Graduation requirements going up

Area eighth-graders no longer can just rely on friends in high school for advice when it comes to registering for classes.

New more stringent graduation requirements passed Thursday by the State Board of Education will not affect those students already in high school. They will affect the class of 2010 -- next year's freshmen.

Math, English and science will increase by a full credit and a half-credit for health and personal finance will be required under the new standards.

A credit equals one full-year class. One-half credit equals one semester.

Currently the state only requires a minimum of 22 credits to graduate. The new standards require a minimum of 24 credits.

About 900,000 students in public schools will be affected including Central, Jackson and Scott City high schools.

Central High School in Cape Girardeau currently requires 23 credits to graduate. To meet the new requirements, it will increae required math and science credits from two to three and decrease the elective credits from seven to five.

"It is going to force us to do some careful planning with the students' four-year schedule," Central counselor Katy Andersson said.

In November, Central's staff will map out the course descriptions and sample four-year plans for the next year so the changes come at the right time, Andersson said.

That information goes out to all the students in January, including students who will be freshmen the next year.

The new standards for personal finance and health have already been adopted by both Central and Jackson.

"Quite honestly, it's not that big of a deal because most of our students are way over those anyway," Jackson principal Rick McClard said. "Even though it looks like it is a major change, most of our students go way beyond those requirements because of college."

McClard said the changes won't affect many students at Jackson High School at all. Previously, if a student took four years of math and science, those extra four credits would count as electives. Now if a student takes four years of math and four years of science only two of those credits will count as electives.

Because of the new high school health requirement, Jackson will move health from eighth grade to ninth grade.

"We don't see it as a major roadblock," McClard said.

He said the only students who will really be affected by the changes are the 170 students in vocational technical programs who lose a credit every year because of travel time.

"We're looking at embedding math credits within their course work so they will be taught a math course during the school year," McClard said. Students will have to pass a a series of tests in order to be granted credit.

Scott City High School increased its science requirements for the class of 2008 to three credits because of low Missouri Assesment Program scores, so the science graduation requirements won't change.

With the increase in math standards, Scott City will likely have to hire another math teacher, superintendent Diann Bradshaw said.

While Scott City currently has a personal finance class as an elective, careful planning is needed to make that class into a requirement, Bradshaw said.

"We normally set up an open meeting with parents and go through the requirements for graduating from Scott City High School and what's expected of the students during that time, and the students fill out a four-year plan," she said.

ameyer@semissourian.com

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