For years I have worked with young people during one of the most important transitions of their lives. After 12 years of compulsory schooling, they are approaching the edge of the nest and many feel unprepared, realizing they are about to lose the comfort of seeing their friends every day, the support of trusted adults outside of school. their families and the predictability of a daily school. schedule. Some can't wait to leave, some feel homesick, and some feel paralyzed, unable to make plans about what they want to do next.
Of all the demands placed on seniors, meeting graduation requirements is a serious source of stress. Each year, some students do not meet these expectations and, as a result, are told that they have not earned a high school diploma and cannot walk on stage with their peers.
There is anger, disappointment and tears that they have been denied this degree, but what does it mean to earn a diploma and what does the diploma itself represent? Having taught and worked with high school seniors for more than half of my career, these questions are always present, rarely asked, and, for me, often remain unanswered.
Today, as our children leave high school and enter the so-called “real world,” they face a world that is changing at an unprecedented pace. The uniquely competitive industrial model of American education has persisted for more than a century, but at times it seems increasingly outdated and even irrelevant. Since we have no idea what the world they will enter will be like in just a few years, how should we spend our time preparing students for it? If a diploma means we have prepared them, shouldn't we ask students what they want to be prepared for?
What happens when students do not receive a diploma?
Culturally, graduation is a right of passage and a source of immense pride. For many families, a high school diploma is a great achievement that not everyone has been able to achieve. It is a time to celebrate a young person's transition to adulthood and all the care and support they have been given during their 12 years of formal education.
When I asked my students what a diploma means to them and if it is important, the idea of “making it” is what they mentioned most. They look forward to a moment of recognition for their hard work and everything they have overcome, including a school system that has failed them. One young woman I spoke with felt like one of “the lucky ones” because many young people in her community do not live to see graduation day.
In fact, I have attended more than one graduation ceremony where a family member walked in place of their loved one who passed away before they could graduate. Even in their physical absence, we create a moment for them because of how important this recognition is.
In our current educational landscape, receiving a traditional high school diploma or passing the General Educational Development exam is necessary to access most postsecondary education options, including vocational schools and community colleges. As such, the decision to deny a diploma has a tremendous impact on a student's current and future career opportunities.
A recent graduate with whom I am still close told me that students who do not graduate not only miss out on opportunities, but also face social stigma, saying that our society “takes away from those who don't have (a diploma). “Many of my students who are already successfully applying their extensive knowledge and skills in classroom assignments and extracurricular activities are told that because they cannot demonstrate mastery of academic content across a specific set of conditions, they have failed. .
I worry about them, not only in terms of their career prospects, but also the impact it will have on them to be told they have failed. How will it shape their self-image and how their loved ones see them? Will it diminish or eclipse the countless other achievements they have achieved?
How the value of a diploma has changed
In theory, a diploma indicates that you have learned a wide variety of information and skills in many disciplines and that you are in some way prepared for life and work after compulsory schooling. Graduation requirements, including the number of credits, types of assessments, and graduation pathways, They vary widely in the 50 states of the United States.
Louisiana, where I teach, is one of the eight states in the country that requires a passing score on standardized tests to receive a diploma. Educators, parents, and students have long protested against standardized testing because of its racist origins. Passing these exams is especially difficult for our students who are recent immigrants and still learning English. At the moment, only 41% of these students graduatelargely because they have not been able to pass these standardized tests.
This high degree of variability and lack of agreement about what students should learn to be considered educated is complicated and possibly cruel, to the point that many of my students are taking matters into their own hands to determine their future. One of my superiors, a bright and ambitious young woman who offers hairdressing, aesthetics and social media management services, is already making significantly more money some months than I am. Another recent graduate, a talented and multidisciplinary artist, was recently featured in one of the city's most prominent art spaces and is currently publishing his first zine.
Other students I have taught, who have been academically successful all their lives and graduated with honors, are struggling to find work, and many are taking low-paying jobs as they try to decide their next step. Still, most of my students have no idea what they want to do or what path would be most financially viable for them. Just as teachers are navigating all the changes happening in education, so are students. Admittedly, it is difficult for me to advise you when the value of a diploma and the future of society keep changing before I have time to adapt.
Why our approach must change
I'm tired of practicing approaches to multiple-choice questions and analyzing unnecessarily confusing writing prompts at the expense of project-based assignments relevant to my students' daily lives or in-depth discussions of texts that provide windows and mirrors Validate and question your experiences. If we want a different world, we must educate differently. If we want students to be prepared to build that world, we must reevaluate what we require them to do while they are in school.
If we accept a diversity of career possibilities and the fact that we don't know what the future holds, how can a diploma reflect that? What skills do we really want all of our young people to enter the world with and how can educators help build this world? These questions are at the forefront of my mind, questions I wish more of us educators could spend time discussing and planning.
Unfortunately, as long as rigid graduation requirements exist, teachers' most precious resources (time and energy) will be largely devoted to those requirements rather than preparing our students as best we can for life after graduation. Until we change what a high school diploma requires, we will not be able to significantly change how students value what a high school education offers.
