Kansas high school graduation requirements could be more flexible

A activity drive charged with evaluating Kansas’ commencement necessities sees a chance to extend flexibility for the state’s highschool college students.

The Kansas State Board of Training’s Commencement Necessities Job Pressure on Tuesday briefed the board on the previous yr of its work.

The duty drive, co-chaired by board member Jim McNiece and Basehor-Linwood Excessive Faculty principal Jarred Fuhrman, instructed the state board it nonetheless wanted a number of extra months to develop particular suggestions for the board to take up at a future assembly.

Nonetheless, preliminary suggestions from the group would give college students broader latitude in choosing how lessons depend towards the state’s credit score hour requirement, whereas additionally requiring college students to choose up experiences exterior the classroom to complement their highschool transcripts.

All modifications would rely closely on Particular person Plans of Examine, or highschool course plans that the Kansas State Division of Training strongly recommends college districts implement for every of their college students.

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Early advice would hold 21 unit flooring however re-organize how highschool lessons depend

At present, Kansas college districts should require their college students to cross at the very least 21 items in particular topics to graduate, though districts are allowed to require greater than that. 

In Kansas, a unit usually measures a yr’s value of studying in a category, with two common semesters including as much as one entire unit. The duty drive’s preliminary advice can be to keep up the present 21-unit flooring however modify how numerous lessons depend towards that minimal.

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Courses can be reorganized into a brand new classification system, to higher align with the ability units colleges hope to show college students, moderately than the precise topics, mentioned Christie Meyer, a subcommittee chair on the duty drive and principal at Eisenhower Excessive Faculty in Goddard.

These teams embody:

• Communications — As an alternative of requiring 4 entire items of English language arts, that requirement would drop down to three.5 items, with a half unit of communications (similar to speech, debate, forensics or public talking) rounding out the class to 4 items.

• Society and Humanities — Moderately than 3 items in historical past and authorities and 1 unit in nice arts, this requirement can be restructured round 2.5 items of social research (world and U.S. historical past, authorities), 0.5 items of nice arts (music, dance, artwork, theater) and 1 further “humanities/arts” unit.

• STEM — 3 items of science and three items of math are required to graduate beneath present necessities, and the duty drive recommends conserving these 6 and including an extra elective in science, expertise, engineering or arithmetic. Laptop science may additionally fill this function.

• Employability and life abilities — Present commencement requirements require 1 unit of bodily schooling and 6 different electives. The duty drive’s preliminary advice can be to require solely 0.5 items of bodily schooling however require college students additionally particularly take 0.5 items of well being, 0.5 items of non-public finance or monetary literacy, in addition to 4.5 electives that align with their post-high college objectives.

“It is simply permitting slightly bit extra flexibility in (college students’) choices, relying on how they meet the scholars wants,” Meyer mentioned.

Publish-secondary belongings may very well be new requirement for Kansas highschool seniors

Because it was charged with evaluating commencement necessities, the duty drive has toyed with the thought of requiring post-secondary belongings, or outside-the-classroom experiences that also maintain worth for college kids as they transfer into post-high college faculties and careers.

The duty drive’s advice on Tuesday was to require college students to earn two or extra post-secondary belongings from both of two classes, together with: 

• Profession and actual world — This would come with experiences similar to apprenticeships, group service, work and agricultural experiences, industry-recognized certifications, Eagle Scout and Woman Scout Gold Award ranks, Junior Reserve Officer Coaching Corps and 4-H recognition, amongst others.

• Educational — These can be school-related experiences or accomplishments exterior of particular letter grades, together with higher-than-average ACT scores, school credit score hours, excessive state evaluation scores, Worldwide Baccalaureate program completion, and so forth.

The important thing for both class is that districts can be given the flexibility to find out what may depend as a post-secondary asset, Meyer mentioned.

“What works in in western Kansas might not work in Kansas Metropolis,” she mentioned. “What’s good for college kids in Topeka could also be totally different than what’s good for college kids in Wichita.”

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Commencement flexibility already exists, however some Kansas college districts do not realize it

One of many key issues the duty drive discovered is that whereas Kansas college stakeholders need extra flexibility for college kids to have the ability to graduate, many do not understand college principals, superintendents and faculty boards have already got the authority to make these selections on the native degree.

Faculty directors can already grant course credit score for experiences and wishes that are not tied to particular class time, since items are tied to “profitable demonstration of competency and information of a content material space,” Fuhrman mentioned.

So far as the general preliminary modifications, McNiece mentioned the duty drive has solely began “scratching the floor” of what a possible overhaul may appear like.

He mentioned the duty drive wants further time to work with the state schooling division and different stakeholders to find out what modifications may very well be each possible and efficient.

“Some folks would possibly say, ‘Nicely, the one factor you are doing is making it simpler for teenagers to graduate,’” McNiece mentioned. “No, truly, we’re making it tougher — not within the sense that it is tough to perform, however that it is tough when it comes to difficult them to take a look at college in a different way and to consider their future in a different way.”

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Even a small change to the commencement necessities can be notable, because the final time the State Board of Training made any such change was greater than 20 years in the past, when it voted so as to add a nice arts credit score.

A newer activity drive charged with evaluating commencement necessities in the end determined towards recommending any modifications.

Nonetheless, any modifications would solely take impact after the present class of freshman on the time of the change graduate. In different phrases, a vote to alter commencement necessities subsequent college yr would tentatively have an effect on the category of 2027.

Rafael Garcia is an schooling reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He could be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com. Observe him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.