D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has ruled that students at School Without Walls won’t have to take a senior project course to graduate this school year, reversing a principal’s decision that provoked parental complaints over scheduling problems.
The school’s principal, Richard Trogisch, is still trying to get as many students as possible to fit the class into their schedules, however.
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The decision not to make the class a graduation requirement came after a handful of vocal parents complained that requiring the class would interfere with their children’s course schedules.
Other parents, though, have backed Trogisch’s efforts to try to make the course mandatory years before the No Child Left Behind Act will require it nationwide.
Considerably more individualized than other high school courses, the senior project allows pupils to prepare a research paper, project, portfolio and presentation based on a topic of their choice.
Daniela Carozza, the president of the school’s parents group, the Home School Association, said tacking on the senior project boils down to the principal trying to challenge the students academically.
“It’s him saying, ‘Let’s level the playing field,’ ” she told The Examiner. “These students are competing with jurisdictions where they are compliant with the No Child Left Behind requirement on this.”
Currently, about 420 students are enrolled in the school. Of those, 84 are seniors set to graduate in the spring.
