No. My kids were in highschool in Utah in the 80's and they weren't granting credit then. So it has been at least that long.

They do, however, set their graduation requirements *just so* to allow students to graduate in four years while still taking seminary. I went to high school in northern Utah about 10 years ago. The graduation requirements were such that as long as you passed all your academic classes, you would graduate just fine while still doing the release time for seminary. This meant that if you didn't attend LDS seminary and didn't do any other sort of released time, you would accumulate more than the required credits. Because of that, lots of non-Mormons graduated early and did early college. It also meant if the seminary kids failed an academic class they would need to do summer school or something similar to make up for it.

The Canyons school district (Sandy) ramped up its graduation requirements by adding two "honor diplomas": you can graduate with the basic diploma, which allows enough holes for a period lost to Seminary each semester, or one of two honor diplomas (can't remember the name) which required 21 or 24 credits vs. the basis 18 credits.

LDS officials were moaning and whining that this would adversely affect Seminary and The Church by "forcing" the church to offer Early Morning sessions where normally it was released time. To earn the two more rigorous diplomas, you could not attend released Seminary (for the middle diplomas you could attend released time one semester per year but not two). The superintendent did not back down (and I would surprised if he is not LDS) and got his way, despite church protests. Essentially, the 24-credit diploma earners were doing what non-Morridor peers must do: attend early morning if at all, in order to use all available school hours to earn credits to graduate.

Enhanced diplomas are nothing new. We had them in San Diego city schools from the 1960s. They offered a special "diploma with academic distinction" which required more courses, and a certain percentage of them had to be designated as honors or AP courses. Grades of A or B in those courses were required (a C or D would not count toward the minimum number of courses required).

The superintendent is to be commended for standing up to LDS Inc pressure and for throwing light on the dirty little secret of released time's impact on high school education in Utah. By the way, released time was approved by the US Supreme Court and technically is legal everywhere in the US if school districts choose to offer it. As late as the 1980s, elementary schools in Anaheim had released time (but once a week, not once a day) offered in off-campus trailers, operated by a consortium of Protestant churches. Other denominations have used released time, but usually no church has enough of its members concentrated in one area to make it worthwhile except among LDS inside the Morridor.

Here is the website for San Diego schools and their Academic Distinction diploma:

http://www.sandi.net/20451072095944843/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=56064&20451072095944843Nav=|&NodeID=284

When I was in school in the 70s, the 3.5 GPA option to earn the diploma did not exist. You had to complete the 14 credits in honors courses in grades 10-12, with A or B grades (technically, you could graduate with a 3.0 GPA and get this award, though in practice most people who took this rigorous a schedule usually had much higher grades).

There was something called a "dean's list" for all people who finished with a 3.2 or higher, but no one ever saw the dean's list until graduation day when it was printed in the hand out program (I'd never heard of it, actually).

There was an honor society (California Scholastic Federation; California schools could choose between CSF or National Honor Society, and some schools had both), basically you had to have a 3.5 GPA or higher, but membership was not automatic, you had to apply each semester and pay nominal dues. If you were a member for at least six of eight semesters, you were deemed a Life Member and a special gold CSF seal was added to the diploma. Academic distinction was listed on the diploma and an additional gold seal was added. I didn't realize this was anything extraordinary until I saw a friend's diploma with no gold seals on it, which is what most people received. CSF Life Members got to wear an extra gold tassel at graduation, and Academic Distinction students were issued "honor cords" to drape over one's neck and shoulder in the school colors.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2010 05:53PM by PtLoma.

Utah's education budget is horrible (or at least it was when I was there, and I can't imagine it has improved). The amount spent per pupil is (or at least was) lower than most of the other states.

The released time seminary program acts as a subsidy to the public schools in that it provides one period/day per seminary student that the public school budget does not need to cover, since the church is doing it.

That is a lot of hours, materials, teachers, space that the state does not need to worry about funding.

I'm pretty sure they have never granted "credit". Seminary is considered release time, meaning they release your kid from school obligations during that hour. My kid has release time for Hockey practice, others for advanced music lessons, etc. The loophole is that Utah requires fewer credits to graduate than one would have if she/he did not take release time. I know some non-LDS kids who don't take it and graduate a semester early.

Utah used to grant credit for graduation for release time seminary until the early 1970s. The credit scheme was thrown out after some court case. Religious education (before or after school) offered by other religious groups did not earn credit for graduation.

