Proposed bill would ban previous Louisiana high school graduation appeal process

Shannon Heckt
·2 min read
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BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — At the end of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ term, a controversial high school graduation appeal process was implemented, but Gov. Jeff Landry quickly vetoed it.

A bill proposed in the legislature would ban the portfolio method of appeal. The portfolio method was approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in late 2023. An oversight committee of the legislature met to review the process and rejected it, but Edwards overrode them to let it go into place at the end of the year.

The process was aimed mainly at students for whom English is not their first language or who struggle with passing some of the standardized LEAP tests.

HB8 looks to make sure this method of appeal stays off the books.

“We need to make sure that when we pass something, it’s not going to have an unintended consequence of watering down standards,” said State Rep. Michael Melerine, R-Shreveport.

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Melerine said he is against the portfolio because he believes it is subjective and there are no checks to make sure there’s no cheating through AI or other methods.

“It allowed the teachers at the school to be the determinant, basically to determine if the portfolio was sufficient. There were no guardrails on the students themselves as to how they were to do it. There was no requirement that they do it, you know, in a classroom,” Melerine said.

Louisiana is one of nine states that requires exit exams to graduate. It is the only state without an appeal process in place. Melerine is not against putting a different method in place for English learner students.

One superintendent said the portfolio method helped one of his students graduate in the brief time it was implemented and for them to get an industry job right out of school.

“Major industry partners, not just in our parish but in the state, would hire this student. But unfortunately, he could not pass one set of tests,” Ken Oertling, St. Charles Parish superintendent said. “And this was not an EL student. This was a student that was challenged in one subject area after having taken that test eight times.”

Other lawmakers said they didn’t want to take the portfolio method off the table forever and to let BESE decide on the next steps. Melerine promised to bring a resolution to encourage BESE to look for a new appeal process and meet with stakeholders to find the best path forward.

The bill advanced with a vote of 3-10. It will next be heard in the full House.

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