State officials mull opening up diploma options for special needs students

LI parents pushed NYSED to consider local, non-Regents diplomas

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After being pressured by a group of about 25 Long Island parents, state education officials are signaling their willingness to expand the options available to students who are not able to earn a Regents diploma, but who have otherwise demonstrated their academic competence.

The parents’ concerns centered around the Career Development Occupational Studies, or CDOS “Commencement Credential.” Many students who receive a CDOS find that employers have never heard of it, which makes it almost impossible to obtain basic retail or manual labor employment.

“When we voted to put CDOS in,” Roger Tilles, Long Island’s board of Regents representative said, “it was supposed to take the place of a diploma, but the word didn’t get out to employers, schools,[or] the military.”

Nancy Wallmuller, an Oceanside mother, says that every time her son Zachary, who has been unable to find work despite graduating with a CDOS, applies for a job, he runs into the same problem. When he tells them about his graduation credential, his interviewers always say “I’m sorry, we’ve never heard of it.”

Zachary, who has an audio processing disorder akin to dyslexia for speech rather than print, passed three out of four Regents exams. The English Language Arts test features a number of listening portions, in which long passages are read aloud. “He took it 4 times,” Wallmuller said, “and failed it miserably,” with scores as low as seven out of a possible 100.

Oceansider Betty Pilnik’s son Brandon, a super-senior at Oceanside High School, faces similar difficulties. He passed the math regents, but not the ELA. She said Brandon does fine with his coursework, averaging 88’s through 95’s. Brandon has a language processing issue, which makes passing the ELA a significant challenge, though he will attempt it again this coming year.

Pilnik was among those who traveled to Albany on July 17 to lobby education officials, and the effort appears to have paid off. In response to, or shortly after the advocacy trip, a number of officials commented that the issue would be discussed.

Chalkbeat, an education news non-profit reported that MaryEllen Elia, the state commissioner of education, asked in conversation with the Board of Regents, “I think what we need to look at is the opportunity of saying … ‘Can the completion of the CDOS sequence, be an appropriate end to receiving a local diploma?’”

Regents chancellor Betty Rosa told the group, the day of the trip, “Tomorrow, we are absolutely starting discussion of the diploma issue,” according to Newsday.

Tilles told the Herald that he and Chancellor Rosa are the biggest proponents of a change that would, in his words, “beef up” the CDOS, potentially by rewarding a local diploma, rather than a certificate, to students who complete CDOS requirements. Local diplomas haven’t been the norm “since at least 2005” which is when Tilles began his role as a Regents board member. He said that the original intent of the Regents tests were to enable policy officials to compare schools.

Since then, the Education Department has been taking steps to expand diploma options for students. Last year, they created the superintendent’s waiver, which allows local superintendents to award local diplomas to students who cannot obtain regents diplomas, but who demonstrate their competency in other ways, by sticking to individualized education plans designed in conjunction with parents, teachers, and administrators. Tilles says that over 800 students received local diplomas last school year under this new program.

In responding to concerns that some have expressed about lowering standards, and “watering down” the value of a diploma, Tilles says it would only be a problem, “if the CDOS didn’t require demonstrating a certain level of competency.”

But he said he had a more pressing concern. “I want to make sure districts don’t track kids into the CDOS who should be pushed into attempting the regents diploma.”

It will take more than discussion to move forward with the reform that some parents are asking for. Tilles says it will require an action by the Regents. He expects the issue to be put on the agenda by September or October, and that if it does not meet too much opposition he hopes that it will be passed in time to benefit students graduating in 2018.