Graduation (or the lack thereof)

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by Irasema Del Castillo

This year at Timpanogos there are fewer students prepared to graduate than any other year. Some causes may include tough requirements for graduating, difficulty in earning credit back, or the lack of motivation to graduate.

Overall, Alpine School District has an 81 percent graduating rate. Utah ranks 14^th in the country in graduation rank, with an overall graduation rate of 77 percent. Utah’s Davis School District is one of the top 100 school districts for graduation.

The Washington Times says, “Utah is not an example of educational failure at all. It even has the big-city district with the country’s top graduation rate — Jordan District, with 88 percent of its students graduating.”

This is all good and well, but how is Timpanogos High School doing in their graduation rate?

The graduating class of 2008 has 207 out of 394 students not prepared to graduate or at least not yet eligible to walk with their class.

Mr. Browning, vice principal, says, “Half of the class of 2008 isn’t prepared to graduate; they aren’t on track with their credits. This doesn’t mean that they can’t or won’t graduate with their class, it just means they need to catch up on the credits they need.”

Luckily, Timpanogos has achieved a pretty constant 88 percent graduation rate the last couple of years.

Students have different situations in life, and it may be harder for some to graduate than others. Students circumstances include illnesses, emotional distress, and laziness.

Bree Swenson, junior, says “I know that in my case, I’m having trouble since I got sick. Thankfully I’m a junior, so I have time to make it up, but I’ll have to do packets all summer. In other cases it’s just laziness. They won’t do the work they need to, so they are stuck at East Shore. But I also think they have too many requirements. I know I want to become a drama teacher, and want to take classes specific to that but I can’t because of all the required classes we have to take.”

East Shore is one option to consider in order to regain credit, but it gets expensive. So for those who have lots of credit to make up it means lots of money and time. One can go to East Shore part time, pay a flat fee, and do as many packets as desired, but that also gets students behind because they have four extra class periods they need to keep up on. Packets are hard to accomplish sometimes because one doesn’t have a teacher constantly reminding them that this assignment is due on this day. It requires more responsibility from the student. Two packets are required to receive one term of credit, so packets quickly add up.

Spencer Chapman, senior, says, “It’s the kid’s fault most of the time. They don’t want to put in the time or the work, and end up failing school.”

The requirements for students to graduate have increased over the last few years, and now the state has added new requirements that will begin in the next few years. The many requirements to graduate may be slowing down students. The incoming sophomores will have to have 28 credits to graduate, adding more responsibility to passing all classes. Taking seminary can also slow kids down because it means they have to have a full schedule every year without any fails or they are automatically behind.

The District has good reasons for the many graduation requirements: many wouldn’t choose math, science or history on their own. They also add them for those who don’t know what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Since some students won’t take “harder” classes of their own free will, one must make them take it so they can experience it and decide if it is something they like or dislike. In many cases, students discover what they want to do as a career because of required high school classes.

People can regain their credit by going to East Shore and doing packets, taking classes online, BYU independent study program, or summer school. It takes work to regain credit, but it can be achieved.

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