The Durango School District 9-R board hasn’t decided what its graduation requirements for 2021 will be quite yet, but board members still want them to be higher than the state’s and require students to show competencies.
While it’s a project board members have been working on for more than a year, at their work session Tuesday night, they began clarifying those competencies for students headed for career and technological paths and those headed to four-year colleges.
In a change from last fall, they’re looking at slightly different requirements for the two paths, but hope to make it possible for students to accomplish both levels of competencies.
“They would need to decide which way they wanted to go by the end of their sophomore year,” said Alain Henry, principal of Big Picture High School, who is working on the standards. “If they want to go to a four-year college, they would need to take foreign languages their last two years of high school and take that fourth year of math.”
Among the changes they’re considering:
Moving to a six-period day from seven, but including a zero period and/or a seventh period for additional electives and activities.
Eliminating a speech requirement and incorporating speech in English and other disciplines.
Keeping the requirement for four years high school in the four core areas – English, math, science and social studies – but providing more flexibility for the fourth year to possibly include business and technical writing for English and applied math rather than calculus for those not headed to college.
“There’s a wide and broad set of skills and intelligences needed for technical careers,” board secretary Stephanie Moran said. “That’s a shift we have to make in our thinking, what career and technical means and not: ‘This is the best you can do.’”
The most important shift might not be in class offerings or paths, 9-R Superintendent Dan Snowberger said.
“Academic advising is going to play such a critical role,” he said, “and it’s not something we’ve done a good job of. That’s something Leanne (Garcia, principal of Durango High School) is working on now.”
The board plans to take at least one more look at the graduation standards revised with the suggestions from Tuesday, to be presented at the work session in April, before they are put to a vote.
abutler@durangoherald.com
