VALRICO, Florida: Shannon Cancelli vividly recalls her high school graduation, even though it was twenty years and an eternity ago.
Cancelli complained, “Everyone else had their diplomas and I don’t.” Consequently, I developed a strong sense of inadequacy.
The Valrico mother of two failed to meet the requirements for graduation in Florida and instead received a Certificate of Completion.
To have it count toward graduation disturbs me. Cancelli said, “I was hoping to get a passing grade.” I was worried that I wouldn’t do well in the exam. Sorry, but I simply couldn’t pull it off.
Cancelli did manage to earn her diploma, but it took her numerous attempts at the GED and far into the summer before she finally received the official document in the mail. It happened a while after she had graduated.
Thousands of children across the state of Florida still face the same challenges they had twenty years ago. New replacement rules for the SAT and ACT make it harder to make up a failed state test with a similar score on one of those examinations.
Both houses of the legislature passed a measure last week to remove those prerequisites, but Governor Ron DeSantis has yet to sign it into law.
Thousands of members of the high school graduating class of 2023 are anxiously awaiting news on whether or not he will.
According to Superintendent Addison Davis, “It’s not these students’ fault, what happened related to COVID.” But we need to be able to extend them some mercy while they go through this.
Davis oversees public education in Hillsborough County as its superintendent. Almost 2,000 seniors, according to the district, will not be able to graduate if the waiver is not approved.
Even if the waiver is approved, the district anticipates that 1,500 kids would not graduate. It was 240 in the previous year. The school board has promised to assist any graduating high school senior who is struggling to meet graduation requirements.
We want to offer them grace because we know they’ve been through a lot in the previous three years,” Davis added. “But we also want to challenge them intellectually so that they can show ongoing mastery of all of the core competencies within our classrooms,” the authors write.
The Class of 2024 will be subject to tighter standards to substitute SAT or ACT results for state test scores regardless of the outcome of the waiver vote.
Graduation rates “are going to decline next year across the state,” Davis said. That’s because we’ll have a better idea of where we are after next year.
That’s bad news for Cancelli and her kids, Jackson, 13, and Jordanna, 10. Both of these children suffer test anxiety and have been held back a grade. That, though, will remain in Jackson’s mind.
“I was just mad at myself,” Jackson recalled. “It can get in my head at times.”
The sixth grader is particularly anxious about one of the most challenging aspects of school.
According to Jackson, “it depends on how hard the test can be” when it comes to his level of anxiety before a test. I’ll be sitting there, anxious, and my mind will be spinning.
Two years from now, Jackson will take mandatory state exams necessary for graduation. By the time he takes the test again, the standards for substituting a passing SAT or ACT score have tightened.
“I’ve seen it and I’ve gotten like, if I ever get there, I’d definitely be really nervous to take it,” Jackson said. “Because it all depends on it.”
Shannon Cancelli shrugs when she hears that graduation rates will likely fall.
I feel terrible, Cancelli admitted. The speaker sighed, “That’s sad. How tragic.
She wished her children had been taught test-taking strategies rather than what she saw as more important, practical skills.
Cancelli stated, “I don’t understand why they would want to do something.” Those are the kinds of places “where so many kids would fall behind like that.”
