West Hartford school board changes graduation requirements for 2023
WEST HARTFORD – West Hartford’s roughly 730 eighth-grade students will enter high school this fall with different graduation requirements than upperclassmen at Hall and Conard high schools.
West Hartford’s school board voted unanimously Tuesday night to align the class of 2023’s graduation requirements with state law, which includes 25 credits and a mastery experience component similar to a capstone.
In 2010, state law changed to require 25 credits for graduating high school students. Since then, legislators each year extended the deadline for implementation to the graduating class of 2023. A proposal is on the table to again push out the deadline to implement these graduation requirements statewide, but West Hartford leaders wanted to implement the changes in the event the bill fails, school district leaders said.
Currently, West Hartford high school students are required to graduate with at least 21.75 credits — seven elective courses, four English credits, three for mathematics, three for social studies, two for science, 1.75 credits for physical education and health, and one credit for arts or technical education. Those re- quirements will remain for next year’s sophomores, juniors and seniors.
The incoming freshman class will be required to complete 25 credits instead, according to Paul Vicinus, West Hartford Public School’s assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment. Next year’s freshmen must complete nine humanities credits comprising four English credits, three social studies credits, one world language credit and a half credit for arts. They will also need nine STEM credits, including three mathematics and three science credits, as well as four credits for electives, two credits for physical education and one credit as “mastery experience,” or as a capstone course.
The mastery experience credit is for students to demonstrate their knowledge in a certain area ahead of graduation.
Vicinus said the change in graduation requirements will have a “minimal impact on staffing” with an increase in the number of health teachers in the district.