Performance Based Graduation Requirements (PBGRs)

The State of Rhode Island has adopted a new system to award high school diplomas which began with the Class of 2008. In addition to earning passing grades, students must also demonstrate proficiency or skills in other ways. In order to earn a diploma at Academy for Career Exploration, students must:

• Earn necessary credits (26 out of a possible 29 for the Class of 2011 and beyond)
• Complete satisfactorily all State Testing
• Demonstrate proficiency through performance-based comprehensive assessments
• Complete at a level of Proficient or better a Senior Internship Exhibition

In addition to the students’ regular grade report cards, ACE also provides report cards quarterly indicating progress in meeting the school’s proficiency-based graduation requirements.

Each of these requirements is explained below in more detail.

Credits

Participation in State Testing

Comprehensive Performance-Based Assessments

Senior Internship Exhibition

Transfer Students and Proficiency-Based Graduation Requirements

Graduation Appeals Under the PBGR System

Credits

ACE issues one academic credit for each year-long class a student successfully completes and a half credit for all semester-long courses. Members of the Classes of 2009 and beyond need 26 credits to graduate. Students must pass English each year to be promoted to the next grade and/or to graduate.

Grade 9	Students must earn a minimum of five (5) credits, including English Language Arts 1 (ELA1), to be promoted.
Grade 10	Students must have earned a minimum of twelve (12) total credits, including ELA2.
Grade 11	Students must have earned a minimum of 19.5 total credits, including ELA3, to be promoted to grade 12.
Grade 12	Students must earn a minimum of 26 credits, including ELA4 and both semesters of Internship in order to graduate.

All students take the equivalent of 6 full-year courses in each academic year. Incoming ninth graders earn one half (½) credit for successfully completing our Ninth Grade Immersion Summer School. Students earn one half (½) credit each year for earning a grade of “Satisfactory” in Advisory. Freshmen and sophomores can earn one half (½) credit for each fifty hours community service completed, up to a total of 100 hours (one credit) over two years. Students employed in ACE’s Student Employment Program earn one half (½) credit for each six months of successful employment up to a total of one credit. Juniors earn one half (½) credit for completing all New England Comprehensive Assessment Program (NECAP) testing. In total, students thus have the opportunity to earn 29 credits, with 26 being necessary for graduation.

The grading structure at TCCA is as follows:

A+	97-100	B+	87-89	C+	77-79	E	50-69	F	0-49
A	93-96	B	83-86	C	73-76
A-	90-92	B-	80-82	C-	70-72

At ACE, students need to earn at least a 70 (C-) for the course to receive credit. ACE does not award passing D grades.

Students who earn a grade between 50-69 (E) are eligible for summer school. Academy for Career Education operates its own summer school in collaboration with Times2 Academy. Students with E grades are not permitted to earn credits through the Providence Public School District (PPSD) unless the course they need is not offered in the ACE/Times2 Summer School. Anticipated cost per course for ACE/Times2 Summer School in summer 2009 is one hundred dollars.

Students whose cumulative grade for the year falls below 50 (F) are not eligible for Summer School and must repeat the course during the school year. Students whose academic performance during the regular school year and/or summer school results in them needing to repeat a grade or specific courses cannot be guaranteed placement at ACE due to enrollment caps and scheduling limitations.

Participation in State Testing

Students must satisfactorily complete NECAP tests in writing, reading, mathematics, and science during the 11th grade year. To complete satisfactorily the state tests, students must be present for each test and take the test to its completion. No minimum score is currently required for successful completion, although the Rhode Island Board of Regents is currently considering establishing a minimum proficiency score requirement.

Comprehensive Performance-Based Assessments

Students must demonstrate proficiency and the ability to apply what they have learned by the completion, at a level of Proficient or better, of performance-based assessments at the end of each semester. Although these assessments may include objective sections that ask multiple choice, essay, True/False questions, the majority of the assessment will involve students in applying knowledge and skills in an extended project or task. These assessments will be administered in English Language Arts, math, history, and science classes and may be administered in other classes as well.

Senior Internship Exhibition

All seniors are responsible for completing a research-based final project of their own choosing to demonstrate what the student has learned during the senior internship. Students are required to present that project in an exhibition before a panel which judges them on research, writing, presentation, and use of technology.

Transfer Students and Proficiency-Based Graduation Requirements

It is recognized that students entering the school system close to graduation may have difficulty completing graduation requirements, particularly if they transfer from a school with substantially different requirements. Consequently, the following process will be used for transferring students:

•	Students entering Academy for Career Exploration High School requiring two or more years of work necessary prior to graduation (typically before the start of the junior year) will meet all requirements in order to receive a Academy for Career Exploration High School diploma.
•	Students entering Academy for Career Exploration High School with less than two years of work necessary prior to graduation (typically after the start of the junior year) from a Rhode Island high school with a graduation system approved by the Rhode Island Commissioner of elementary and Secondary Education may use the requirements of their prior school. In addition, other independent activities or assessments may be included with the requirements of Academy for Career Exploration High School, in order to meet proficiency standards, subject to the supervision and standards of the Board Graduation Appeals Committee. The student shall meet all other graduation requirements as determined by the Board Graduation Appeals Committee. A student exercising this option must do so in writing to the principal, cosigned by parents if under 18 years of age. Any student wishing to appeal the decision of the Board Graduation Appeals Committee may follow the process of appeal described below.
•	Individual cases not addressed by this policy may be addressed based on the recommendation of the Board Graduation Appeals Committee and subject to the approval of the CEO/Head of School.

Graduation Appeals Under the PBGR System

A. Senior Team, At-Risk Students (STARS), convening as the Graduation Review Committee (GRC), will make the final administrative recommendation to the CEO/Head of School as to which students are eligible for graduation.

B. This determination will be made and parents of those students not eligible for graduation will be notified in writing no more than ten school days prior to the date of graduation.

C. Upon notification, students and their parents will be afforded the opportunity to request, in writing, an appeal to a Board Graduation Appeals Committee (BGAC) formed each year by the Board to hear all final appeals in that year.

D. Appeals must be submitted in writing to the CEO/Head of School within two school days of notification, and the BGAC will meet within three school days of receipt of the appeal.

E. The BGAC will be comprised of one member from the business community, one parent, and one staff member.

F. The parent representative to the BGAC will not have a child eligible for graduation in the year he or she serves on the Committee.

G. The staff representative will have played no prior role in graduation decisions in the year he or she serves on the BGAC.

H. Students and their parents wishing to appeal the decision of the Board Graduation Appeals Committee may request such consideration by the Rhode Island Commissioner of Education.