Overhaul of Graduation Requirements in Texas. Changes to testing coming too.

Parents Forum
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<p>Texas is moving away from the 4 x 4 plan as a requirement for all students. This is very controversial. It will be interesting to see how the various Texas colleges adjust admissions policies accordingly.</p>

<p>[Senate</a> Education Committee OKs bill overhauling Texas high school graduation requirements | Dallasnews.com - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News](<a href=“http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20130219-senate-education-committee-oks-bill-overhauling-texas-high-school-graduation-requirements.ece]Senate”>http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20130219-senate-education-committee-oks-bill-overhauling-texas-high-school-graduation-requirements.ece)</p>

<p>They’re also looking at reducing the number of standardized tests required in high school from 15 to 5.</p>

<p>[Republican</a> state senator proposes easing Texas’ student testing, graduation requirements](<a href=“http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/cc1689304abd48c183d835698df0f416/TX-XGR--Public-Education]Republican”>http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/cc1689304abd48c183d835698df0f416/TX-XGR--Public-Education)</p>

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<p>Don’t agree with the first, agree with the second.</p>

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<p>Youdon’tsay - I have to lean your direction. As I said, it will be interesting to see how the universities handle the change. If universities require the “Distinguished” path - I don’t see that there will be much difference overall. EXCEPT THAT it may reduce the number of drop-outs. Kids that are better suited for and allowed to focus on a vocational-technical route putting them closer to a certification at graduation may be more apt to stay in high school.</p>

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<p>Also, for college bound students, how high schools weight classes for ranking will come into play. Those working for the top ranks (8-10%) will most likely continue to take as many AP and Dual academic core classes as possible to boost that ranking. It’s very difficult to get into UT without being in the top 8% (7% starting fall of 2014). For A&M it’s 10% or 25% with a 1300 CR+M (600 in each min.)</p>

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<p>I don’t know what I think about allowing the Academic Achievement in either Arts and Humanities or Science and Math. I’d be interested in seeing if they allow kids to receive “Dual Concentrations”.</p>

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<p>15 standardized tests just in HIGH SCHOOL??? Um, yes, that is a good move. Don’t agree with the first though.</p>

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<p>Dual concentration would pretty much equal the 4 x 4. In order to do this, I would think you would just load up your electives with academic classes in the other genre. Hmmmm…you’re right. It will be interesting to see how they handle that.</p>

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<p>Yea, if you read the text of the bill, it’s roughly like this:</p>

<p>Required for everyone:
4 - English/Literature
3 - Math
3 - Science
3 - Social Studies/History/Government/Economics
2 - same foreign language
8 1/2 - Electives (including 2 required Academic Electives)
1/2 - Speech
1 - Fine Arts
1 - PE (unless exempted by other physical elective or provision)</p>

<p>OPTION 1:
Business/Industry endorsement</p>

<p>Add one Computer Technology Class within electives</p>

<p>OPTION 2:
Academic Achievement Arts & Humanities</p>

<p>Add one Social Studies within electives
Add one Fine Arts or Computer Technology within electives</p>

<p>OPTION 3:
Academic Achievement in STEM</p>

<p>Add one Math within electives
Add one Science within electives
Add one Fine Arts or Computer Technology within electives</p>

<p>OPTION 4:
Distinguished</p>

<p>Satisfactory completion and testing on level in English III and Algebra II
Add one Math within electives
Add One Science within electives
Add one Social Studies within electives
Add one credit of the same Foreign Language or Computer Programming (with special provision)</p>

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<p>Actually, since I wrote down the requirements, now I see that’s there’s not much difference between the 4 x 4 and the new plan in terms of academic rigor. The main difference is in flexibility of content. There is only a reduction in one academic course. The main difference is that students get to decide where they will place their academic electives: Math, Science or Social Studies. The current distinguished plan, which is what most competitive 4 year college bound students follow anyway doesn’t really change, except that now they can do computer programming instead of one of their three years of foreign language give certain provisions are met.</p>

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<p>Don’t like. I was a very math and social studies-centered person. I didn’t want to take extra science classes or extra fine arts class, depending on which pathway I took. </p>

<p>What’s wrong with leaving a core and letting students do the rest in electives :confused:</p>

<p>Like the reduction in tests though!</p>

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<p>Romanigypsyeyes, I think I understand what you’re saying.</p>

<p>Just out of curiousity, what do you think the core requirements should be? This was the main point of contention that most people had.</p>

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<p>I like it as is with one exception, I’d like to see Fine Arts as .5 and some sort of computer literacy program at .5. (This is totally a personal bias as someone who is just painfully artistically challenged).</p>

<p>I also might add that by senior year, most know whether they’re going to college, trade, or something else. Maybe a 4th year of English can be swapped out for a trade class (my high school had things like CAD and chef classes… not sure if others do).</p>

