Upcoming changes in high school graduation requirements
Thursday, February 12, 2015
By Marianne Deal Stephens
At the January 12 Shoreline School District Board meeting, Director of Teaching and Learning Teri Poff presented the State's latest changes to high school graduation requirements. In the 2014 Session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 6552, legislation which establishes the 24 Credit Career and College Ready Graduation Requirements, which include:
- Credits: 24
- Non-Credits: a High School and Beyond Plan and Washington State History (usually taken in middle school);
- Three Assessments
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| Graduation Requirements comparison chart Shoreline School District |
The new requirements closely parallel Shoreline's present requirements (see comparison), though there is one major difference. Shoreline currently requires 22.5 credits to graduate, and the new standard will be 24 credits. If students take six classes all four years of high school, they will acquire 24 credits, but the new requirement means that there is no margin for academic difficulties. Currently, students who fail a course have a bit of space to retake a class or take a replacement class.
Director Poff explained that figuring out how to provide credit recovery within the four years of high school will be the most difficult task for local implementation of the state requirements.
There is some local district and individual student flexibility in the requirements. The academic distribution requirements can be customized via "Personal Pathways".
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| Differences in graduation requirements Shoreline School District |
Shoreline plans to retain the 3-lab requirement for science, and, while the State will allow students to waive the 2.0 World Language credits in some circumstances, Shoreline will only allow students to waive up to 1.0 World Language credit. These local requirements are more stringent than the state requirements, and more in line with college admission requirements.
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| Credit distribution Washington State Board of Education |
On January 26, the Shoreline School Board approved Resolution No. 2015-1, Temporary Waiver Request from High School Graduation Requirements. This resolution describes the steps of implementation and the reasons for requesting a 2-year extension. Basically, the extension will give the district more time to figure out how to provide additional academic options so that students can meet the 24-credit requirement and to develop a funding model and operating budget for implementation. In the years ahead, Shoreline will also develop Personal Pathway requirements, train staff, and communicate with students and parents about upcoming changes.
Students will have to take new assessments, and the State has already begun the transition from the HSPE (High School Proficiency Exam) to the new Smarter Balanced tests, which follow the Common Core State Standards. Washington also has EOC (End of Course) exams in math and biology, which will continue. The transition makes for a complex chart of tests required for graduation, with very few graduating classes having the same requirements. See OSPI State Testing .
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