Durango District 9-R wanted feedback from parents on a draft version of revised graduation standards, and it got it – don’t lower the required math to three years, have students take at least one year of a modern language, and reconsider adopting the changes for the class of 2020.
About 30 people, including several parents of eighth-graders who will be starting high school in the fall, met in the library at Durango High School to discuss the proposed changes Wednesday evening.
One big difference is how the district is looking at the standards, DHS Principal Leanne Garcia said.
“We have always based our graduation requirements on higher education’s requirements,” she said. “Now, we’re asking what skills students need when they graduate from high school. That question is what we’re using as a measurement.”
With all the stories about American high school students doing poorly in math on an international level, the lowering of the math requirement from four years to three raised a lot of concerns.
“In 2003, Durango High School adopted the state’s 2008 standards and jumped ahead of them,” DHS counselor David Blau said. “The state standards had three years of math, and we adopted four. Now, we’re going backwards?”
Several people suggested keeping a fourth year of math requirement, but giving students a variety of approaches for the fourth year, including applied math in courses such as welding.
The current two-year modern language requirement has elicited a lot of conversation over several months among the 9-R school board members, and it was a hot topic at the meeting as well.
“You learn more than just language in that class,” said Carie Harrison, who is raising six teenagers, including two DHS and three Animas High School students. “The culture piece is important, too.”
Because most incoming ninth-graders have no idea whether they’ll want to attend college or what they want to do with their lives, requiring at least one year of modern language during freshman year was suggested. Then, if students decide during their junior or senior year they want to go to a four-year college, they have to pick up only one more year.
Dan Snowberger, 9-R superintendent, had been planning to recommend to the board that the new standards be adopted for the class of 2020, this fall’s incoming freshmen. Many attendees thought the conversation needed to continue in the community before they’re approved.
“This yo-yoing of format (eliminating Small Learning Communities) and schedules is a concern,” said Debbie Lee, who has one child who graduated from DHS last year, one child who will be a junior in the fall and twins who are incoming freshmen. “How can you maintain any kind of consistency if the board keeps changing direction? The teachers here have done an amazing job with my children, and we don’t need to make change for change’s sake.”
Lola Thomas, 14, an eighth-grader at Miller Middle School, attended the meeting with her mother, Kristin Thomas.
“This is confusing for us,” Lola said. “We just figured out the electives we want to take in high school, and now we don’t know if we’ll still get to take them.”
The district has one more year before it must have its new standards in place for the Class of 2021 as mandated by the Colorado Department of Education.
“Be really thoughtful about how you decide,” said Deb Mendenwalt, another counselor at DHS. “These standards scoop up a lot of students we lose in the process, but we get some students into four-year colleges because of what they did in the ninth grade. Teenagers don’t jump on something unless it’s required, and when you talk about reducing foreign languages, that might close some doors, and that scares me.”
“These are our graduation requirements,” Snowberger said, “not mine, not the board’s, but our community’s. The worlds of college and career and military are not that different anymore. Our intent is to meet those requirements, and we’re thankful for your feedback tonight.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
Draft graduation requirements (PDF)
