MINI-DIPLOMAS SHORT ON USAGE IN AREA

About a quarter of Missouri's high school graduates last year received two diplomas the traditional document and a miniature version.

The miniature diploma is a project of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and the Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals designed to encourage employers to check the academic record of high school graduates.

The mini-diploma is a wallet-sized copy of the regular diploma. On the back is a list of the number of courses a student has taken in each academic area, attendance percentage, grade point average, class rank, and special skills or honors.

"We think the program has some real potential for business-school cooperation," said Robert Howe, executive director of the Association of Secondary School Principals.

David Lankford, vice president of education for the Missouri Chamber, "We saw (the mini-diploma) as a way to show students that high school is important. We are also pushing business to start asking for it."

Lankford said the program might help an employer avoid hiring a person with a bad attendance record. "It could avoid an immediate headache, but we're looking for more of a long-term change.

"We want students to know yes. I'm going to be asked about high school. Yes. I'm going to be accountable for my attendance, my grades and the courses I took."

The idea originated about three years ago in the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education office. The Missouri Chamber and the principal's association have administered the program for the past two years.

The associations provide stickers to high schools at no charge. High schools must pay the cost of purchasing the diplomas, printing the information for each student on the cards and laminating them. Howe said many schools have solicited sponsors to pay these costs.

About 200 high schools last year secured the stickers. If all those stickers were affixed to mini-diplomas, Howe said about 14,000 students, or about 25 percent of all Missouri graduates last year, would have them.

However, he was not sure how many schools actually issued the cards.

Graduates of Scott City High School are issued mini-diplomas each year. Superintendent Robert Brison said: "We felt that it was a good service for employers. When a student says he has his diploma, that is such a broad thing. This provides some specific information that is available immediately."

Brison said he has not heard positive or negative feedback about the cards from students or employers.

"I can't tell you how it's been received. In fact, I'm not so sure we'll continue to use it unless we see some value," Brison said.

The cost of these cards is a budgeted item for Scott City High School.

Chaffee High School issued the mini-diplomas last year, underwritten by a local bank. Superintendent Wayne Pressley said he was unsure if the bank would continue funding the program this year. Without that support, the cards will likely be discontinued.

Dan Milligan, principal at Cape Girardeau Central High School, said he looked at the program last year and decided against it because of the cost. He estimated it would have cost $800 to $900.

"Someone has to go through and write down every class every kid has taken, then it's printed and laminated," he said.

Delta High School issued the diplomas two years ago. A local bank donated the cost of having them made. When the bank dropped the program, Principal Paul Kitchen said the school could not afford to continue the program.

Lankford said members of the Missouri Chamber have indicated they are concerned about the quality of employees they hire with high school diplomas.

At the same time, he said, only about 13 percent of employers ask for any kind of transcript from high school graduates.

"We're trying to do some sort of education campaign for business. If you want kids coming out of school with skills and if you want them to work hard in high school, you better start asking what they did in high school."

"We hope that employers will ask for them," Howe said. "Besides giving them quick and ready information, perhaps the more important part is that students will realize that what they have done their high school record is important."