INDIANAPOLIS | A proposal to explicitly orient Indiana high school education toward college and career preparation, by changing the state's graduation requirements, was unanimously rejected Wednesday by the Indiana State Board of Education.
The Republican-appointed panel, led by Democrat Glenda Ritz, the elected state superintendent of public instruction, declared the new diploma plan crafted by the Indiana Career Council, which is headed by Republican Gov. Mike Pence, was not ready to be implemented.
School board members raised numerous questions about how the changes would impact teacher staffing, arts education, disabled and special education students, foreign language training, physical education courses and graduation rates.
Those concerns echoed the hours of public testimony and hundreds of e-mail messages from Hoosiers that board members received in the past month opposing the new "college and career ready" and "workforce ready" diplomas.
"There have been so many changes in the last several years in Indiana, and I just think it's wise for us to look at this more closely to give our stakeholders time to dig into it, to understand it, to determine the fiscal impact that schools might have," said Lee Ann Kwiatkowski, a board member from Indianapolis.
The recommended diploma changes would have required all students take four years of math instead of two or three, mandated "preparing for college and careers" and "personal financial responsibility" classes, directed students into job training programs while still in high school, offered alternatives to arts education for honors graduates and reduced elective courses.
The new diploma requirements wouldn't apply to current high school students, but take effect for the class of 2022.
Todd Bess, executive director of the Indiana Association of School Principals, said the plan fails to accept that most 14- and 15-year-olds don't know what they want to do with their lives and can't be expected to follow a well-defined career path from school to work.
Disability advocates warned that replacing the general diploma with a more rigorous "workforce ready" diploma could leave thousands of Hoosier special education students, who otherwise would be productive adults, without the basic credential necessary to get a job.
The education panel ultimately agreed to ask the Career Council's diploma subcommittee to consider nearly a dozen changes to the plan and present a revised proposal by April 1.
It's likely the Republican-controlled General Assembly, which convenes Jan. 5 for a 10-week session, will weigh-in prior to a revised plan being crafted, since the Legislature and Pence in 2014 ordered the Career Council propose diploma changes to increase the rigor and relevance of high school education.
The governor has prioritized career training in the state's high schools since taking office thee years ago.
His regional Works Councils even enable local business leaders to suggest school curriculum changes to better prepare their probable future employees for careers at local companies.