Unfortunate students of the class of 2022 got hit Sept. 6 with a whole new set of graduation requirements from the New Mexico Public Education Department.
According to policy advisory 162 in the “Policy Services Advisory,” provided by the New Mexico School Boards Association, the ninth grade class of 2019 must complete a minimum of 24 units of credit aligned to the state academic content and performance standards. The breakdown for graduation units are:
English (grammar, nonfiction writing and literature emphasis) four units;
Math (one equal to algebra II or higher unless parents sign off and a financial literacy course may meet one of the required units) four units;
Science (two with a laboratory component);
United States History and Geography, World History and Geography, Government and Economics and one half unit of New Mexico History, three-and-a-half units;
Physical Education or marching band or Jr. ROTC or New Mexico Athletic Association sanctioned interscholastic sports, one unit;
Career cluster course, workplace readiness or language, one unit
Electives including student service learning seven-and-a-half units.
Students are also required to have at least one unit, of the 24 required to graduate, in an advanced placement or honors program, a dual-credit course or distance learning course.
Upon completion of all of these units, as well as achieving a minimum of a four on their PAARC test, a three was originally the required minimum, students will be eligible to receive a diploma of excellence, instead of a standard high school diploma, the Advisory states. Graduation requirements can be met by successfully completing subject area course requirements, by mastery of the standards or a portfolio of standards-based indicators adopted by the Secretary of Public Education and other competency requirements for the subject as determined by the board or by earning credits through correspondence courses that meet graduation requirement and/or by passing appropriate course at the college or university level if the courses are determined to meet standards and criteria established by the Board.
The report of the new graduation requirements for the class of 2020 was not a welcome piece of news among educators in Rio Arriba County. Mesa Vista School District Superintendent Mike Lovato was one of many administrators in the County to voice his frustrations amid teacher shortages and increased expectations without support from the Department, especially in regard to the Department’s pushing of its new diploma of excellence.
The diploma of excellence is essentially the use of a buzzword to add weight to a high school diploma that national schools will not pay attention to.
The addition of the word excellence does very little to boost a students grade point average nor SAT and ACT scores.
“This (the diploma) is really going to hurt smaller districts like ours,” Lovato said. “For example, how are we going to meet those requirements? What’s going to end up happening now is that people are going to start looking at, if a student gets a normal diploma, and somebody has an excellence diploma, that is going to impact jobs, who accepts what, how are the military and colleges going to look at them.”
Lovato said it will make a difference. It’s going to make it a career diploma.
“I think that any time you are looking at requirements or adding requirements isn’t bad,” he said. “Right now, a small district like we have, we have a hard time meeting the math requirements past Algebra II.”
He said his concern is what will recruitment efforts look like for the higher level classes so all students have an equal opportunity for admission.
“Here at Mesa Vista, we have had to contract out to Northern New Mexico College for any class over Algebra II,” Lovato said. “We are lucky that the college is a good partner.”
The Department, despite its new requirements, is not providing the support smaller districts need to help their students succeed, which could be disastrous in terms of student retention and teacher recruitment, Lovato said.
McCurdy Secondary Coordinator Sarah Tario shares Lovato’s frustrations, specifically in regard to the constant and unexpected changes the Department puts on schools that are struggling to keep to current standards.
“I think it is unfair to continually move the finish line expectations for students,” she said. “It’s also difficult at times to keep track of how many students move in and out of the school. I think that the process should be clear and changes should be small, if at all, so that students and educators don’t have to keep trying to figure out where they stand.”
Española School District Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez shares in her fellow administrators concerns, namely in regard to the Department’s poor timing and seeming lack of concern by not allowing districts statewide the opportunity to plan and inform students and parents of this year’s incomng freshmen and their parents.prior to the beginning of the school year.
“My concern about the changes to graduation requirements impacting this year’s freshmen has to do with the fact that school districts did not receive information until the start of this school year,” she said. “Districts should have had the information no later than last spring, so that we could have included information in district documents and advise students and parents about the changes.”