like the ones you predict will be on the test, copying the test format, if you can. Do this about a week before the test. Wait a day or two and take your test without looking at your notes. When you check your answers, you’ll be able to tell what you've learned and what you need to review. You may even want to trade your practice test with a friend for a little extra practice.

With these tips in mind, students should be ready to put in the kind of studying that will have them prepared for even the most comprehensive finals! Stay tuned for a future post about test-day tips and test-taking strategies.

Turn Back to Poetry with Poetry 180

We have one last blog to share from our April celebration of Poetry Month.

During his tenure as the Poet Laureate of the United States (2001-2003), Billy Collins dedicated much time and energy to his conviction that poetry should be a part of people’s daily lives. With this in mind, he developed and publicized a project called Poetry 180. His plan: that students hear a poem on each of the 180 days of the school year to derive both enrichment and pleasure from relevant, contemporary poets. In a statement introducing his project, Collins writes, “By just spending a few minutes reading a poem each day, new worlds can be revealed.”

The poems Collins selected, which include work from poets like Philip Levine, Naomi Shihab Nye, Sharon Olds, Paul Zimmer, Lucille Clifton, and Collins himself, can be purchased as a collection (Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry), but the collection is also available for free on the Library of Congress’s website. While many of the poems would be appropriate for a wide range of ages, Collins selected the poems with high school students in mind. They are meant to be read to students, and the website includes a helpful link containing tips on reading poetry aloud. Collins was so pleased with the success and impact of Poetry 180 that he assembled a second collection, called 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Everyday, which is also available in bookstores.

Whether or not they encounter it in school, Poetry 180 is a fantastic collection for young people. The language is both frank and beautiful and the themes are varied and germane. Students who groan at the prospect of having to dissect yet another ancient sonnet will find Poetry 180 to be a breath of fresh air. Do not miss this collection, whether you read one poem a day or devour the whole thing in just a few sittings.

Learning Difficulties in Students' Own Words

High school student Bryan Stromer has written a terrific piece in the New York Times/WNYC "SchoolBook" feature about his experience applying to top New York City public high schools. Bryan has a learning disability and cerebral palsy and was given twice the standard time to take the highly competitive exam that is required for entrance to the most demanding academic public schools in the City. He scored well enough to earn a place at the prestigious Brooklyn Technical High School but decided to continue his high school career at the New York City Lab School where he had attended middle school. Why? Because there was only one special education teacher for more than 5300 students at Brooklyn Tech, the largest high school in the city, but where less than one percent of the students have special needs.

Another perspective from students with learning difficulties appears on the website Smart Kids with LD, where a piece by Sheryl Knapp includes the views of four middle school students who discuss some of the practical issues they deal with in their schools. Pull out supports, for example, sometimes interferred with the activities going on in their regular classroom. Most of the students noted that neither they nor their parents had sufficient input into the way their program was implemented.

If you have not yet read the book Learning Outside the Lines by Jonathan Mooney and David Cole, two Brown University graduates with learning and attention issues, you may find their perspectives and suggestions useful. What worked for them might not work for everyone, but they present their experiences in a very readable, entertaining format. This book has been around for a while, but it is a solid member of the "in their own words" genre.



Photo: Lichfield Live/Flickr Creative Commons

When Should College Planning Begin?

An article in today's New York Times looks at the different approaches to beginning college preparation taken by traditional, nonprofit private high schools and their newer, for-profit counterparts. As the Times article asks, " Is it better to get a jump on the process but risk turning high school into a staging ground for college admission? Or is it preferable to start later, when students are more developmentally prepared but perhaps missing opportunities to plan hobbies, choose classes and secure summer internships?"

We think there is another perspective that needs to be considered -- that of students with learning, attention, and related difficulties who receive support services in high school and who anticipate needing accommodations in college. For these students, the process of getting ready for college simply can't wait until their junior year. They need to begin preparing for college almost as soon as they begin high school. This doesn't mean that they have to decide where to apply, just that there are decisions they need to make and skills they need to acquire long before they are almost ready to graduate. These include:

Self-Advocacy

Students with learning issues need to use their time in high school to learn about their challenges, to be able to express how they learn best and to develop strategies for handling the increasing workload of high school (and then college). They need to be able to ask for help when they need it and to negotiate for themselves. These skills are crucial to college success, when it will fall upon them -- not their college and not their parents -- to arrange for accommodations and to make sure they are implemented. Ideally, they need to learn about the Americans with Disabilties Act, which provides the legal basis for the accommodations that will help them succeed after high school.

