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Graduation Project

Item High School Project

NORTH CAROLINA GRADUATION PROJECT

The North Carolina Graduation Project is a multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary performance assessment completed over time and is a requirement for students entering 9th grade for the first time in 2006-07.  The NC Graduation Project provides students the opportunity to connect content knowledge, acquired skills, and work habits to real world situations and issues.  Through the graduation project process, students will engage various specific skills that include:  computer knowledge employability skills, information retrieval skills, language skills-reading, language skills-writing, teamwork, and thinking/problem-solving skills.  The NC Graduation Project consisting of four components (a research paper, product, portfolio, and an oral presentation) culminates during a student’s final year of high school.  Student engagement in the graduation project process and the completion of the graduation project demonstrates the integration of knowledge, skills, and performance.

 

The NC Graduation Project consists of four major components:

1.        A research paper demonstrating research skills and writing skills

2.        A product created through the use of knowledge and skills in a meaningful way to accomplish a goal

3.        A portfolio to catalogue/document tasks, record reflective thinking and insights, as well as demonstrate responsibility for learning as work progresses through the entire process

4.        An oral presentation, during which, students become a source of information communicating their project work before a review panel

 

Because of the multi-faceted, multidisciplinary nature of the graduation project, it is not intended to be housed within one classroom or content area.  Although the project culminates in the graduating year, it is benchmarked throughout a student’s middle school and secondary school experience, necessitating involvement from the entire program faculty.  Graduation project program guidelines should allow for flexibility and input from various stakeholders.  Guidelines should provide the opportunity to foster student-teacher relationships, nurture the exploration of new ideas, and encourage student-centered, lifelong learning.

 
Item High School Graduation Project

Graduation Project

      Sherri Merritt, Ph.D.

smerritt2@wcpss.net (919)850-1852

 

Brief History of the Graduation Project

 

The concept of a senior/graduation project was initiated on the West Coast nearly twenty years ago.  A group of senior English teachers, disillusioned at their seniors’ lack of focus and desirous of more authentic demonstrations of learning, designed an exit project that would emphasize rigor and skills.  Through years of effort and revision, the project evolved into the viable senior experience it is around the country today.

 

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction first investigated the idea of a senior project as early as 1997.  Through the years, the concept was discussed at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction as well as within the State Board of Education and led to the final passing of Board Policy HSP-N-000 (entitled “Student Accountability Standards/Graduation Requirements”) in March of 2006. The policy states in part the following:  “Effective with the class entering ninth grade for the first time in the 2006-2007 school year, students who are following the career preparation, college technical preparation, or college/university preparation courses of study shall meet the following standards for proficiency:  (B) successfully complete a graduation project that is developed, monitored, and scored with the LEA using state-adopted rubrics.” 

 

Even before the North Carolina State Board of Education made the Graduation Project a part of the high school exit standards package, many North Carolina school systems had investigated the idea and even implemented various versions of the concept.  In Wake County, several high schools studied  the Graduation Project concept in preparation for the board’s decision. Most notably, Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School, which opened in July of 1997, required its students from the school’s inception to complete a graduation project as part of its unique magnet programming.  Modeled after the copyrighted Senior Project (a concept now owned by a company called the Partnership 4 Dynamic Learning), the Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School model emphasizes the four P’s (paper, presentation, product, and portfolio) and has been required of every senior (with the exception of students in the Occupational Course of Study) since the first graduating class of 1999.  During the spring and summer of 2006 and as a result of the new state board policy, a Wake County Public School System Graduation Project Task Force met to begin working on system guidelines, all of which have led to the publication of this handbook.

 

Overview of the Graduation Project

 

The Graduation Project, part of the North Carolina high school exit standards, is a culminating project that provides students with a means to demonstrate what they know and are able to do as they prepare to graduate from high school.  A performance-based exit assessment, it consists of four components: research paper, oral presentation, product, and portfolio.  The Graduation Project should culminate in the senior year and be benchmarked throughout the high school program of study.  As stated in the NCDPI Exit Standards Implementation Guide (2006), “The Graduation Project provides an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of specific skills that can be found in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study objectives throughout the high school curriculum as well as the Six Key Elements of 21st Century Learning” (p. 30).

 

 

Graduation Project Resources available on the WCPSS Website (internet)

 

Graduation Project Resources available on the WCPSS Website (intranet)

(contains links to the WCPSS Graduation Project Implementation Guide for staff and the state-adopted rubrics for each of the four parts of the Graduation Project)

 

Graduation Project Resources available on the NCDPI Website

(Graduation Project information from DPI)

 

To access the DPI Graduation Project Implementation Guide, contact tcougle@dpi.state.nc.us for password (current password is gp07)

 

 

(copies of state-adopted rubrics to be used to score the four elements of the

Graduation Project)

 

(PowerPoint entitled “Eight Easy Steps for Implementing the NC Graduation Project Rubrics”)

 

(sample documentation resources)

 

(Quick Time movies on Graduation Project – including some sample student presentations)

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