Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Local educators say new graduation requirements for high school students, adopted Thursday by the State Board of Education, may not affect Sweet Home High School as much as it will schools in other districts because the bar has already been raised for the SHHS graduates.
But the new standards will have a financial impact on the already-strapped district, they say.
The six-member board unanimously approved changes that will affect today’s seventh-graders, who will graduate in 2012.
“At this point, the two big ones are the math and science erequirements,” he said. “Fortunately, we have time to start looking at how we’re going to meet those requirements. The overall significance of the changes will be a slightly more rigorous curriculum than what we offer, but it won’t be a lot different because we’ve already ramped up requirements in Sweet Home.”
High school Principal Pat Stineff said the changes “obviously really affect” her school, where administrators are already anticipating a drop-off in student numbers.
“It obviously, in the future, means we are going to have to add credits and add teachers,” she said.
Specific changes approved by the state board include:
– Requiring three credits of math, with algebra I the minimum level for which credits may be earned. This would take effect for the class of 2014, though it could be implemented earlier, depending on whether further study finds it to be feasible.
The math requirement is the big one for the Sweet Home district, Horton said. He said that the extra year of math could “conceivably mean that we may need to add another math teacher in time for 2012.”
Horton said that he, junior high Principal Hal Huschka, and Stineff have discussed the new requirements and determined that the district may have to change the way it teaches math at the junior high level.
He said that one possibility is to teach algebra 1 in eighth grade so that students could demonstrate proficiency before they reach high school, which would open up other opportunities for them in the final four grades. Stineff said administrators have determined that students who pass algebra 1 in eighth grade would be able to get high school credit for it.
“Those are all things the Math Department, and school administrators have to look at,” Horton said.
He said the new requirements could pose problems if certain sequences of classes are required, such as algebra 1, geometry and algebra 2.
“I think some of our kids do better using math concepts in the real world instead of taking a sequence of classes,” he said. “A lot will depend over the next few months as the Department of Education defines what is meant. Right now, we’re just waiting to see what those definitions look like.
– Requiring three credits of science, up from two, with two of them laboratory-based courses, to take effect with the class of 2012. Stineff said she expects the high school will have to bring in another science teacher to handle the additional demands posed by the standards.
– Requiring three credits from among arts, second language and professional technical education, starting with the class of 2012. Horton and Stineff said that the high school’s requirements would already meet that standard.
“We already require four credits,” Stineff said.
– Requiring students to demonstrate a set of “essential skills.” They’ll include reading and interpreting a variety of texts, writing for a variety of purposes, speaking and presenting publicly, applying mathematics in a variety of settings, demonstrating civic and community engagement, and thinking critically and analytically.
Stineff said she was a little leery on that point, that she is waiting to see how the state defines “essential.”
– Ensuring that all students have the opportunity to earn credit by demonstrating proficiency, based on content standards, in lieu of traditional “seat time” in a class. The board wants to give districts flexibility to meet students’ needs in different ways.
Horton noted that the district has already focused on career-related instruction and therefore is likely in a better position to meet those requirements than other districts.
“I don’t see those as a major change for us, but other districts will find career-related instruction very time-consuming, figuring out how they’re going to meet that,” he said.
Stineff said the new standards will require that the district pull together to meet them.
“A lot of collaboration is going to need to happen,” she said. “If you are going to raise the standards, it needs to start at elementary school. You cannot take a student at the high school level that is not reading at a high school level or near it, or can’t do math, and move them where these people want them to in two years. It really needs to start at a much earlier age. We are going to need help from the elementary schools and junior high to get them to where they need to be.”
Stineff also voiced frustration that the requirements are an “unfunded mandate” by the state.
“I’m not against raising the bar for students,” she said. “I think our students can learn a lot more than we give them credit for. I think we can do it. It just takes money. I just have a problem with finding money, especially when we’re losing students.”