In the last election, the incumbent governor (Herbert) made a cheap plea for LDS votes by claiming his opponent's plan to raise graduation requirements would eliminate Seminary

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50172502-76/corroon-herbert-education-governor.html.csp

...they may have granted credit for Old Testament and New Testament (not for BoM or Church History), IIRC. But, that was in the 60's and at times my memory is not to be trusted.

Bad memory or not, your recollection matches what I've seen posted here in the past by others: credit was given for OT and NT courses. I know the current study plan is 9th-OT, 10th-NT, 11th-BOM, 12th-History/D&C, but I don't know how the courses were allocated in the old days. Possibly OT and NT occupied more than the first two years of the study plan in those days.

In 68-72 credit was awarded for OT and NT, but not for BoM and church history. At that time the curriculum was BoM in 9th grade, OT in 10th grade, NT in 11th grade, and church history in 12th grade. In my district, you could take an extra class period that started an hour earlier than the usual schedule in order to take another class and still have released time seminary.

In most Utah high schools, taking released time seminary doesn't negatively impact the students' GPA/class ranking. I personally don't think it's fair that a student who's taken released time seminary every year can get to be the class valedictorian ahead of students who have taken academic classes instead. But those goody TBM seminary students can't be "punished" for being faithful Morbots, can they? The non-TBMs will get screwed instead.

Don't know about Utah schools, but many schools outside the Morridor offer extra "weighting" for AP or honors classes, with an A counting 5 instead of 4 points, B counting as 4 instead of 3, and so forth. As a result, one sees GPAs in the high 4's, though no one hits 5.0 since some courses (PE, Band 1, etc.) have no AP or honors version (there IS an AP in Music, I believe, but I digress). Where I live, the high school simply designates everyone with over 4.0 GPA as a co-valedictorian, and the one student with the overall highest GPA is designated "Scholar of scholars".

Quite often, the kids near the top ALL have ALL A's on their transcript, and the separation between say 4.72 and 4.68 may be only one additional AP or honors course taken. I have a patient who was Scholar of Scholars c. 2001, and he said the only reason why he was on top was that he had been accelerated in math in middle school (took full year of algebra in 7th grade), thus finishing calculus in 11th grade and then taking AP Statistics in 12th grade. While a half dozen or so other students had done the same in math, the others either had one B or had taken one less AP course elsewhere along the line. He said specifically that a handful of his classmates had records identical to his minus having taken AP Stats.

That said, if you and I took the same courses and earned all A's, but you took an additional honors or AP course each year while I was studying the Restored Gospel in Seminary for one period each day, you would have taken more honors courses (eight more, by the end of high school) than I and--if the school weights AP/honors grades---your GPA would be higher than mine, even though we both had all A's for four years. You would be rewarded for having taken more courses.

If, on the other hand, the school did not weight AP/honors grades, with the maximum GPA being 4.00, then a Mormon taking fewer courses but still getting all A's would be rewarded with the status of valedictorian or higher class rank. When you apply to a competitive school (NOT defined as BYU), the admissions officers don't just look at GPA, they look at the transcript with courses taken, to evaluate the depth and difficulty of your high school courses.

I graduated from high school when GPA was not weighted. Two women in our class both finished #1 with perfect 4.0 GPAs. However, two honors courses for seniors, political science and calculus, were offered on campus by the community college district. Both women were in the calculus class, but both earned B's. This did not lower their GPAs, because the calculus class was not a "high school class" (i.e. not taught BY the high school) and was not computed into their GPAs. One of the two valedictorians did not take many honors courses outside of math, and in a weighted system would have slipped behind those with a few B's but whose transcripts were loaded with AP courses.

Also, our school computed class rank including PE courses, which were required every semester at that time. I had several friends with all A's and one B in PE, which put them one notch behind the women who finished first (and two of these also pulled A's in calculus).

I dont know about that, but they now call it 'release time'. What a crock!

They did allow credit for OT an NT, but that was years ago. It is no longer allowed. Seminary offers no credit toward graduation and hasn't since at least the 80s



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2010 09:14PM by bona dea.

...was the last year students received high school credit for attending seminary. I was Lutheran then, attending weekly confirmation classes for two years and didn't receive high school credit for all the religious education I learned. I used this point on my LDS friends who were appalled and sad they wouldn't get credit anymore.

After my freshman year, LDS kids could either attend early morning seminary or have a released-time class to attend during the day but not receive credit for seminary.

Which begs the question: Why in the hell did I join this cult in the first place?