DC Board of Ed Raised Diploma Requirements,

Ignoring Wilson High School’sEvidence of Its Harms

by Erich Martel

Retired DCPS high school teacher

(1969-2011: Cardozo HS, 1969–1985; Wilson HS, 1985–2010; Phelps ACE HS, 2010–2011)

June 18, 2017

In June 2006, I informed DCPS Superintendent Janey and the media that over 200 of the 420 Wilson HS seniors and potential graduates lacked one or more graduation requirement. An audit by the DC Inspector General (IG) in April 2007 is here: In 2002, a similar report led to an independent review of all 16 DCPS high schools' records management. Therecords review & links to media articles & my account of both in the American Educator (AFT) are here:

In March 2007, after several months of deliberation, the DC Board of Education increased high school graduation or diploma requirements from 23.5 to 24.0 credits or Carnegie unitsto go into effect for 2011 graduates; math and sciencewent from 3 to 4 credits(A year-long high school course is one credit or Carnegie unit). The Board did not request a report on how well DCPS students were completing the existing math and science courses, the math standards it had recently adopted math standards or take any indicators of deficient student learning and proficiency into consideration.

Had the Board done so, it would have learned what I discovered in examining Wilson HS's graduation and supporting course completion records (which I reported to the Board in December 2006). In my report (see tables, below), WHS seniors were divided into two groups: "graduates" who had passed all 23.5 credit requirements and "non-graduates" (seniors lacking a requirement in any subject area).The results showed thatacademically strong students were already taking 4 or more math and science credits on their own, while weak students struggledwith large numbers unable to complete the existing 3 math and science credits. Adding an additional requirement would have no effect on academically strong students, but would create more obstacles for academically weak ones. This was an example of common sense logic backed by empirical school data; ignoring it was a dereliction of responsibility.

I.Comparative Mathematics Performance

In mathematics: the differences were stark and dramatic (see tables)

-graduates: 78% had passed 4 or more math creditseven though only 3 were required;

-non-graduates: 36% had not passed the required3 credits in math.

-graduates:14 had 1 or 2 Fs in math courses; none had 3 or more Fs

-non-graduates: 71 had 1 or 2 Fs in math courses; 17 had 3 or more Fs

Table 1.Wilson H.S. Class of 2006 (DCPS): Comparative Total Math Credits Earned & Total Number of F's Received in All Math Courses, by Graduates vs. non-Graduates

Number of Students That Earned Different Math Credit Totals / Number of Students by Number of F's
Grads vs non-Grads / <3.0 credits / 3.0 to 3.5 credits / 4.0 credits / >4.0 credits / 1 or 2 F's / >2 F's
166 Grads / 0 / 37 (22%) / 69 (42%) / 60 (36%) / 14 / 0
166 non-Grads / 60 (36%) / 87 (52%) / 15 ( 9%) / 4 ( 2%) / 71 / 17

Note: 48 Non-grads listed Math Foundations I &/or II, each worth 0.5 credit. 26 needed both for 3 math credits.

They are semesterized pre-Algebra courses.

Table 2. Wilson H.S. Class of 2006: Graduates vs. non-Graduates, Comparative Numbers of F's Earned in Math Courses

Course / Grads vs non-Grads / Total Number of F's
Math Foundations, I & II / Grads / ?
non-Grads / 13
Algebra I / Grads / 2
non-Grads / 38
Geometry / Grads / 3
non-Grads / 38
Algebra II/ Trigonometry / Grads / 7
non-Grads / 41
Other Math Courses / Grads / ?
non-Grads / 34
Total F's / 166 Grads / 12
Total F's / 166 non-Grads / 164

II. Comparative Science Performance

Table 3. Wilson HS (DCPS) Class of 2006: Graduates vs. non-Graduates, Number of Science Credits Earned

Number of science credits earned
<3.0 / 3.0-3.5 / 4.0 / >4.0
Grads / 0 / 104 / 47 / 15
non-Grads / 51 / 94 / 17 / 4

Table 4. Wilson HS Class of 2006: Graduates vs. Non-graduates, Number of Students by Number of F's in Science Courses

Number of Students by Number of F's
Number of F's / 1 or 2 F's / >2 F's
Grads / 14 / 0
non-Grads / 66 / 7

Table 5. Wilson High School (DCPS) Class of 2006: Graduates vs. non-Graduates: Failures in Science, by science course

Biology / Chemistry / Physics / Environ-mental Science / Zoology / Anatomy-Physiology / Botany / Total F's
Grads / 0 / 10 / 1 / 0 / 4 / 0 / 0 / 15
non-Grads / 14 / 43 / 4 / 8 / 32 / 9 / 17 / 127

III.What were the results of the Wilson High School 2006–2007 Inspector General audit?

I reported that 203 of the 420 enrolled seniors were missing graduation requirements. There were 420 names listed on the June 2006 graduation program.

Unknown to me or Wilson High School teachers at the time, the official list of graduates that the principal sent to the chancellor contained 311 names. Most parents and teachers are unaware of the fact that the graduation program is not the official list. Technically, an argument could be made that it is, because during the ceremony when the principal or designee announces that the "candidates for graduation that are present here, having fulfilled the requirements of the DCBOE for the high school diploma, are now graduates" (or equivalent statement), the list of names in the program is the only formal list witnessed by the public.

420Number of names in the graduation program and on senior roster

-109Number of seniors not eligible to graduate per the principal

311Number or names on the official list of graduates sent to the superintendent

203Number of names I reported as apparently lacking one or more graduation requirements

-109Number of seniors not eligible to graduate per the principal (all but 2 or 3 were on my list)

94Number of seniors on my list of ineligible graduates who were not removed by the principal

The DC Inspector General Audit and Conclusions

311 Number of names on the official list of graduates

- 218 Number of students whose eligibility was not challenged

93 Number of seniors whose records were audited by the DC Inspector General

Conclusion of the Inspector General

17Number of graduates who did not have, as alleged, all graduation requirements(this was the number that the media reported as improper graduates)

18Number of students whose names were listed on the official report that were still enrolled inWilson High School in 2006-07

(i.e. the following school year; that fact had not been reported to the superintendent)

12Number of students whose transcripts were missing one or more requirements. When the Inspector General’s auditors interviewed WHS counselors, documentation, such as previous school transcripts, was found that showed that students had met all requirements

46I had cited a number of credit awarding practices that were known to be improper, some of which required overriding database defaults. After consulting with DCPS officials, the IG concluded that the DCPS central office had not sent clarifying directives to principals:

1.0 Carnegie unit (credit) for a course listed as a half credit (0.5 CU)

Credit for taking courses out of sequence or simultaneously, e.g.:

-English 2 before English1 (the sequence is defined in the DCMR)

-Spanish 2 taken before Spanish 1 or simultaneously

-Fulfilling the 2 Carnegie unit foreign language requirement with two different languages intro courses, e.g. French 1 and Spanish 1.

IV.Significance: A Failure of Due Diligence

During most of my 25 years at Wilson HS, in my world history, U.S. history and AP U.S. History classes, I required students to write a research paper on a historical topic. An important part of the process was teaching the importance of primary and secondary sources and properly documenting and annotating them, etc. It was, therefore, deeply disturbing to see our elected Board of Education make policies andrefuse to be informed by extensive student performance data under its control. In choosing to make policy without doing basic due diligence, it putthe DC high school diploma out of reach for some struggling students.