In 2015, the Colorado State Board of Education adopted graduation guidelines to fulfill House Bill 07-1118 requirements. These guidelines include a menu of options that students must use to demonstrate their readiness for college and careers in order to graduate from high school. Colorado school districts have revised high school graduation requirements to meet or exceed the Colorado Graduation Guidelines for students who begin high school as ninth graders in fall, 2017. In PSD this is Policy IKF-2017, which will first impact this year’s seniors, the graduating class of 2021. To earn a diploma, students are expected to meet district graduation requirements, including the college and career menu option. However, for students graduating during the 2020-2021 school year, the Colorado State Board of Education is providing flexibility for districts by allowing districts to use local data of their choice for student demonstrations of readiness in math and English in lieu of the menu of options that require minimum scores on assessments due to limitations of available assessments as a result of COVID-19. Additional information on which assessments were impacted may be found in the attached SBE Guideline Memo dated June 30, 2020 and at the CDE Graduation Guideline website.
PSD staff recommends that our rigorous 240 credit requirement, including our 40 credits of English Language Arts and 30 credits of mathematics, meet the readiness criteria set forth by the State. This resolution will provide flexibility within the college and career readiness menu of options to this year’s graduating students.