The Indiana General Assembly has tasked the State Board of Education (SBOE) with proposing new high school diploma standards by the end of 2024. The SBOE has scheduled a meeting on July 30 to further discuss the graduation requirements.
State Representative Victoria Garcia Wilburn organized a meeting Monday evening at the Hamilton East Library in downtown Fishers to take questions on the issue. She says her office has been inundated with questions and comments about the proposed new high school diploma requirements. Representative Wilburn said at the outset this is not a political event, but one aimed at answering the public’s questions. The public had plenty of questions.
Hamilton Southeastern School Board member Sarah Donsbach, along with local attorney and education lobbyist Joel Hand, were part of the panel for the event. Those in attendance wrote down questions and Hand did his best to combine questions in order to fit it all into the one-hour time limit.
The proposed changes would create GPS & GPS+ diplomas, while eliminating the Academic Honors diploma. The plan would allow students to receive training in the work force.
The new diplomas would reduce the science requirement for graduation and eliminate classes such as Geometry and Algebra II. Health, foreign languages and economics would be removed as requirements for the new diplomas.
Wilburn read a statement provided by Purdue University, saying the GPS and GPS+ diplomas would not be sufficient to be admitted to that institution. Indiana University has made similar statements.
Most of the questions submitted by the public centered on how the new proposed rules would work and the impact on parents, students, teachers and counselors.
One question asked the panel what data was utilized to establish these standards. Wilburn replied that most of the citations provided by SBOE were to Web sites. Requests submitted by Wilburn’s staff on citations have so far not resulted in answers.
The large turnout for this discussion exemplifies the interest the public has in the new high school dipliomas.
I talked with Hamilton Southeastern Schools Deputy Superintendent Dr. Matt Kegley June 12, and he expressed his concerns about the SBOE proposal on diploma requirements. Read his comments at this link.
