photo by: Matt Resnick/Journal-World

Lawrence Public Schools headquarters, as shown on Jan. 22, 2024.

For area eighth grade students entering high school next fall, the path to earning a diploma will require more credits than that of their older classmates.

The Lawrence school board on Monday unanimously approved a new set of requirements that increases the total number of credits required to graduate to 24 from 23. The changes, among other things, emphasize career and college readiness, as well as how certain units are divided up.

The changes to the district’s requirements also brings it in line with state requirements on electives. The Kansas State Department of Education requires that students take at least one unit of a STEM elective in addition to three units of math and three units of science. The elective could be a more advanced math or science course, a computer science course, or even advanced career and technical education. Students also have to take “Employability and Life Skills” classes relating to their future career or educational goals, and at least half a unit in that category must be a financial literacy course.

Here’s the proposal that the school board adopted on Monday:

• Four units of communications, 3.5 of which must be in English language arts.

• Four units of society and humanities; three must be in social studies, and the other must be in fine arts.

• Seven units of science, technology, engineering and mathematics — three each in math and science, and one in a STEM elective.

• Nine units of employability and life skills. This must include half a unit each of physical education, health, financial planning and career/post-secondary planning, as well as seven other electives..

• Completion of two or more items from a list of “postsecondary assets” — things like community service hours, workplace learning, college classes, senior projects or achieving a certain score on the ACT or state assessments.

• Completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

Though she ultimately voted for the graduation requirements, during a presentation by Chief Academic Officer Patrick Kelly, board member Yolanda Franklin expressed concern with the increase in required credits. Franklin said that her granddaughter is a special education student that should be entering ninth grade next year, but is “not at her level” to do so.

“So with these new requirements, how do we make consideration for those students?” Franklin said, asking if her granddaughter is going to need to spend the next four years in summer school to get the required number of credits. “How is she going to meet these new requirements and still graduate on time?”

Kelly said he was going to “refrain from jumping in and specifically solving your granddaughter’s IEP challenges,” referencing Individualized Education Programs.

Patrick Kelly, Lawrence school district’s chief academics officer, delivers a presentation on the proposed changes to the district’s graduation requirements, on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024.

“But that is one point of the individual education process — determining ‘what skills does that student need and is prepared for?’ I think that we also have to think about, how, from an instructional and student standpoint, how do we get kids to that level?”

Kelly indicated that he was opposed to “lowering the bar” to 21 credit hours.

“Sometimes it’s about pushing them to meet that rigor and requirement,” he said. “What things do we need to build and what skills do we need to show that we’ve met that high school readiness bar?”

Board President Kelly Jones said that she was “hard-pressed” to support the plan, but ultimately did.

“Our graduation rates went up by about 5% when we reduced the credit hours to 21,” Jones said, referencing the minimum number of credits required to graduate from 2020 to 2023. “So I’m wondering now, will we see an impact that will negatively (affect) graduation rates by increasing the credit hours beyond what’s required by the state?”

She also wanted to know more about a separate proposed policy concerning early graduates who would only need 21 credits hours to earn their diploma as opposed to 24. Jones said that the proposal has been forwarded to the district’s policy review committee, and that a decision does not need to be made until August or September.

In other business, the board:

• Heard a report on its “Portrait of a Graduate” public input sessions. The sessions were conducted last fall and asked participants about the characteristics that make an ideal high school graduate. As the Journal-World reported, much of the feedback was centered on soft skills such as problem-solving, leadership, teamwork and communication.

• Unanimously approved a service agreement with Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center to provide mental health professionals and other related resources to local schools via its WRAP (Working to Recognize Alternative Possibilities) program.