Proficiency-based High School Diploma Systems in Maine: Implications for Special Education and Career Technical Education Programming and Student Populations

Document review and interviews were conducted with college admissions\u27 personnel to gather data regarding alignment of proficiency-based diploma systems and college eligibility and entry requirements. In addition, leaders and representative personnel from and Maine businesses and the U.S. military were interviewed to identify postsecondary career entry requirements and attributes of high quality workers. Another area of inquiry in this phase of the study included analysis of data from interviews with leaders and educators in Special Education to examine the perceived challenges, benefits and impacts of this diploma policy on students with identified disabilities and special education programming provided by Maine\u27s public PK-12 school districts. In addition, qualitative case studies of a sample of Maine Career and Technical Education centers and regional vocational programs were conducted. Finally, a single school district case study was incorporated into this phase of the research to closely examine Maine public educators\u27 and school administrators\u27 interpretations and perceptions of establishing standards and defining proficiency levels in content areas and developing district-level policies for proficiency-based high school graduation policies. The following are appended: (1) USDOE FAPE Guidance Letter; (2) MDOE Proficiency Diploma Guidance; (3) MDOE Policy on Standards-based IEP Goals; (4) Special Education (Part A) Interview Protocol; (5) Special Purpose Private Schools Plan of Instruction; (6) SPPS-SAU Diploma Agreement; (7) Sample Proficiency-based High School Graduation Requirements; (8) NATEF Automotive Technology Curriculum Crosswalk; (9) American Culinary Federation and CCSS Mathematics Standards; and (10) Career & Technical Education (Part B) Interview Protocol