New high school reform will standardize courses, graduation requirements

Frank Juliano, Staff WriterThe Pretense Is Gone. There Is A State Curriculum For High Schools.

Local educators for years have complained that preparing students to take standardized exams, including the Connecticut Academic Performance Test required for graduation meant "teaching to the test.'' That, some argued, took away local control of course material.

Now, the new Secondary School Reform Act sets uniform standards in basic science, math, English and history courses that all students will have to meet. The state Department of Education will design model courses in each area and "content exams'' that will measure how well students have learned the material.

"The goal is to have more uniformity,'' Thomas Murphy, the state education department spokesman said Wednesday. "If you take Algebra 1 in one district and I take it in another, the course should cover the same material with the same rigor.''

Murphy said that the push for the new standardization came from college administrators, who noted a disparity among high school graduates from different communities. Officials said that the measure was also prompted by a renewed bid by state educators to secure a portion of federal "Race to the Top'' funding.

Connecticut was shut out of the first round of the competitive grant awards earlier this spring. The Obama Administration measure is intended as a successor to the No Child Left Behind Act.

"There are also standardized requirements for graduation,'' Murphy said of the new bill, including an increase in the required credits to 25 from the present 21 1/2. To graduate high school in Connecticut students will also have to have credit in a world -- or foreign -- language, produce a "capstone'' project that demonstrates their interests and abilities, and pass the state exams in the required courses.

The requirements take effect with the Class of 2018, who will be entering freshmen in 2014. Those students are about to enter fifth grade, and the new law also provides more support in middle school, including early intervention for students who are failing courses or missing too many classes.

R. Michael Cummings Jr., the acting superintendent in Milford, said the new law also broadens the use of on-line courses and leaves up to local districts things like the start time, the length of the school day and the number of instructional periods. "We'll be looking at all of those things.''

When students across the state are taking the same final exams in each course, employers and college admissions officers will know that an A in one town is the same as an A in another. It will also standardize instruction in communities like Milford, Stratford and Fairfield, that have more than one high school, officials said.

"This will provide more authentic learning and consistent grading,'' said John Barile, principal of Joseph A. Foran High in Milford. "Right now an A in Mr. Smith's class might not be the same as in Mrs. Jones'.'' The new curricula and testing will continue the movement in education over recent years "away from memorization and regurgitation of facts, but on how to think,'' Barile said.