News

Michigan an embarrassment

By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
Friday, January 27, 2006 10:19 PM EST

NILES - If establishing graduation requirements was a test, the state of Michigan would be failing in comparison to other states - miserably.

In 1998, Michigan was one of six states in the nation - Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Nebraska were the others - without a set of graduation requirements. The Director of Curriculum for Niles Community Schools, Jim Craig, said the situation has not improved much either. Currently, the state requires one semester of civics but is still without a set of graduation standards.

“It's kind of embarrassing when Michigan promotes itself as having one of the highest educated work forces and doesn't have any graduation requirements,” Craig said. “It contradicts our position.”

The introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act, Craig said, not only meant Michigan schools had to compare their curriculums to one another, but also forced the education systems of entire states to be evaluated side-by-side.

In response, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Flanagan in November of last year laid out a new set of graduation requirements. The State Board of Education then added to the plan in December 2005 two credits of world languages and expectations that new technologies will be used to deliver information to students. The proposal now sits in legislation waiting to be passed into law.

“The process now becomes political,” Craig said. “And with a Democratic governor and Republican legislature you have to ask, ‘Is this bill going to go through the way the governor sent it?'”

The proposed graduation requirements, if passed, would read as follows:

€ four years of English;

€ one year each of Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and an additional math class in the senior year;

€ one year each of Biology; Physics or Chemistry; and one additional year of science;

€ three years of social science, which must include a semester of civics and a semester of economics;

€ two years of world languages;

€ one year of health/physical education; and

€ one year of visual and performing arts

The good news for Niles is that the schools implemented a similar set of requirements 10 years ago, that they refer to as a Career Pathways Model.

”We are in an excellent position to adjust our current program,” Craig said.

Graduating seniors from Niles High School must already pass everything that will be required in the new format, except for a year of visual and performing arts and the two years of foreign language.

The Career Pathways Model would not only leave little transition for the school curriculum, but it would also allow the Niles district to adopt the new requirements without hiring new faculty to cover the added courses.

Craig said it was when the teachers sat down a decade ago to decide on a mandatory set of courses that the idea for the school's current model came up.

“We asked, what level of math do our students need to have a fighting chance to pass the MEAP test?”

The line was drawn at Algebra II, Craig said.

To increase the chances of success the students also take an accompanying math lab during the same semester “for a little extra push,” Craig said.

He also added, ”we believe all kids can learn if they have enough time and the right kind of instruction.”

Another part of the model is having students declare a career plan, or major area of study, when they enter the high school as freshmen.

“The whole philosophy from the Career Pathways Model is that it is better to make some choices than no choice at all,” Craig said.

Legislators will have to choose to pass the new graduation requirement proposal by March 1 for it to come into effect by the fall semester of 2006.

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