Next They'll Say That Nigerian Guy Isn't Sending Me a Million Dollars...

Truth be told, I don't normally read the mass e-mail announcements I get from the U.S. Department of Education, which tend to deal with grant competitions, statements on Secretary Spellings' visit to Egypt, and the like. But yesterday one headline--Statement by Deputy Press Secretary Chad Colby Regarding "Certificate of Completion" Hoax EMail--caught my attention. When, I wondered, did the U.S. Department of Education get into the business of debunking chain letters? I was curious to see for myself what exactly this e-mail said that had so offended the Department as to require a formal press release. Thanks to the magic of Google, I was able to quickly find the hoax e-mail online. Its text is posted below, courtesy of About.com's urban legends site, which also offers a thorough debunking of the e-mail's claims as well as responses to it from the U.S. and Indiana Departments of Education (the e-mail appears to have originated in Indiana, and the tests to which it refers are part of Indiana's assessment system).

Subject: Certificate of Completion or Attendance

The "Certificate of Completion or Attendance" that is being offered in lieu of high school diplomas, is a part of Bush's "No Child Left Behind". This is how it works:

It is for students who are unable to pass both the Language Arts and Math portions of the 10th grade ISTEP. Students must take the same 10th grade test over in the 11th and 12th grades until they pass both portions. If they are unable to pass the 10th grade test by the 12th grade then they have two options:

1. Drop out and go to a GED program or,

2. accept a "Certificate of Completion" - it is NOT a diploma. Once a student accepts it, they cannot ever get a diploma or a GED. A certificate of completion means that a student can never (as long as they live):

1. go to the armed services
2. go to college
3. go to trade school
4. go to journeyman's school
5. go to beauty school
6. go to culinary arts school
7. get a federal loan in their lifetime

This is the portion of NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (2001) that Bush slipped in during the 2004 revision of the NCLB bill. It has not been publicized. At a high school in Indiana, in 2005, there were 87 seniors in the graduation class. Five got diplomas and 82 got "Certificates of Completion".

This is being referred to as the "Paper Plantation". It is better for students to drop out and get into a GED program so they may seek other forms of education, later in life, if they desire to do so. All 50 states have "Certificates of Completion or Attendance".

Please pass this information along to EVERYONE you know who has school age children. Clergy, please preach it from the pulpits. Our people MUST know this information. Thank you & stay blessed.

Anyone who knows much about NCLB can see the serious factual flaws here, but it's just as easy to see how most people, who have no reason to know much about the law's details, might be deceived. (I won't get into pointing out the flaws or debunking here, since the folks at About.com and the Department of Education have already done a qutie thorough job of this. It's also fascinating to learn that NCLB has reached the level of cultural currency where it has its own chain hoax e-mail, or that anti-NCLB propaganda (and anti-Bush paranoia in some communities) has taken such hold that people would believe such sensational claims.

It's good that the Department's correcting rampant misinformation about the law. But, as my colleagues Kevin and Andy have noted elsewhere, misinformation about NCLB is also rampant in mainstream media coverage of the law, which is read by a lot more people and commands more respect than your typical chain e-mail.

I'm also curious to see if anyone out there knows more about the actual origins of the e-mail itself. It appears to have started in Indiana, and the "paper plantation" reference is also suggestive, but please send me info if you know anything more.