Schools seek new guidelines

Colorado districts meet Monday to address making grads more marketable.

Colorado school districts are working to implement new graduation guidelines that officials say will make high school diplomas more meaningful and marketable.

More than 300 people representing 70 school districts will compare notes at a meeting in Thornton on Monday on how best to put the guidelines into practice.

“Each district is thinking about what this really means and how best to put them to use for students,” said Robin Russel, the Colorado Department of Education’s graduation guidelines manager.

This year’s freshman class is the first to be impacted by the guidelines, which were developed in 2015 to prepare students for a complex world of education and work.

The guidelines include a menu of courses and demonstrations to prepare high school students for college and work. Local school districts will select from this menu to create a list of options that students will use to demonstrate competency in subjects that reflect Colorado standards and 21st-century skills.

“The idea is to provide students with a road map to help them plan for success after high school,” Russel said.

“Things are much different now than they were just a few years ago, and we want to prepare them for that world,” Russel said, adding that Colorado is the last state to develop its own graduation guidelines.

The concurrent enrollment option allows students to take postsecondary courses and earn high school and college credits. Another option prepares students for the ACT college entrance exam, while another offers advanced placement classes.

There is also an option that offers a pathway to an industry certificate. A capstone option calls for a student to prepare a portfolio of the student’s best work — either curriculum or researchbased — that demonstrates academic and intellectual learning, according to the CDE.

Some districts have moved quickly to integrate the guidelines into their curriculum, officials said. The Park County School District, for instance, developed a three-pronged approach to graduation. One avenue creates a pathway for students to follow if they want to go to a four-year college, another if their sights are set on community college, and yet another if they’re looking for an internship or other work, CDE spokesman Jeremy Meyer said.

The district allows students to complete the academic side of high school after two years, letting them finish the remaining two years off campus and in some sort of internship or apprenticeship, Meyer said.