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Thursday, July 24, 2008
By Islode Raftery, Columbian Staff Writer

Three dozen students poured out of the tour bus and into the State Board of Education meeting. They wore matching red T-shirts and spoke the same message: Increase the number of requirements we’ll need to graduate.

The current requirement of 19 credits is outdated, they said. After all, Washington state’s high school diploma hasn’t changed since 1985 (before most of them were born), while local universities continue to demand more from applicants.

The board is meeting at the Evergreen Public Schools headquarters on Wednesday and today to discuss raising the number of high school credits required to graduate from 19 to 24. The board may also require a third math credit at the level of Algebra II or higher.

Tiffany Jones, a 1998 graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle, said that her experience reflects Washington’s disjointed system. Jones attended three school districts with different requirements.

“By my senior year, I had to scramble to take night classes and classes on contract to meet my graduation and college entrance requirements,” Jones said. She went on to attend Western Washington University.

Increasing the number of classes students may sound like a good idea, but it would mean asking the Legislature for more money.

“Nothing happens without money, and there will be a six-year implementation phase,” said Edie Harding, executive director for the Board of Education.

If board members vote today to increase graduation requirements, the state education office would then have to calculate the implementation costs. After that, it could take years for the Legislature to come up with the money.

The state finances 20 credits per student. A high school student who has a six-period day and passes all the courses earns six credits a year. Evergreen requires 22½ credits to graduate, and Vancouver Public Schools requires 23.

Districts use levy money provided by their taxpayers to fund the remaining credits.

Board member Steve Dal Porto said he wants students to take more classes, but expressed reservations with the proposal.

“I think it’s very possible that the unintended consequences of our actions will have a detrimental effect if we don’t have enough teachers,” Dal Porto said.

The state board will also weigh whether to require a third credit of math, including algebra II or higher. Elliot Paull, a member of an advocacy group called Where’s the Math?, said algebra II could be too advanced for some students.

Paull supports bolstering the basics, but said some students should be learning about budgets before binomials.

“We will fill algebra II with kids who cannot be there,” Paull said. And the (math teachers) will have to change the course to accommodate them.”

Tom Vogt of The Columbian contributed to this report.