Students at South and in the state of Indiana work hard to earn diplomas of varying degrees throughout their high school years. However, it seems that Indiana has decided that they don’t equally value the work being done by all students. Prior to the start of this school year, the Federal Government decided that under the Every Student Succeeds act, the general diploma, or the (G.E.D.), will not count towards graduation rates or the school’s letter grade performance.

This idea that some students success isn’t as good as others is disheartening and the shift in school’s focus is evident. For some administrators and school systems, it seems that gaining the best letter grade and getting as many kids onto the academic honors diploma track is all that matters. But this push for high achievement also comes from the public. MCCSC (Monroe County Community School Corporation) is consistently under the microscope, so it’s hard not to feel that everyone needs to be succeeding at the highest level.

The general diploma requires 40 credit hours, seven less than the academic honors diploma. The credit requirements are less demanding but still uphold the curriculum standards. For some students, acquiring this diploma is all the challenge they need. A fair amount of students on track for the general diploma have some type of special needs or disability. These types of graduates aren’t necessarily planning to go to college, and that’s alright.

Instead of making general diploma graduates feel as if they haven’t succeeded, we should recognize the hard work and determination it takes to graduate regardless and send them out into the world feeling confident that they can succeed.

This may not seem like a large problem in Bloomington. Both South and North have experienced extremely high graduation rates and grab hundreds of thousands of scholarship dollars every year for students’ academic achievements. However, this new act poses a problem in many neighboring communities. For schools that have smaller class sizes and set the general diploma as the standard, they could experience sizable drops in their official graduation rates.

“We at South, the administration and the teachers, are very supportive in every path, and for some its core 40, certificate of completion, or the general diploma,” special education dept. co-chair Aaron Parker said.

Parker felt that despite the way the state views kids, South wants everyone to succeed, regardless of the means. Parker said, “In my opinion, if the student earns what they’ve been prepared to do, that’s what they’ve earned. That should be celebrated.”