<p>I don’t remember whether or not they’re required to go through Alg II. I am not a fan of that. Those who are not going on to college should not have to potentially forego a diploma because of an inability to do upper-level math. My ex and quite a few friends dropped out because they simply couldn’t do math at that high of a level. It just wasn’t happening. He got his GED and is now making solidly middle class income at 23 years old. Shame that something as silly as upper-level math kept him from the diploma. Just my opinion though.</p>

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<p>I had a hard time believing the 15 tests requirement. According to [Texas</a> Assessment of Knowledge and Skills - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Assessment_of_Knowledge_and_Skills]Texas”>Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills - Wikipedia) students get up to 5 tries during their junior and senior years for each of a number of subject to pass. I don’t see that as 15 required.</p>

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<p>The same old story … to make sure our schools look better, let’s lower the standards, and by all means, let’s eliminate all objective measurements. </p>

<p>Indeed, we should try to ameliorate this pesky statistic “Even with easy passing standards on the first wave of tests last year, nearly 40 percent of students were unable to pass the writing test after two opportunities, and 26 percent could not pass the reading exam.”</p>

<p>FYI, the current 15 tests in Texas are: Reading English I, II and III, Writing English I, II and III, Algebra I and II, Geometry, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, U.S. History, World History and Geography. Proposals are to reduce the number of tests that high school students should have to pass to graduate to be between 6 and 12 — including English II and III, Algebra I, geometry, biology, chemistry and U.S. history.</p>

<p>As always, the number and repetition of the tests is rather trivial. The real issue should be about WHY schools want to get rid of testing, and especially WHY they cannot find a way to make testing a joy rather than an ordeal, and face testing as the … proof they are actually performing as expected. </p>

<p>And, fwiw, while Texas could find a way to reduce the testing by making each one more meaningful, the danger remains that a more “meaningful” test would also mean a growing number of failures to report. </p>

<p>If this was happening at a hospital, it would akin to the nurses and doctors to decide to take the temperature less often to seek to diminish the number of sick patients.</p>

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<p>We should learn from the Finns, imo, and stop testing completely. </p>

<p>[What</a> Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success - Anu Partanen - The Atlantic](<a href=“What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success - The Atlantic”>What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success - The Atlantic)</p>

<p>[Why</a> Are Finland’s Schools Successful? | People & Places | Smithsonian Magazine](<a href=“http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html#ixzz2O13HVeny]Why”>http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html#ixzz2O13HVeny)</p>

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<p>I agree that we DO need standardized testing. And, xiggi, I did not see anyone talking about doing away with standardized testing altogether. The problem is that it has gotten quite ridiculous. </p>

<p>Yes - standardized testing. No to a test in every main subject every year with results tied to your overall grade in the class. </p>

<p>The problem they were having is if you have a kid who scores VERY well on math and science, but horribly on English standardized testing but could otherwise pass the class, they COULD potentially not be able to graduate because of it.</p>

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<p>“I like it as is with one exception, I’d like to see Fine Arts as .5 and some sort of computer literacy program at .5. (This is totally a personal bias as someone who is just painfully artistically challenged).”</p>

<p>Oh, Romanigypsyeyes! LOL - That is precisely why you NEED just ONE credit of Fine Arts. It can be art, choir, band, theater - but it’s GOOD for you to be well rounded. The good news is that they’re usually not TOO difficult to make an A in. If you do the work, you usually get an A - whether you’re good at it or not! :)</p>

<p>“I also might add that by senior year, most know whether they’re going to college, trade, or something else. Maybe a 4th year of English can be swapped out for a trade class (my high school had things like CAD and chef classes… not sure if others do).”</p>

<p>That’s why they left 6 1/2 electives. English/Literature was something, I guess the only thing really, they felt they couldn’t compromise on.</p>

<p>“I don’t remember whether or not they’re required to go through Alg II. I am not a fan of that. Those who are not going on to college should not have to potentially forego a diploma because of an inability to do upper-level math.” </p>

<p>No, Algebra II is not a requirement except on distinguished plan (I believe).</p>

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<p>Alg II is a requirement here in MI. </p>

<p>So do they have like practical math or something as an alternative? </p>

<p>And yes, yes I know about Fine Arts. But can’t I just only suffer through a semester? :stuck_out_tongue: </p>

<p>(Fwiw, my major in college is called Arts & Humanities… I did a book making class for art. It was cool… got to work with a printing press and work with a 600 year old book doing a report on it. I also did three years of theater tech in high school. Maybe they could have an opt-out with something like that like many schools do with PE if you play a sport?)</p>

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<p>Erin’s Dad, TAKS was the previous test. Now, it’s STAAR, and that’s when the battery of tests really became an issue. The whole plan was poorly conceived.</p>

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<p>Emilybee,</p>

<p>I’m not discounting that we could learn a few things from Finland. However, it really is like comparing apples and oranges. Texas alone has a population more than 5 times that of Finland - just by that variable alone, it’s more difficult to control. Also the Finns don’t have quite the ethnic and cultural diversity to deal with that Texas does. And our culture is just basically DIFFERENT. Are there things we could learn - sure. But we need to find solutions that work for US. Those won’t necessarily be the solutions that work in Finland.</p>