Denver school board members voted Thursday to impose what they consider the toughest graduation requirements in the state.
The standards call for four years of math, four years of English, three years of science and three years of social studies, including a full year of geography.
District officials have held community meetings over the past two months to discuss the change, which initially was expected to affect the Class of 2010. However, all but two high schools in the district lacked the resources to begin implementing the plan, officials said. So the board decided the new graduation requirements will fall on the Class of 2011.
“There are a lot of schools not ready to implement some of the components of the graduation requirements; for example, the full year of geography,” Denver Public Schools chief academic officer Jaime Aquino told board members before the vote.
DPS staffers sought input from the high school principals this week before concluding that new requirements for the Class of 2010 would be rushing things, Aquino said.
John F. Kennedy High School principal Jeannie Peppel said her school would have had trouble meeting the year-long geography requirement.
“Right now, we only have a semester of geography, so we would have needed to hire a couple more teachers to meet those demands,” Peppel said.
The increased requirements, she said, will serve as a good framework for preparing students for college.
“We already encourage kids to be ready for college,” Peppel said. “This is just solidifying what we’ve been telling them.”
The new requirements aim to ensure that students are prepared for a world where math and technology are needed for survival.
The Class of 2011 and those who graduate later will have an extra five semester hours of social studies ahead of them, amounting to the three years required by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE). The commission revised requirements for the Class of 2010, calling for four years of English and math (Algebra 1 and higher), three units of natural and social sciences and two years of foreign language and electives.
Although DPS’s new educational goals come a year later than expected by the commission, they meet the new college requirements, and DPS is ahead of other districts in doing so, Superintendent Michael Bennet said.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
