Policies, the report notes, vary greatly across the country: some states hold all students to the same graduation standards but allow students to demonstrate their mastery of standards in different ways. Other states, despite the potential for students with disabilities to achieve, lower the standards or lessen the coursework needed for students with disabilities to receive a diploma, resulting in a credential that does not signify they are ready for life after high school. Still other states award all students the same diploma, but let students employ multiple pathways to earn a diploma–and those pathways may vary greatly in rigor.
And while these different options may at first seem like a convenience to students with disabilities, offering multiple graduation options hurts students’ chances at college- and career-success.
“Many states currently offer alternative types of diplomas, such as IEP or special education diplomas, skills certificates, modified diplomas and others for students with disabilities,” said David R. Johnson, director of the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota. “While the intent of granting an alternative diploma is to provide students with access to future educational and work opportunities, research suggests that these diplomas may actually limit students in achieving these goals due to a lack of understanding and acceptance of alternative diplomas by post-secondary programs and employers.”
For example, the report states that, based on current research findings from 2008-2009, “post-secondary institutions and the business community find the alternative diplomas confusing and of questionable value. Employers are most unsure of certificates of completion, attendance, or achievement and are least likely to hire persons with these certificates. Similarly, post-secondary institutions place little value on alternative exit certificates and, in general, treat students who earn these alternative certificates as though they had dropped out of school.”
The lack of credibility in these graduation requirements shows. As compared to their peers without disabilities, student with disabilities have lower rates of enrollment in post-secondary education and lower rates of post-secondary completion, says the report.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics data also “consistently shows that the employment rate of individuals with disabilities is half that of individuals without disabilities. Gaps in earning also have increased over time for those who earn post-secondary degrees compared to those with high school diplomas.”
What’s the problem?
According to the report, finding ways to accommodate students with disabilities—ranging from dyslexia to autism—is a significant challenge to educators, districts, and states, because special education educators “traditionally have differed in their views of essential competencies and outcomes for post-secondary pathways.”
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that students ages 16 and older have Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) that include “appropriate, measurable post-secondary education goals.” However, states set the expectations for what is requires for students with disabilities to graduate with a standards diploma through policies on course requirements, diploma options, and the use of exit or end-of-course exams.
These policies vary by state, however, and in most states, students with disabilities are able to take advantage of allowances to obtain a standard diploma. Yet, this array of choices could be hurting students.
(Next page: Diplomas at risk and recommendations)
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