Should be "Court rules that school . . ."
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said. Then why in the Hell didn't she study for it?
http://www.gomemphis.com/newca/060200/2grads.htm
22 minus TCAP to walk with grads
Court defies board rule for Kirby students
By Nikki Boertman
Seven Kirby High students got a temporary restraining order Thursday against Memphis City Schools, which had prohibited them from graduation ceremonies. Latia Garner (left), Patricia Dowden, Terance Curtis and his grandmother Evelyn Cole celebrate.
By Aimee Edmondson
The Commercial Appeal
Twenty-two Kirby High School students who haven't passed the competency test required of all Tennessee graduates have been granted permission by Shelby County Chancery Court to participate in commencement anyway.
Seven of the students and their parents sought and received a temporary restraining order Thursday against Memphis City Schools, which had prohibited them from participating in Saturday's graduation.
Memphis school board attorney Ernest Kelley said he may file an appeal today.
Chancellor Walter L. Evans agreed that although the students haven't passed the eighth-grade level test, city school officials hadn't properly warned them that Kirby's policy changed when it became a city school in the Hickory Hill annexation.
Evans's order applies only to Kirby because it is the only city school under Shelby County Schools jurisdiction last year.
Shelby County allows its seniors who have not passed the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program test to participate in graduation ceremonies and receive a certificate of completion rather than a diploma.
But rather than walking across a stage individually, those students stand as a group to be recognized.
Kirby's principal James Boyd testified that teachers and counselors told the seniors about the difference between the city and county rules at an assembly in spring 1999, and again at registration last fall.
He said they also received copies of the new rules at that time.
The students said they don't remember getting that information. The parents also said they did not any get notification of the change.
Two students testified during the daylong hearing that they don't expect a diploma at graduation.
They said they'll retake the competency test when it is offered again. But that won't be until next week and that is after graduation.
One is Terance Curtis, a 17-year-old A student.
"I feel like I have earned this opportunity to participate with my fellow classmates," he said.
He scored a 66 on the math portion of the test, shy of the required 70. He said he's already been accepted and plans to attend Ohio State University and major in business.
"We aren't asking for a diploma, just to participate," said student Remika Rolfe, 17, during testimony.
"We are not dropouts. We are not degenerates. We do want to attend college and make something of ourselves," she said.
Of Kirby's 340 seniors, 22 haven't passed the TCAP. Evans said his order applies only to those students.
The Memphis school board in 1996 began prohibiting students who hadn't completed all graduation requirements from participating in commencement.
The board refused to budge when Kirby students and parents appealed to them last month to let those students march.
Interim Supt. Johnnie B. Watson testified that he recommended to the board that the rule not be changed or even bent to include those Kirby students in graduation.
"The impact of Kirby's special treatment would be an administrative nightmare," Watson said. "We would send a message of inequity to allow the Kirby students to participate."
Since the state increased the competency test from the sixth- to the eighth-grade level three years ago, about 10 percent of Memphis seniors haven't passed one or both parts of the TCAP competency test by graduation.
Last year 586 seniors out of a Memphis graduating class of 5,033 hadn't passed the math portion by the end of the 12th grade. On the language section 502 students had not done so.
Students get 11 chances to pass the 220-question exam measuring math and language skills, which is first administered in the ninth grade. Students must score 70 percent on both.
Board members have said allowing students who didn't pass to go through the graduation ceremony is unfair to students who did.
Some board members have said when the board allowed students who hadn't met all requirements to participate, many wouldn't come back in the summer and actually finish.
The school board wants students who haven't passed the TCAP by graduation to undergo tutoring in the summer and take the test again. Then they can participate in a citywide summer graduation in August.
Yet Robert Friedman, attorney for the parents and students, said the summer ceremony is no substitute for walking with their own class members at their own graduation.
Though the school board was talking of an appeal, a jubilant Rolfe left the courtroom Thursday night, promising to meet her friends at Kirby at 8 a.m. today ( to pick up her cap and gown.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said.
------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited June 02, 2000).]
