State mulls waivers for guidelines

Exempting from diploma rules may be allowed.

The state Board of Education on Wednesday resurrected the idea of granting districts relief from state graduation guidelines approved in 2013.

The board heard Wednesday from staff members how they might now implement a revised set of requirements but also allow for a waiver process for districts that still don’t like the state’s menu of options to prove a student is prepared to earn a diploma.

“The legislature gave us broad discretion but not discretion to not do the task,” said Steve Durham, who Wednesday was elected chairman of the board.

Discussions this year had sparked controversy that the revised set of requirements — including eliminating the need to prove competency in two subject areas, lowering the necessary score on certain tests and providing more local control on others — would be lowering the bar.

“How does that line up with what we are telling students?” asked board member Jane Goff. She was concerned the revisions were a lowering of expectations and asked to clarify just how much each student would do to earn the diploma.

But members of a panel of educators that recommended the revisions testified Tuesday in front of the state board that they believe the revisions are a compromise between giving small rural districts more options while maintaining high expectations.

“The options were pretty limiting, pretty restricting,” said Chris Selle, superintendent of the Meeker School District in western Colorado. “We only offered one-third of the options. As rural districts we’re always going to be limited ... but I like the idea that there are additional pathways now.”

The graduation guidelines that were approved in 2013 — and were in the process of being implemented for the class of 2021 — were meant to create a common set of expectations across the state’s 178 school districts for the first time.

Board members questioned the educators about the value they saw of having a common set of graduation guidelines.

Selle said it would place accountability on students and encourage them to do well on tests.

“Other than that, I don’t really think it helps us,” Selle said.

Patti Turner, director of learning services for Littleton Public Schools, said the guidelines could spark important discussions.

Staff members from the education department reminded the board that industry and business members pushed for a common set of guidelines, following concerns that students who had earned diplomas, in some cases, weren’t actually prepared for the workplace.

Board member Durham said he wasn’t sure that concern “was all that justified,” to begin with.

The board will vote on whether to adopt the revised guidelines and/or the waivers at its next board meeting in September.

Board members suggested they might offer revisions as amendments before the vote.