TVHS Evaluates Graduation Pathway And Plans Ahead
MENTONE — Rarely does anyone ever want to go back to high school, but with the introduction of Indiana State Board of Education’s Graduation Pathway requirements, it has never been truer. Tippecanoe Valley High School Principal Chad Cripe presented the requirements to the school board Monday night, Dec. 11, at Mentone Elementary during the December school board meeting.
The requirements will go into effect during the 2018-19 school year with the first class to fulfill the requirements will be the class of 2023. Along with the regular standards to reach a diploma, students must additionally finish 20 hours of a project-based, service-based or work-based learning experience and one of nine postsecondary-ready competencies such as an SAT and ACT scores, an honors diploma or dual credits. “The issue really isn’t will our students meet these,” explained Cripe. “The issue is who is going to be responsible for keeping track. That’s the huge issue.”
However, TVHS questions the effectiveness of the postsecondary-ready competencies for students. Cripe posed that with the new requirement the class of 2017 would “drop from a 95 percent graduation rate to a 52 percent graduation rate” while a class knowingly fulfilling these requirements would have an “estimated 70 to 75 percent graduation rate with 25 percent of students getting lost in the requirements.”
Cripe pointed out that out of nine standards five of them focus on the academically gifted students and abandons the lower percent with their only option being to lock into a Career-Technical Education Concentrator. “This is where we feel the biggest issues are…The state didn’t really understand that most of these bullet points are the same students,” said Cripe. “Your honor diploma kids are going to reach the benchmark on the ACT…and the SAT.”
CTEC requires students “must maintain a ‘C’ average or higher in at least six high school credits in a career path.” Cripe explained that these students would have to lock in a career path by middle school to focus on. Adam Heckaman questioned the Graduation Pathway career oriented focus, stating, “We switch major how many times in college, and now we’re wanting to do that four to five years in advance.”
However, despite the numerous amount of questions, Valley feels that it “is where it needs to be” with Pathway kicking off next school year. It is already taking steps to provide foundational Pathway requirements to its eighth graders in hopes to get students ahead on graduation.