Wiscasset High School

Wiscasset principal lauds new diploma rules

SUSAN JOHNS, Assistant Editor
Tue, 07/29/2014 - 10:00am
Wiscasset High School Principal Cheri Towle
Wiscasset High School Principal Cheri Towle, left, speaks to the Wiscasset School Committee on July 24 about a new state law on high school graduation requirements. Seated next to her are committee members Eugene Stover and Chelsea Haggett. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wayne Dorr
Out of storage: Wiscasset’s departing Interim Superintendent of Schools Wayne Dorr holds up a Wiscasset Middle School jersey that is among the clothing, computer equipment and other old items the department is unloading. Some items may go to other departments in town, or to other towns’ school departments; the department may sell or give away other items, possibly to local causes that could sell them at auction, Dorr said. For more information, call the department’s central office at 207-882-4104. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper

New state rules for graduating high school will benefit students and could help improve Wiscasset High School’s graduation rate, Principal Cheri Towle said.

The new path to graduation will better prepare students for today’s changing demands in the workforce; and those who fall behind or transfer to Wiscasset from another high school will have more of a chance to catch up with requirements, Towle told the Wiscasset School Committee on July 24.

Wiscasset’s current, limited ways to meet requirements partly explain the high school’s 63-percent graduation rate, Towle said. “It’s really difficult for (students) to get back on track .... And we need to look at that,” she said.

Starting this fall, the Wiscasset School Department and others around Maine will move to a diploma system that requires students to take language arts, math and science and technology every year; and be proficient in eight areas: math, world language, English language arts, science and technology, health and physical education, social studies, visual and performing arts, and career and educational development. The first class under the new rules is the incoming freshman class, the Class of 2018.

Incoming sophomores, juniors and seniors will remain under the past rules through graduation. English is the only subject they have to take all four years of high school; and they will still need six hours of community service a year, Towle said.

The new system will give students choices every step of the way, in how they learn and how they show what they’ve learned, Towle said.

That choice is central to the concept of proficiency-based diplomas, because students learn in different ways from one another, Towle said. A student struggling in one mode may soar in another.

The school department has some choices to make, too, in what constitutes proficiency. For example, the department could count a year of foreign language taken in middle school as proficiency in world language, Towle said.

Teachers, administrators, the school committee and the community will all help Wiscasset meet the new state requirements, and add any new local ones people might want, Towle said.

Most Popular