Kansas high school graduation overhaul could take several more months — if it happens

A push to overhaul statewide graduation requirements for Kansas high schools could continue for several months, if any changes even ultimately happen.

The Kansas State Board of Education on Tuesday heard a fall update from education commissioner Randy Watson’s Graduation Requirements Task Force.

The group, which has met for the past 15 months, in May returned with a preliminary proposal that would keep the minimum graduation credits at 21 statewide but shift how some types of classes count toward that minimum.

How Kansas high school graduation requirements could shift

The Capital-Journal previously reported those recommended changes include the following:

• Communications (4 units) — Instead of requiring four whole units of English language arts, that requirement would drop down to 3.5 units, with a half unit of communications (such as speech, debate, forensics or public speaking) rounding out the category to four units.

• Society and Humanities (4) — Rather than three units in history and government and one unit in fine arts, this requirement would be restructured around 2.5 units of social studies (world and U.S. history, government), 0.5 units of fine arts (music, dance, art, theater) and one additional "humanities/arts" unit.

• STEM (7) — Three units of science and three units of math are needed to graduate under current requirements, and the task force recommends keeping those six and adding one unit of an elective in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Computer science could also fill this role.

• Employability and life skills (6) — Current graduation standards require one unit of physical education and six other electives. The task force's initial recommendation would be to require only 0.5 units of physical education but require students also specifically take 0.5 units of health, 0.5 units of personal finance or financial literacy, as well as 4.5 electives that align with their post-high school goals.

A separate requirement, as part of the same proposed recommendation, would be to have Kansas high school students attain at least two market value assets, or demonstrations of skills and experience outside the classroom.

Those asset types include the following:

• Real world assets: experiences outside the classroom, such as youth apprenticeships, community service, industry-recognized certification, Eagle Scout and Gold award attainment, extracurricular involvement, among others.

• Employability and life skills: ACT score higher than 21, nine college credit hours, high state assessment scores, Regents scholar curriculum completion, Advanced Placement scores higher than 3, among others.

Additionally, the state board could implement a request from the Kansas Board of Regents to require all high school students to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which most colleges and universities require in determining financial aid.

However, the task force’s recommendation also includes a provision for allowing individual students, families or even schools to exempt certain students.

All requirements would be a minimum, and local boards could pursue adding further credits. Many do, although several districts temporarily lowered graduation requirements to the state minimum of 21 credits during the early months of the pandemic.

But Kansas State Board of Education members unsure in process

After the graduation requirement task force's preliminary proposal came out in May, the state board quickly came under criticism from some groups — particularly teachers whose subject areas were reduced in the proposal.

The state education board on Tuesday hashed out some of those concerns, as well as others. Board member Melanie Haas, D-Overland Park, said she still wasn't satisfied with what she called a lack of data on the ramifications of the proposal, such as numbers of teachers who would be lost with lower class requirements.

Board member Betty Arnold, D-Wichita, said she had initially been excited when the committee formed but lost much of that energy when she said she realized the proposal didn't address many of the needs of the 40% of Kansas public school students who don't appear to be on track to graduate.

"I’m not one who wants to come forward and say I’m failing here, but if you’re going to make a change that’s going to impact something, then you have to recognize there’s an elephant in the room," she said.

Jim McNiece, another Wichita Democrat on the board who co-chaired the task force, said he encouraged Arnold and others to see the graduation requirements "not as a hurdle, but as a door" for local districts to figure out how to help those struggling students.

"There's that status quo issue that comes and fights us," he said. "There's this winners-and-losers idea that we have, that we want all of our kids to be winners and not losers.

"If we're going to change graduation rates, it's not because we're going to teach harder and run faster," he continued. "It's because we're going to look at students differently and provide different and alternative ways for them to get to the finish line, and that finish line is post-secondary success."

Kansas high school graduation requirement changes could be months away, if they come

The past year of discussions on graduation requirement changes have been the first in at least two decades, when the Kansas State Board of Education last modified the requirements by adding in 1 unit of fine arts but decided against changing the total number of required credits.

McNiece said the task force had discussed adding onto the state 21-credit minimum, but ultimately decided against that recommendation, since local districts can and already do add extra requirements.

Some groups of students, such as highly mobile foster students and children in the juvenile justice system, already have leeway to meet the 21-credit state minimum, regardless of their local district's requirements.

Watson told the board any changes from the board would have to come by June 1, 2023, to affect the current cohort of eighth-graders graduating high school in 2027, since any changes can only affect the incoming class of freshmen.

At any rate, the board appeared to hold several concerns about the proposal on Tuesday, although the issue was never scheduled for a vote. Instead, board chair Jim Porter, R-Fredonia, signaled to the board that a decision could still be months away and said the proposal wouldn't be on the agenda for a decision in October.

The board could decide to accept the recommendations, return work to the task force or even reject any changes, like its predecessor board did 20 years ago.

McNiece acknowledged the board has difficult discussions ahead of it, but that that was to be expected on "one of the most significant transition exercises that we universally across the United States.

"When a student walks across that stage, they are being welcomed into adulthood," he said. "There's a lot of symbolism in it, but it also says that they can do these certain things, and what we're talking about are those certain things, and what they mean going forward."

Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com or by phone at ‪785-289-5325‬. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas education board continues high school graduation discussion