Colorado is one of just three states that don’t have statewide high school graduation requirements, according to the Fund for Colorado’s Future.
And the number of English, math or science credits a student needs to earn a diploma can vary dramatically from district to district, the fund’s director of education policy, Daniel Furman, said Tuesday.
The fund, a nonprofit agency, presented graduation requirement data from about 150 school districts to members of the Colorado Education Alignment Council.
The council is examining ways to create a seamless link between secondary and higher education systems.
Higher education proponents lamented the lack of requirements.
“I’m shocked by this,” Monica Pleiman, publisher of Latino SUAVE magazine and a council member, said after learning that Colorado, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania had no standards in place. “We should be guiding our students and making sure they are prepared to go (to college), whether they want to go or not.”
The council also reviewed a separate report that said about 30 percent of students entering Colorado’s public colleges need remedial courses.
But local districts argue that a statewide graduation requirement would violate school boards’ right to have local control over education and would hurt students who aren’t college-bound.
“Let’s put myself in the position of a student who’s on a vocational track,” said Lee Combs, president of the Adams 12 Board of Education and general counsel for Metropolitan State College. “What happens to my motivation when I see a bunch of requirements being imposed on me that have nothing to do with where I want to go?”
State Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs, said school districts “have a better concept of what a student needs in their district for a student to succeed.”
Comprehensive statewide graduation requirements could financially burden districts if it meant having to offer more courses, he added.
Two years ago, the state legislature required that students take a course on federal and state civil government to graduate from high school.
The same year, the Colorado Commission on Higher Education set requirements for admission to a public college in Colorado.
Beginning in fall of 2008, Colorado colleges will require four years of high school English, three years of math (algebra I and higher), three years of natural science, three years of social science and two years of select electives.
Many local school districts, however, viewed it as an imposition because it forced them to change their K-12 curriculum.
Terri Rayburn-Davis, executive director of the Fund for Colorado’s Future, said graduation requirement data was culled from district websites and phone surveys.
She said the fund will contact districts in coming weeks to verify data.
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-820-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
