Impact of ISBE Executive Order 2020-31 on Auburn Class of 2020
April 29, 2020
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) issued new guidance to local school districts in regards to the Class of 2020 and graduation requirements. Here is a link to ISBE's Frequently Asked Question Summary of the Executive Order - https://www.isbe.net/Documents/Grad-Req.pdf.
Below is how this order will specifically impact Auburn's Class of 2020 moving forward broken down by the same numbers referenced in ISBE's document.
1. Auburn High School will follow all recommendations of diminished required courses by ISBE outlined in the table and will reduce the number of credits needed to graduate from 24 to 20 total credits. Students can check their graduation checklist issued at the beginning of each semester to check where they are in regards to credits. If your student was on track for graduation before 2nd semester started, then they will have completed these requirements.
2. Auburn's School Board of Education will be recognizing the changes outlined as explained in #1.
3. As announced on Monday, we are currently waiting to make any announcement about a graduation ceremony until we have been provided more information about the possibility of an in-person ceremony.
4. Transcript requests will still be fulfilled by Parchment as in the past, and Semester 2 grades will reflect the students' 3rd quarter grades. As recommended, the explanation of the Semester 2 grade will be notated on the transcript.
5. As stated.
6. We are still asking our teachers to prepare a final assessment for students with the information they learned during 3rd quarter only. This will be true for Seniors as well, but as stated the grades - or feedback - of these finals will not impact the students' Semester 2 grades.
7. As always, students planning on attending college in the Fall need to check with the institutions they are planning to attend to ensure they are meeting that institution's expectations for entry.
8. As stated.
9. Auburn is not going to utilize an incomplete on a student's report card or final transcript. The grading criteria for report cards is outlined above in #3.
10. As in the past, Class Rank and GPA will be factored using semester grades from all eight (8) semesters of the students' high school career.
11. Auburn does not currently have any service learning requirements for graduation.
12. Auburn has not made any decisions in regards to summer school learning at this time.
13. Auburn did not have any new terms or classes which began after remote learning was put in place. This guidance is to be interpreted by school districts who utilize a trimester, balanced calendar schedule, etc.
We understand that the Class of 2020's motivation of their high school education is exclusively intrinsic at this point in time now ISBE has issued the above guidance. Auburn High School would like to make everyone aware teachers will maintain engagement expectations that were in place before EO 2020-31 and hope that students will use these last weeks of remote learning as practice for the likely event they start their college education remotely.
And as always, if you have any questions in regards to the presented information please email me - nessex@auburn.k12.il.us
Nathan Essex
