Resolution 2008-04
Regarding High School graduation Requirements

WHEREAS, in Maryland, high school students in the class of 2009 and beyond must pass high school assessment tests in English, Biology, American Government, and Algebra in order to receive their diplomas; and

WHEREAS, if students do not pass all of these tests, they can still receive their diplomas by achieving a composite score of 1602 on these tests; and

WHEREAS, as a third alternative to these tests, in 2008, the Maryland State Board of Education created the Bridge Plan for Academic Validation, which allows students who have failed one or more assessments at least twice to satisfactorily complete specific projects in the needed subjects; and

WHEREAS, due to the diligence of the Division of Special Education and Early Intervention, Maryland State Department of Education, many blind and visually impaired students have been provided with appropriate accommodations, such as Braille and large print, and appropriate steps were taken to substitute visually-based questions with suitable literary text equivalents; and

WHEREAS, under these favorable and reasonable conditions, these students have passed these tests, thus demonstrating true mastery of the required subject matter; and

WHEREAS, blind and visually impaired students having academic difficulties must receive appropriate accommodations and have the same access to the Bridge Plan for Academic Validation as their sighted peers, and appropriate measures must be taken to remove visual biases from the required projects: Now, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland in convention assembled this sixteenth day of November, 2008, in the City of Ocean City, Maryland, that this organization commend the Division of Special Education and Early Intervention, Maryland State Department of Education, for its diligence in providing proper accommodations for high school assessment testing to blind and visually impaired students; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization strongly urge the Maryland State Department of Education to take all necessary steps to ensure full access by blind and visually impaired students to the Bridge Plan for Academic Validation.

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