This is in addition to the Ouray School graduation requirements of 28 course credits, including four in English, three in math, three in science, 3.5 in social studies, one in PE, two in humanities, and two in business/tech. The majority of Ouray students graduate with more than 28 credits.
The Colorado Department of Education imposed the new graduation requirements several years ago, and they were supposed to take effect with the class of 2020. Schools were granted a reprieve because of COVID-19, since standardized tests like the SAT were cancelled in the spring of 2020.
The new assessment requirements were also waived for the classes 2021 and 2022. This year’s juniors will be the first class to whom the new requirements will apply.
The Ouray district is already on it. The Armed Services Vocational Assessment Battery, a career exploration program, was administered in October to all sophomores, as well as some juniors who missed it last year due to COVID. In addition, all juniors are scheduled to take the SAT in the spring.
"We do not create the SAT or the ASVAB,” said counselor Kimberly Sills, aware that standardized tests are “not based on regular time in a classroom." She expressed concern about adding another stressor on students. But she views it as her job to make sure that every student has a viable pathway to fulfill the state’s new graduation requirements.
She worries that students who struggle to test well, in particular, might need extra support to achieve the state mandated scores for graduation, and sees that as an additional source of stress that takes time away from the classroom.
She is a fan of piloting a system of Capstone projects, locally designed senior independent study presentations that allow students to show off their learning outside of the context of standardized tests.
Students who pass a college concurrent course or an Advanced Placement exam are also exempt from the state assessment requirement. The Accuplacer, the ACT Workkeys, and the International Baccalaureate (IB) program are options offered at some schools, but, said Ms. Sills, "We just don't have easy access in our rural area."