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said. Then why in the Hell didn't she study for it?
http://www.gomemphis.com/newca/060200/2grads.htm
22 minus TCAP to walk with grads
Court defies board rule for Kirby students
By Nikki Boertman
Seven Kirby High students got a temporary restraining order Thursday against Memphis City Schools, which had prohibited them from graduation ceremonies. Latia Garner (left), Patricia Dowden, Terance Curtis and his grandmother Evelyn Cole celebrate.
By Aimee Edmondson
The Commercial Appeal
Twenty-two Kirby High School students who haven't passed the competency test required of all Tennessee graduates have been granted permission by Shelby County Chancery Court to participate in commencement anyway.
Seven of the students and their parents sought and received a temporary restraining order Thursday against Memphis City Schools, which had prohibited them from participating in Saturday's graduation.
Memphis school board attorney Ernest Kelley said he may file an appeal today.
Chancellor Walter L. Evans agreed that although the students haven't passed the eighth-grade level test, city school officials hadn't properly warned them that Kirby's policy changed when it became a city school in the Hickory Hill annexation.
Evans's order applies only to Kirby because it is the only city school under Shelby County Schools jurisdiction last year.
Shelby County allows its seniors who have not passed the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program test to participate in graduation ceremonies and receive a certificate of completion rather than a diploma.
But rather than walking across a stage individually, those students stand as a group to be recognized.
Kirby's principal James Boyd testified that teachers and counselors told the seniors about the difference between the city and county rules at an assembly in spring 1999, and again at registration last fall.
He said they also received copies of the new rules at that time.
The students said they don't remember getting that information. The parents also said they did not any get notification of the change.
Two students testified during the daylong hearing that they don't expect a diploma at graduation.
They said they'll retake the competency test when it is offered again. But that won't be until next week and that is after graduation.
One is Terance Curtis, a 17-year-old A student.
"I feel like I have earned this opportunity to participate with my fellow classmates," he said.
He scored a 66 on the math portion of the test, shy of the required 70. He said he's already been accepted and plans to attend Ohio State University and major in business.
"We aren't asking for a diploma, just to participate," said student Remika Rolfe, 17, during testimony.
"We are not dropouts. We are not degenerates. We do want to attend college and make something of ourselves," she said.
Of Kirby's 340 seniors, 22 haven't passed the TCAP. Evans said his order applies only to those students.
The Memphis school board in 1996 began prohibiting students who hadn't completed all graduation requirements from participating in commencement.
The board refused to budge when Kirby students and parents appealed to them last month to let those students march.
Interim Supt. Johnnie B. Watson testified that he recommended to the board that the rule not be changed or even bent to include those Kirby students in graduation.
"The impact of Kirby's special treatment would be an administrative nightmare," Watson said. "We would send a message of inequity to allow the Kirby students to participate."
Since the state increased the competency test from the sixth- to the eighth-grade level three years ago, about 10 percent of Memphis seniors haven't passed one or both parts of the TCAP competency test by graduation.
Last year 586 seniors out of a Memphis graduating class of 5,033 hadn't passed the math portion by the end of the 12th grade. On the language section 502 students had not done so.
Students get 11 chances to pass the 220-question exam measuring math and language skills, which is first administered in the ninth grade. Students must score 70 percent on both.
Board members have said allowing students who didn't pass to go through the graduation ceremony is unfair to students who did.
Some board members have said when the board allowed students who hadn't met all requirements to participate, many wouldn't come back in the summer and actually finish.
The school board wants students who haven't passed the TCAP by graduation to undergo tutoring in the summer and take the test again. Then they can participate in a citywide summer graduation in August.
Yet Robert Friedman, attorney for the parents and students, said the summer ceremony is no substitute for walking with their own class members at their own graduation.
Though the school board was talking of an appeal, a jubilant Rolfe left the courtroom Thursday night, promising to meet her friends at Kirby at 8 a.m. today ( to pick up her cap and gown.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said.
------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited June 02, 2000).]
(glad there is an edit feature)]
