I live in North Carolina, and the school system im in has a end of the year project for seniors to do. Its called a Senior Exit. Basically what it is is you choosing a topic on anything, writing a 5 to 10 page paper and making a visual for your topic and presenting it infront of judges that will grade you. If you don't do the project or if you get a low score on your presentation you cannot graduate. They don't care if you made straight A's through the year you still would not be able to graduate.

I want some of your opinions about this. Should a project be the deciding factor of you graduating or not? I think it just wrong.

I don't think that a final project should be the deciding factor. Why would the establishers of the senior exit try to hinder someone's progress at the immediate end even when some people have come so far so they could graduate? Not doing the senior exit, especially if a person is smart, would mean that the person has to repeat the senior year over for nothing. Besides, to do the senior exit, it will take way too much time depending on the number of students in the senior class, and I'm sure that people would like the time to prepare for graduation instead of typing out a paper and being burdened with even more responsiblilties.

Tha-t really silly imo... or it's a useless kind of examination that allow everybody to graduate, or it's really a tool to make people doing another year. And we know that's kind of exam could be really subjective.

wtf?! That's just some silly bs. I can understand if they would do that in colleges and such, but in High School?! I'm sorry, but that's just plain silly to me.

That seems a little unfair, not to mention ridiculous, letting someone leave school only if they complete a project satisfactorily. Surely it would make more sense to have exams in subjects and to look at a person's marks throughout the year.
I can't say I understand the American school system, living in England I'm used to having exams for everything...

That sounds more than unfair. Actually that’s the first I have heard of a school doing such a thing. No I don't agree with it at all. One single presentation should not determine more then the whole of all your other academic credits. I think that is one school that needs to be forced to change their practices.

well having that graduating thing isnt very nice...i mean, you might as well give up for the entire year and concentrate on that one piece.

if they had made it such that it doesnt entirely decide whether you graduate but more of taking a laerger percentage in your final result then maybe its reasonable but the way i understand it is....its really, completely unreasonable

I think this situation is a pathetic excuse for some authority figures to wave their power around, but I think it is more than that. You've all been focusing on how annoying it is for people who are intelligent and busy applying for colleges and such. I think the ulterior motive is actually to allow them to graduate however they want. They have a displicine problem .... just pass him out. They have a dumb as rocks jock... just pass him out. I doubt the other students and parents get to view everyone else's projects. They can just graduate any problems children. If you have a violent pre-rapist high school kid who will never follow the rules and is in actuality a danger to other students, you can pass him or her right out of school based on this one project. This project also allows the school to graduate students who are in actuality to remedial to legitimately graduate. As far as the faculty is concerned,. it is probably worth their while to hold back a few relatively decent kids in exchange for clearing out the bad ones. It is not like they will be nearly as troublesome as some of the other students they are getting rid of. Quickly eliminating some of their problem should raise the schools overall academic scores and let them in for government money. This sort of thing might be fundamentally unfair, but I can see how it might be in the schools best interest.

That's just stupid!

It's not the one you call Senior's Exit that counts, it's the overall performance of the student on school. We have some king of that on my High School days but the only difference is that it is not a requirement for graduation. It's only for the clearance of the subject. Certain requirement if you call it.

I don't think it should be decided totally on the project but maybe just partly. Grades should still be the major factor but the project could effect the overall score of your GPA.

I personally think thats a dumb idea. if your a straight A student and you fail cause you didnt do this senoir exit thing and now you ant graduating thats pretty lame. School is already as hard as it is why make it harder.

We had something similar in my high school. I think the project is a good idea. It's nice to have an open ended project where you get to choose the subject and it's good to study something important to you. But I don't think making it so important is bad. I think it's just done to cover the fact that the school system is so pathetic they can't give grades that properly reflect whether a person should graduate or not so they properly grade on this one assignment to make up for it.

I dont think one project should decide if you pass your fail it should be your over all work

A single bad Senior Exit grade after a yr full of excellent scores should not make a student unable to leave high school.. this whole entire thing is pointless really. X.x
If you've shown excellence in the classroom then screw up this project consider your graduation invalid? Hmph.. if this Senior Exit is for 12th grade how come not every other high school student of less status doesn't create a final project? 'Cause accordin' from what you're sayin' the school system might as well do that for 9th,10th, and 11th graders.
(One last project to pass the grade) Grrar!! North Carolina school systems are just abusin' their power! XP This is so freakin' dumb. Twitch twitch..

as a future teacher... i don't think that whether you graduate or not should be dependant on one project. that's actually the first time i've heard of a high school doing such a thing... at the high schools in my area they had to take the Exit Exam, but that covers a variety of topics and the students could take it multiple times. i'm not a fan of this whole "hit or miss" grading system in North Carolina.

I think that project is really unfair. You should graduate based on your grades through the whole year not on some project.

Personally, I hate projects. They never show other people your true talents. I don't like to do visual presentations since you need to decorate the stuff, and I can't draw to save my life. It is really not fair.

well...i live in philadelphia and the high skool policy over here is the same as ur's MayaNatsume17. back in my senior year in high skool they make all the seniors in the skool pick a topic on some social problem and write 10 pages on it .....very very....... unfair....if u didn't do or fail the project...even if u got straight A's u got it for nothing still gonna be left back very very unfair and very very wrong!

Wait a min. So if you fail to reach this "projects" requirments then your not able to graduate? Even if you get strait As? Dude that's just wrong. I have a way so that you don't have to take the test.... Move to Cali! Haha.... Were to smart *cough* to need any of that "project" stuff.

I think it's terrible. If u want to graduate from university maybe it'll be necessary. But from high school??

Well in my country we have exams mostly!Now I ma at the University and the metods of learning in high schools changed a little so I don't know them all.Here we various exams and that is not for graduating but for passing to another level:at the end of fourth year is an exam to pass in specialised classes,in eighth year there is another one to pass in the high school years and in 12th is an exam to finish high school and at the University well there is another subject.
Now what I actually want to say is that everyday we front different things,theses axams are either we want or not a chapter of our lives.Well to be someoen in life you have to learn and the exams show what you learned in a year.
Now your problem is another one that I must say that it seems al ittle bit unfair.The grades should count more but also I belive that the idea of having some exams is the best one to find out what you are capable of!
Good luck dear!Hugs!
Bye!

but project has a big role....if you fail the project, your GPA may get down drastically

Now that is not right. Granted that, yes it is a way ot prove that you actually did learn something while in school, but that alone shouldn't be the one thing that decides whether or not you graduate. Especially in high school, where you're just preparing for things to come in the real world. If they intend to stay with the project, they should at least be less strict about getting a bad score. Instead of not being able to graduate, they should instead include in your overall GPA, that way if you bomb the project, you still have a chance to graduate....

.....at least thats what I think.

I think that's retarded... getting straight As and yet you could stay fail...You what a total bring down that is? Of Course all the students will think that's bull but then we all can't be all one sided now...What I think is that the staff for the school thought it was a critical scenario since if you have straight As right? You could still fail..they don't want you to be slacking off because usually people start slacking off later on in the years...So in a way bad Idea...and somewhat a good idea..They want you all to pass...Yeah in a way I'm probably talking nonsense...But I guess this is my opinion.