School board raises academic bar

JOEL DAVIDSON

Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - The classes of 2009 and 2010 will be the first to graduate in the Mat-Su School District under newly approved graduation requirements.

On Wednesday, the Mat-Su Borough School Board unanimously approved the new policy, requiring 2009 graduates to take an extra science credit and an extra history credit. By 2010, graduates will have to have completed a career and technical course, a fine arts course, and a world language course.

The end result is that students will have to take one extra credit to graduate from high school, an increase from 21 to 22 credits.

The changes are part of an attempt by the school district to direct students to a more focused academic course during their four years of high school.

"Students might not be able to follow a curriculum strand that they are really interested in, but, on the other hand, for most of the students we have, this is prescribing a curriculum for school where they're going to have to be divergent thinkers," said George Troxel, the district's assistant superintendent of curriculum and assessment.

By requiring students to study fine arts, career and technical subjects and world languages, students' level of thinking will only rise, Troxel said.

Under the current requirements, students can take up to 11.5 electives, more than half their overall credit requirements. The class of 2009 will only have taken 6.5 electives, a move district officials say will enhance student learning.

At Wednesday's meeting, Troxel told the school board that hundreds of high school students currently take teacher aid classes to fulfill their elective requirements. Those courses often have nothing to do with the district's curriculum requirements and Troxel said students often arrive late to those classes and leave early.

"That's routine for every year, not just this year," he said.

By limiting the number of electives, it's the district's hope that those trends will change. Troxel said the new policy will change the way kids think of their high school careers by limiting course electives and making them more prescriptive.

"There was considerably more freedom in taking courses, where this is focusing students on classes that they will take," he said.

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266, or joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.