HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 697        FILED ON: 1/19/2011

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 141

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Antonio F. D. Cabral

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act to establish a special commission on high school graduation..

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 697        FILED ON: 1/19/2011

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 141

[SIMILAR MATTER FILED IN PREVIOUS SESSION
SEE HOUSE, NO. 360 OF 2009-2010.]

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Eleven

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An Act to establish a special commission on high school graduation..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

The Governor shall appoint a special commission to analyze graduation requirements for all public school students in the commonwealth, which shall be composed of one individual nominated by the Massachusetts Department of Education, the Chairperson of the Massachusetts Board of Education or his nominee, one individual nominated by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, one individual nominated by the Massachusetts Secondary Schools Administrators’ Association, Inc., one individual nominated by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, one individual nominated by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, one individual nominated by the Massachusetts Federation of Teachers, one parent of a child attending a public school in Massachusetts to be nominated by the remaining members of the Board and one child attending a public school in Massachusetts to be nominated by the remaining members of the Board. Said nominations shall be submitted to the office of the Governor no later than ninety days from the date of the enactment hereof and shall first meet in a location to be chosen by the Governor no later than sixty days thereafter. The commission shall issue a report containing recommended graduation requirements which shall create standards for special education, vocational-technical education and regular education students and which shall be comprised of students’ results on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System examinations, students’ community service, students’ classroom grades and such other factors as the commission shall determine. Such standards shall ensure that a student’s failure to meet any one component requirement shall not alone prevent said student from receiving a high school diploma. The commission shall also issue draft legislation to implement these recommendations and shall submit both the recommendations and the draft legislation to the Joint Committee on Education of the General Court within one hundred twenty days of the commission’s first meeting.

SECTION 2. Section 1D of chapter 69, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting in line 59, after the word “graduation,” the following: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the requirements of the competency determination shall not be used as a graduation requirement in any school system until said system’s students have completed their education in said system entirely under the curriculum frameworks established by Chapter 71 of the Acts of 1993.