This week, private school constituency leaders and the WFIS board of directors met with Randy Spalding, Executive Director of the State Board of Education. Randy introduced the SBE team and provided an overview of the board’s strategic plan related to high school graduation requirements, basic education, and the system’s health.
The discussion focused on mastery-based education, learning standards, credits, and transcript requirements. Districts set their own benchmarks for subject mastery, as do private schools. This can create challenges when evaluating transfer equivalency and requires increased communication between schools.
Private school leaders also received an overview of the FutureReady Initiative, a yearlong effort to rethink graduation requirements. The initiative seeks to increase flexibility while maintaining college readiness. Jan Marie Brown, the private schools’ representative on the State Board of Education, provides feedback and guidance in this process.
Proposed changes and potential effect on private schools:
- More flexibility in credit requirements
- Algebra 2 as default (not required) third math credit
- World language clarification: two credits in the same language
- Flexible credits: CTE, Art, PE may become substitutable
