Different High School Diplomas

[Eeyores Butterfly]

When reading the article about the girl who sued to attend graduation after she was caught cheating, I noticed that it kept talking about "lower" and "higher" diplomas.

Is this common? I didn't graduate high school, so I'm not really familiar with how diplomas work, but I thought it was the same diploma no matter what (unless you are special ed and get a certificate of completion). Is that just her high school, or do most do this?

 

[swald91]

Maybe Regents vs. non-regents?? graduating with honors/national Honor Society???

 

[onelilspark]

I did well on our State tests, so I had a special "seal" on my diploma. I'm special

 

[TinkerTracy]

Here in New York we had Regents vs. Non-Regents.

 

[missypie]

In our state, we have the Minimum, Recommended and Distiguished. But the actual diplomas are all the same. The only place it's ever noted is on a student's final high school transcript.

 

[Plantlady]

We had a normal diploma and an honors diploma. Honors indicated that you took more credit hours in your core classes, and fewer electives.

That was 15 years ago though.

 

[bumbershoot]

I googled for an article about the girl, and found that it's called a core 40 diploma. Googled that and got Indiana pages...

The Indiana State Board of Education has adopted new course and credit requirements for earning a high school diploma. These new requirements go into effect for students entering high school in fall 2006. With these changes, students will have the option of earning four diploma types:

* General
* Core 40
* Core 40 with Academic Honors
* Core 40 with Technical Honors

The Indiana General Assembly has made completion of Core 40 a graduation requirement for all students beginning with those entering high school fall 2007. The legislation includes an opt-out provision for parents who determine that their student could benefit more from the General Diploma. The legislation also makes Core 40 a minimum college admission requirement for the state’s public four-year universities beginning in fall 2011.

So she is LUCKY, b/c not having the Core 40 would have kept her out of state colleges, if this were 2011.

If she's in Indiana (all I got were Indiana pages so I assume she's in that state), of course.

 

[chris1gill]

Different regions have different diplomas. Back when I graduated there was just one type of diploma. Now where we live there are different level's of diploma's representing (typically) the course of study taken.

 

[Becky2005]

I think it varies from High School to High School.

We had regular, High Honors & Highest Honors BUT all that was is a little notation on your diploma. I don't recall ever being asked if there were any notations. Just "Did you graduate from High School?" That's it. I know sometimes they now ask GPA but I couldn't have told you then what it was & couldn't tell you now. I did graduate High Honors, so my guess is a B average.

I'm assuming it probably has to do with admissions to college vs. anything else. As far as I know we don't have different diplomas in the town we are in right now either. Notations of things can be on it but other than that, who knows.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Here we have three levels...

Advanced Studies 24 credits, 9 verified
Standard 22 credits, 6 verified
Modified Standard 20 credits

And there are various seals to be added to the diploma depending on what else is accomplished.

I'm still floored though that foreign language is not required for a standard diploma. Yet the advanced studies diploma requires three years of one foreign language or two years of one and two years of another. Yeah, DS opted to take Spanish III next year!

Those verified credits translate into passing the SOLs in the state. It's a real shame that the kids hardly do a thing after those tests!

 

[powellrj]

We live in Indiana and DS just graduated a few weeks ago. His diploma has a sticker that says CORE 40 Academic Honors. I had no idea what he had to do to get it, so I googled it.

CORE 40 WITH ACADEMIC HONORS DIPLOMA:

To be eligible for an Academic Honors Diploma, a student must complete a minimum of 47 total high school credits, with specified credits in the areas listed below:



· Language Arts 8 credits

· Social Studies 6 credits

· Mathematics 8 credits

· Science 6 credits

· World Language 6 or 8 credits

· Fine Arts 2 credits

· Health Education 1 credit

· Basic Physical Education 1 credit

· Earn a grade of “C” or above in courses that count toward the diploma, and

· Have a grade point average of “B” or above, and

· Complete one of the following:

♦ Two Advanced Placement courses and corresponding AP exams

♦ Academic, transferable dual high school/college courses resulting in 6

college credits

♦ One Advanced Placement course and corresponding AP exam and

academic transferable dual high school/college course(s) resulting in 3

college credits

♦ Score 1200 or higher combined SAT math and verbal

♦ Score a 26 composite ACT

The kids with academic honors diplomas had yellow tassels instead of the red and black ones the other kids had.

 

[Inigo]

I googled for an article about the girl, and found that it's called a core 40 diploma. Googled that and got Indiana pages...

The Indiana State Board of Education has adopted new course and credit requirements for earning a high school diploma. These new requirements go into effect for students entering high school in fall 2006. With these changes, students will have the option of earning four diploma types:

* General
* Core 40
* Core 40 with Academic Honors
* Core 40 with Technical Honors

The Indiana General Assembly has made completion of Core 40 a graduation requirement for all students beginning with those entering high school fall 2007. The legislation includes an opt-out provision for parents who determine that their student could benefit more from the General Diploma. The legislation also makes Core 40 a minimum college admission requirement for the state’s public four-year universities beginning in fall 2011.


So she is LUCKY, b/c not having the Core 40 would have kept her out of state colleges, if this were 2011.

If she's in Indiana (all I got were Indiana pages so I assume she's in that state), of course.

This is exactly right. The class of 2011 is the last class that can graduate with a General Diploma. After that, all diplomas will either be Core 40, or just a certificate of completion (aka non-graduate).

All the IN diplomas require a minimum of 40 credits to graduate.