Dive Brief:

• Louisian Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a bill creating a new path for special education students to complete high school.  
• Under the bill, special education students will work with an advisory team to create a plan and goals for graduation that don't necessarily take into account standardized test scores.  
• The Boston-based Center for Law and Education and the Advocacy Institute out of D.C. both find fault in the amount of power the plan gives to the advisory team, saying the team can now create lower standards and artificially inflate the state's graduation rates.  

Dive Insight:

Currently in Louisiana, there are about 70,000 special education students, and 29% receive a traditional high school diploma. This is a low percentage, indicating a change needs to occur in how students are both educated and what is attainable. The national groups' argument that the advisory team could create lower standards is valid, however.

If every team is responsible for creating individual goals for graduation, it will be hard to do a true check to make sure the set goals are reasonable and still rigorous. That said, aren't individualized learning goals what many decision-makers keep saying they want in education? Additionally, saying graduation should only be tied to standardized test scores is a very narrow view of what it means to be educated or successful. Finding a middle ground where individual goals can be created and some sort of standardization persists seems to be the desired outcome. What that looks like is still unclear.