May. 19, 2020
Some Restrictions Loosened for June Diploma Exams
Alberta Education has just loosened some restrictions for diploma examinations. While this is great news, it only gives students about three weeks to review course content. Despite this, we felt it important to provide this opportunity to our students. If students do not feel this gives them enough time to prepare to write, students may still be able to register to write in August.
Alberta Education is permitting school jurisdictions to provide students who need to write June 2020 diploma exams the opportunity to do so. This is on the condition that social distancing requirements set out by Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health are adhered to and the situation in June still permits school jurisdictions to safely provide this opportunity.
This includes students wishing to rewrite a diploma examination.
The number of students who will be able to rewrite in June will be significantly limited due to public health guidelines and our ability to ensure heath protocols are manageable while adhering to Alberta Education exam supervision expectations.
Things will look different to students writing a diploma exam in June. There will be strict protocols in place to ensure adherence to health requirements. For example, they will be required to wear a non-medical mask for the entire time they are in the school. There will only be four students in a room and because a supervisor cannot be within 2 m of a student, how materials are checked, calculators cleared, questions answered and exams handed out and returned will look dramatically different from a regular diploma exam.
All students will have double time and may write the Part A portion of the English Language Arts, French Language Arts and Social Studies exams on a computer. Students who have, throughout the course, listened to a recording of the test while writing will be accommodated (teachers will confirm who needs this accommodation). No other accommodations can be made during June Diploma Exams. Students who need a reader, scribe, speech-to text, frequent breaks, sign language interpreter, etc. will have to wait until social distancing rules are removed before writing a diploma examination.
No later than 3:00 p.m. May 21, grade 12 students needing to write one or more diploma exams in June are to contact their school and provide the following information:
- Legal Name
- CBE ID and ASN
- Diploma Exam(s) Name(s)
- Reason Number (1a, 1b, 1c, 2 or 3)
Reasons
- Student who:
- has mature student status (Guide to Education, p. 108) who has never taken the course.
- is registered through CBE Home Schooling.
- has a course mark from January 2019-20 or earlier who has never written the diploma exam for the course.
- Student rewriting to increase their mark to pass the course and meet Alberta High School Diploma or Certificate of High School Completion criteria.
- Student rewriting to increase their mark to meet post-secondary entrance requirements.
We wish to reiterate that the ability to provide this opportunity is seriously limited by the safety requirements set out by Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and the requirements for exam supervision.
Once determined, the Grade 12 independent student and dependent student’s parents / legal guardians will be told (via the email in PowerSchool) whether they / the student will be writing and if so, where they will write their diploma exams which may or may not be at their current high school. It is expected that this email will be sent no later than May 28. Attached to this email will be the detailed protocol staff and students will follow.
If you have any questions, please contact your school.
