It is important to get school committee approval of a school's graduation portfolio system well in advance of implementation to ensure that the system will, in fact, be put in place and appropriately supported. Early in the process, present your school plans for implementing a graduation portfolio as a School-Wide Diploma Assessment to meet the requirements of the Regents' regulations.

If a school has adopted the graduation portfolio as one of its School-Wide Diploma Assessments, some students may be denied a diploma because they fail to successfully complete a graduation portfolio. Accordingly, it is important that the policies, protocols, and procedures guiding the portfolio system are approved and adopted by the school committee. Some issues that a school/district may want a school committee to address as parts of a policy framework are:

• The required elements for a graduation portfolio in the district
• Due process rights for a student who does not complete a portfolio
• How plagiarism and/or misrepresentation of fieldwork or the entries will be addressed
• Support structures that need to be in place for students and teachers
• Resources and professional development needed for a portfolio system

Things to Consider

Be sure to provide a clear and convincing rationale as to why the graduation portfolio best meets the needs of your students and how it fits into the overall high school diploma system. Develop a plan for ongoing communication with school committee members about the progress of school plans. Build consensus by identifying the things that you are already doing to support the graduation system.