Curriculum Decisions

All students need to take and pass specific courses to graduate from high school. But students with learning differences need to make sure that modifications they are granted by their high school, most commonly a waiver of the requirement that they take a certain number of foreign language credits, don't preclude their acceptance at a particular school which they hope to attend. Most colleges want their applicants to have taken a foreign language for admission and many also require that a student take a foreign language in order to graduate. Waivers and substitutions are possible, but not guaranteed. And not every major at a college may have a language requirement. Students who are offered a modified high school program without a foreign language, or students who attend a specialized high school which does not offer foreign languages, should be prepared to deal with the consequences when applying to college.

Testing

Students who have an IEP and receive special education services are required to be re-tested every three years, a process called a triennial review. Sometimes, especially when a student has had an IEP in place for a number of years and all is going well, the school and/or the parents may not seek to have full testing done for each triennial review. But the SAT/ACT exams require up-to-date testing as part of their process for granting accommodations (such as extended time), and college disability services offices do as well. Testing during the 10th grade year -- or as soon as a student turns 16 and can be tested with the adult version of the most common IQ test, the WAIS-IV-- is ideal. Colleges want to see the WAIS, rather than the WISC, the version of the IQ exam given to children under the age of 16. Keeping this information in mind during the earliest years of high school will help make both the SAT/ACT accommodation process and the college application process go more smoothly.

These are only a few of the issues that college bound bound students with learning and other difficulties need to start working on in high school. However ideal it may be for students to focus only on the immediacy of high school issues and to forgo planning ahead until college application deadlines loom, this may not be the best path for students with learning challenges.

Photo used under Creative Commons by Stewart Black (modified)

Visiting a New NYC High School

There has been much news of late about the state of education in New York City’s public high schools. We had an extraordinary opportunity to see one of the new, small high schools in action last week and were impressed with both the students and staff we encountered.

Hillside Arts and Letters Academy (HALA) is a small school, in its second year of operation, located in the Jamaica High School building in Queens. HALA has approximately 200 students, divided between 9th and 10th graders, and will eventually grow to a four-year student population of roughly 400. The principal, Matthew Ritter, was previously Assistant Principal at Bushwick High School for Social Justice in Brooklyn, and has recruited a team of teachers who share his vision of an arts based curriculum for college bound students. For full disclosure, one of the HALA teachers is Matt Yellin, who has been a guest writer and a featured subject of this blog.

Our visit came on Portfolio Day, when each of the students presented several pieces of their work to their classmates and outside adults – parents, community members, and volunteers. These presentations were part of the project based learning that is a key part of the school’s approach. Each student shared a letter about themselves, their learning experiences, and their plans for the future. They then presented their selected work – a packet of math problems, an essay about the development of different religious beliefs in Asian cultures, a work of art, a poem. They explained why they selected a particular project to represent their work over the past semester and responded to questions from both their classmates and adult visitors.

We were struck by the insight even the shyest students had developed about themselves as learners and what they would need to do to meet their academic and future goals. We thought the quality of the work they presented was strong, but it was the informal interactions we had during the day that were, perhaps, the most impressive aspect of our visit. The administrators we met were aware of every aspect of the school and their commitment to excellence was clear from their focus on how the students were doing and what the school could do better. The teachers we spoke to were serious about their dedication to their students and to project based learning. Students were lively, but unfailingly respectful to each other and to adults. They spoke about how they were glad to be there and how they had come to understand what they needed to do to succeed in school and in life.

You can read a terrific blog post about how the HALA students and faculty collaborated with artist Ryan Seslow to create a logo for their school. 

Our visit to HALA was a snapshot of one day in the building of a school, and we know that creating a new school is a complex process, one that is complicated by co-location in a large building which has other new schools, the number of English Language Learners, and the reliance on testing as a measure of a program which seeks to build a real understanding of learning concepts. Still, we came away with a sense of optimism about what can be accomplished by a dedicated team in a small public high school, and look forward to returning to HALA next year to see their progress.

Research Roundup

Scientists at the Kennedy Krieger Institute have found that children with math difficulties may lack an intuitive number sense. (Kennedy Krieger Institute)

Educators have long observed that studying over an extended period is more effective than "cramming" to learn material. Scientists in Japan have described the neurological processes that make this so. (Riken Brain Science Institute)


A new study suggests that when individuals are already engaged in active learning or thinking, they perform better on tests of memory. (Science Daily)


New York has released dismal data about the college readiness of graduating high school students throughout the state. (New York Times)


Scientists are getting closer to understanding why self-testing improves memory, especially when students select the correct answer. (Science Daily)

Dr. Yellin Answers Questions

"What would you do if...?"

From the blog of Brooklyn's Abundant Learning, Dr. Yellin tackles some tough questions on a range of education issues, from Pre-K placement to high-school students who struggle with reading challenges.

Read the full story here.