The Arizona Board of Regents might re-adjust new fall 2006 admissions standards that fail to account for home school students.
In April 2003, the regents changed an admissions policy so Arizona residents who graduate from high school in the top 25 percent of their class and meet general requirements would be admitted to any state university.
But such a policy does not acknowledge home school students who have no class rank, said Tim Desch, dean of Undergraduate Admissions.
This hole in board policy was noted during the last legislative session when Gov. Janet Napolitano and the Arizona Legislature passed a bill that mandated that home school students be given assured admissions.
"We can't apply a class rank common standard [to home school students]," Desch said. "What it will probably be is a [standardized] test score equivalent."
Desch said that while home school students were left out of the revised policy, he believes state universities would have admitted home school students in what is called the delegated category, which means admission is considered on an individual basis.
"Our intent before [the bill passed] was to continue to admit home school students as we always had," he said. "Our belief is that each of the three universities would admit high school students in the delegated category."
Mark Denke, assistant executive director of academic and student affairs with the board, said the regents are voting on whether to change the admissions requirement in November.
He added that a board work group is looking into what would be an appropriate standard for home schooled students.
"We want to make sure that when we have a policy that we're developing, a procedure for everyone is included," Denke said. "We're working with home school advocates with how to devise some sort of ranking system."
Denke also said that there are only 30 to 40 home schooled students in all of Arizona's state universities.
History senior Cristal Franco said she supported a policy revision for home school students.
"If ASU wants to do something for Arizona students, it should include all of them, not just the ones associated with a regular school system," Franco said. "They are all Arizona students."
Reach the reporter at rkost@asu.edu.
