At its November meeting, the South Dakota Board of Education voted to accept the proposed high school graduation requirements, pending final approval of the administrative rules. The first class to be impacted by the new requirements will be those students who begin 9th grade in 2006. Implementation of the rules was delayed until fall of 2006, in order to give schools time to prepare for the changes.

In response to testimony by educators, the board asked the Department of Education to consider options for expanding the "Required Offerings" list and to review the names of the three graduation paths. The department will make recommendations on these issues at the board's meeting in January.

The new graduation requirements call for three curriculum paths – currently referred to as Standard, Advanced and Distinguished.

• The Standard course of study includes raising the math requirement to three units, adding ½ unit of Physical Education or Health, ½ unit of World History, and ½ unit of Economics or Personal Finance. In addition, students will take two units of any combination of World Language, Computer Studies or Career and Technical Education courses.

• The Advanced path includes all of the changes noted above, but it designates that the three units of math must include Algebra 1, Algebra II and Geometry. It also increases the science requirement from two to three units, which must include Biology and Chemistry or Physics.

• The third path, called the Distinguished path, follows the course requirements that students need in order to be eligible for the South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship.

A document highlighting the new requirements can be found at http://www.state.sd.us/deca/gradrequirements/index.asp.

Work to devise standards for the newly added requirements now will begin. Department of Education staff also will work with school counselors to assist with informing students about the new requirements.