In Duvall, Washington, parents are objecting to a "senior project" graduation requirement for high school seniors that requires a report, an oral presentation, and a "product" of some sort. Sounds reasonable enough to us, especially since everybody knows that big chunks of senior year are pretty much wasted. But a group of parents - perhaps the same parents who once "wore black armbands to graduation after three seniors were barred from the ceremonies for plagiarizing parts of their papers" - have sued the local district to have the requirement removed. Reports the Wall Street Journal, "Sally Coomer, a mother of seven, maintains that some teachers and administrators seemed more focused on maintaining their power to set and enforce standards than they were on inspiring students to excel. 'In my entire life, I have never seen such bizarre, power-trip behavior as I have with this whole senior-project thing,' she says." After parents picketed, the school board cravenly caved, reducing both the workload and the project's impact on final grades, with predictable results: "[S]tudents began to take the project less seriously: 43 percent of the graduating class of 2004 received Fs on their papers, up from 9 percent for the class of 2003, the year before the changes." But Coomer and others aren't satisfied. What's the lesson for the kids? If at first you don't succeed, hire a lawyer and sue! The parents of Duvall must be busting with pride. This sequence does not bode well, by the way, for administration efforts to expand NCLB testing requirements to high school.
"When high schools try getting tough, parents fight back," by Robert Tomsho, Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2005 (subscription required)