Is High School Equivalency Good Enough To Graduate?

Educators in two Marion County districts are pushing lawmakers to let schools count as graduates certain students now labeled as dropouts. But some experts say that move would lower the bar for Indiana students.

Should lawmakers approve the measure, graduation counts in several districts would include students who pass a high school equivalency exam and take steps toward career training.

The House education committee Wednesday is expected to discuss the proposal — a three-year pilot spanning four districts, including Washington and Warren Township schools. The program would add a new graduation option for qualifying students and no longer hold schools accountable for those students’ failure to earn a traditional diploma.

“If that’s a path that’s seen as legitimate, then there may be less incentive to really support students so they are graduating and getting a diploma,” said Elaine Allensworth, director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

But Pastore said this program is meant to be an intervention, not a pathway. She sees this as a way to keep students from dropping out, even if they are unlikely to earn a traditional diploma. And she pointed to a recent Chalkbeat investigation that raised concerns over the number of students marked as “home-schoolers,” which experts say could be disguising students who are dropping out.

As for how students have been allowed to fall this far behind, administrators in both Washington and Warren Township pointed to some factors beyond schools’ control, such as homelessness, sickness, and moving from school to school. This year 45 students at Warren Central High School would have qualified for the program, had the pilot been in place. Of those, eight transferred to the school this year.

“At the end of the day, it is still going to be the student and their family that is struggling because of that breakdown, whether you want to pin it on high schools or someone else,” Pastore said. “I think if we know these students are there, we know we can give them this service and we know we can change their lives, I think that’s the real failure, to not do.”

The Indiana Department of Education during recent testimony applauded the schools for “innovating,” but asked lawmakers not to tie high school equivalency to schools’ graduation rates. John Keller, an education department representative, pointed out that high school equivalency exams are not counted in the federal graduation rate. He also suggested capping the number of eligible students at 5% of the senior class, which lawmakers later added.

Warren Township Superintendent Timothy Hanson said he would be interested in the program whether or not it impacted the graduation rate. But he argued that schools should receive some benefit for putting resources into the program. There is no state money tied to the pilot, meaning schools and adult education programs would need to allocate money from their own budgets or secure third-party funding to cover costs.

Lawmakers showed early support for the pilot program. The measure passed unanimously through the Senate earlier this month.

“When it was presented to me, I Ioved the program as a safety net for really those who have no chance at graduating,” said bill author Sen. Jeff Raatz, a Republican who chairs the Senate education committee.