The State Board of Education has just issued a press release stating that they have adopted new high school graduation requirements and revised the Core Curriculum Content Standards. Here’s the new requirements:

• Three years of mathematics, including algebra I, effective with the 2008-09 ninth-grade class; geometry, beginning with the 2010-11 ninth grade class; and a third year of math that builds upon these two courses, beginning with incoming freshmen in 2012-13;
• Three years of lab science, including biology, effective with the 2008-09 ninth grade class; a choice among chemistry, physics or environmental science, beginning with incoming freshmen in 2010-11; and a third inquiry-based lab or technical science, beginning with incoming freshmen in 2012-13; and
• One half-year of economics and financial literacy, beginning with incoming freshmen in 2010-11.

There has been a fair bit of niggling over the rigor of the requirements, which have been watered-down from an earlier permutation that included a full year of Algebra II, after people pointed out that many students can’t pass Algebra I and illustrious mathematicians said it was unnecessary, and a Chemistry requirement, which incited other protests. The NJEA was not happy about the financial literacy/economics course. (Do they fear it will reveal financially illiterate pay hikes? No, really, they say their math teachers can incorporate the material into other courses.)

So, high school in New Jersey just got harder. Will students and teachers rise to the occasion? Will our graduation rates sink, as some have argued it will? Does that matter, as others have argued, since our Garden State diplomas should mean something? And what about the Special Review Assessment, currently under attack as a back-door to a diploma?

To be continued…