High school seniors throughout Minnesota are graduating this month without completing the state requirements that once stood between them and their diploma. The class of 2002 is the first group of students tied to the graduation standards known as the Profile of Learning. Two years ago, Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire spent several months watching the class of 2002 at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis tackle profile requirements. He caught up with several of those students recently and prepared this report.

	Andrea Jacobsen, Roosevelt High School's valedictorian for 2002, said she was pleased to be exempt from the requirements of the Profile of Learning.

The condition known as "senioritis" appeared rampant at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis during the closing days of the school year. A lot of desks sat empty and the whereabouts of some 12th graders were unknown. But Andrea Jacobsen was right where she was supposed to be second hour, in advanced placement calculus. She's graduating at the top of her class.

"I'm going to be attending Augsburg College," Jacobsen said. "I don't know what my major is yet. I decided I'm too young to figure it out right now, so I'm just going to go there and take a bunch of general classes."

As a sophomore, the high-achieving Jacobsen used the term "guinea pig" to describe how she felt dealing with the show-what-you-know tasks of the Profile of Learning. The valedictorian says she was relieved to learn later that year that the state standards would not be required.

"With all the stuff now that I have to worry about it would be really hard to try to like make sure I've had this and that," Jacobsen said. "Unless it was organized in the curriculum where the students didn't know. Because it almost seemed like a separate thing in itself that you had to worry about and class had to stop to do the task and do this."

The Profile of Learning system is made up of 48 standards in 10 broad subject areas. Students demonstrate what they've learned through various hands-on activities.

Minnesota launched the Profile in 1998 with the understanding that that year's 9th graders would have to complete 24 standards to earn their high school diploma. Two years later, lawmakers backed off, allowing each school district to use as many standards as they wanted. Minneapolis was among many districts to exempt the entire class of 2002.

	"I think it would be good for people under me to be doing these things because they require some work and a lot of thought," said Danielle Minskey, Roosevelt High School senior.

Roosevelt senior Antonio Riley, who'll attend St. John's University this fall, says he enjoyed working on standards. But he's also pleased with the exemption.

"Once they told us that we didn't have to do it, it was like just relieving a lot of stress, because we had something to do every week, because they just threw it on us," Riley said. "It wasn't like they started at the beginning of the year or told us the year before, they just threw it on us, and it was like unexpected."

Minneapolis school district officials say they're requiring the class of 2004 to complete 12 graduation standards. The class of 2005 must do 18 standards. Full implementation of 24 standards will come with the class of 2006.

Senior Danielle Minskey, who'll attend the University of Minnesota, says younger students will have an easier time under a phased-in schedule. Unlike two years ago, Minskey says she now sees the benefit of taking longer, deeper looks into certain topics.

"They're more like research type projects," Minskey said. "Projects that you have to take a couple weeks to do, and so I think it would be good for people under me to be doing these things because they require some work and a lot of thought. And sometimes you just need those type of things while going to high school."

	"It was kind of hard for me to get along with people because it's a different language, different culture. So, I had to take time to learn everything about it so I can do the job on the tests," said Tashir Hassan, Roosevelt High School senior.

Minnesota's graduation rule also includes the requirement that all students pass basic skills tests in reading, writing and math. Two years ago, Tashir Hassan had only been in the United States 11 months. After living in Ethiopia and Somali, he could speak four languages but was struggling to learn English. He says the state tests were a big challenge.

"I didn't pass them the first time, but I took them again and I passed them," Hassan said. "So I did have a lot of work to do that. It was kind of hard for me to get along with people because it's a different language, different culture. So, I had to take time to learn everything about it so I can do the job on the tests."

Hassan is graduating on schedule and will attend the University of Minnesota this fall. He also's now studying French, his sixth language. Roosevelt will graduate Hassan among 299 members of the class of 2002.

Guinea Pig Kids In early 2000 Minnesota Public Radio sent a trio of reporters into high schools to observe how teachers, parents and, most of all, students were coping with the graduation standards. Over the course of five months they found successes and problems, but perhaps most telling, they found a pervasive sense of confusion and uncertainty reflected in a phrase that came up repeatedly - "guinea pig kids."