My son is graduating high school this year. I am very happy about this, as he is not one of those students who scores high in homework or test. It took him until his senior year of high school to realize school is not just about socializing. So, he buckled down, did his work and has shown his educational learning capabilities. Don’t get me wrong; he has sporadically done this in the past, but not with this much vigor and ambition. He even told one of his friends to stop talking to him in class so he could concentrate on what the instructor was saying.

Now with a month left or as he points out, “5 ½ weeks” of school, he is getting a bit depressed and frustrated. You see, his graduation ceremony is coming up and even though he has all the credits he needs, has passed all 13 years of education, and he has passed the State requirement of the high school exit exam; the school has one more hoop for him to jump through. Oh, he will receive his diploma, but he may not participate in the ceremony of graduation unless he jumps through this hoop.

What is this hoop? It is called ESLR or Expected Schoolwide Learning Result.

What is ESLR? It’s a bribe to the students so the school can receive accreditation as a qualified teaching institute and receive government funds.

What the students have to do is, sometime in his 4 years of high school, complete 20 hours of community service and in his senior year, he has to write seven essays on how he has learned through this school and classes how to be a caring, collaborative, communicative, creative, complex thinking, healthy, and self-directed student. Each category requires its own essay and he must attach the assignment he completed, sometime in the four years of high school, which demonstrates these characteristics. If this is not completed, he will not be allowed to walk the path of a graduate in his high school graduation ceremony.

To me, the graduation ceremony doesn’t just publicly acknowledge the student’s achievement of education requirements, but is also a ceremony or celebration of the student becoming an adult: A rite of passage.

Now these essays and community service only allow the student to participate in the graduation ceremony. They still receive their diplomas if they don’t do them, just not publicly.

I just don’t get it… Why are the students being held responsible to prove schools have met requirements? Why not have the teachers write the essays explaining their curriculum and how it will fulfill the requirements accompanied with an assignment example. Or better yet, the administrators, let them show why they deserve the money, not the students.

I just think this is wrong and needed to voice it.

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References:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/hs/documents/ahglossary.pdf
Expected Schoolwide Learning Result (ESLR). An interdisciplinary statement based on standards that embodies the school vision, is integral to the Focus on Learning process, and is usually adopted at the site level.

Focus on Learning. An ongoing school improvement process that assists a school in looking in depth at what currently exists and what needs to be improved relative to student learning and the school’s program to enable the school to earn voluntary accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). This process includes an analysis of standards attainment, followed by the development of ESLRs to help all students meet standards. The Focus on Learning Joint California Department of Education (CDE)/WASC process promotes collaboration between CDE, through its Single School Plan for Pupil Achievement (Education Code Section 64001[d]), and WASC.