Here's how high school graduation requirements could change in Miss.

Heads up, Class of 2022!

The state Board of Education on Thursday proposed new graduation requirements that will provide Mississippi’s future high schoolers with the opportunity to earn academic or career and technical endorsements along with their traditional diplomas.

Jean Massey with the state Department of Education explained that the endorsements are aimed at showing students' college preparedness or workforce readiness.

Massey told board members Thursday that often parents and students are mistaken in thinking a high school diploma alone demonstrates college readiness. 

That's not the case, she explained. In 2014, more than 42 percent of students in the state's community college system and 17 percent attending Mississippi's public universities required remediation, according to an analysis by The Hechinger Report.

And lawmakers have expressed concern about the $35 million annually spent on helping unprepared high school graduates get up to speed for college.

The idea behind the endorsements, Massey said, is to get parents thinking about the future.

The proposal presented Thursday also phases out the state’s occupational diploma.

Once awarded to students with disabilities, the option got the boot from the Legislature after lawmakers learned employers and higher education programs seldom recognized these occupational diplomas.

Currently, there are five diploma options in Mississippi: career pathway, traditional pathway, district, occupational and early exit.

The proposed overhaul, which would start for incoming freshman in the 2018-2019 academic year, whittles the state’s graduation pathways down to two. The first is a traditional diploma that would require 24 Carnegie Units or credit hours earned in certain subjects. The second is an alternate diploma for students with significant cognitive disabilities.

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A side-by-side comparison of the state’s current standard diploma and the newly proposed traditional diploma shows few changes. Both require 24 Carnegie Units, for example. Under the traditional standard, students were required to earn four science and four social studies requirements. With the new option, students would earn three science requirements and three-and-a-half social studies requirements. Also new is the requirement that students take a year-long college and career readiness course.

The state also wants to see students take a math or math equivalent course during their senior year.

Another change: Students looking to graduate early will have to earn an academic or distinguished academic endorsement or career and technical endorsement before their exit is approved.

The proposed traditional diploma, however, will require students in up to half of Mississippi’s school districts to take more classes to graduate. The state’s current local district option allows districts to require a minimum of 21 credits for graduation. Jean Massey with the state Department of Education estimated half of the state’s districts were below the state’s recommended 24 credits. Others have required their students to take more.

Going forward, “any district can go above and beyond, but this (24 credits) would be the base level for all students Massey said.

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Under the new guidelines, students with disabilities would most likely exit high school under one of two paths. The first would be to earn a traditional diploma. One of the concerns about the state’s occupational diploma was that a number of students receiving the alternate diploma had learning disabilities, a category of disabilities that includes dyslexia, which might not have prevented them from earning a traditional diploma in the first place.

“Graduation decisions are made in elementary school,” explained Gretchen Cagle, director of the state Special Education Office. Cagle said counselors working with students with special needs must work toward mainstreaming students into regular education classes to ensure they remain on a traditional graduation path.

“In those early years, you really have to be ready to go,” she said.

Students receiving special education services can also exit high school with a Certificate of Completion, provided they have reached the maximum age of service, which in Mississippi is 20, and have not been able to meet the requirements for a traditional diploma. The certificate is not equivalent to a high school diploma.

“We don’t need to give up. We need to make sure everyone is working with students up to the last minute to try to get them that traditional diploma or the alternate, but to get them that traditional diploma that gives them opportunities when they leave schools,” said Cagle, explaining the decision not to award students a certificate until they’ve reached the maximum age of service.

Students entering their sophomore, junior or senior year already on track for an occupational diploma can continue in their course of study with parental permission, but incoming freshman must work toward a traditional diploma.

Students with significant cognitive disabilities will be eligible for an alternate diploma. The MDE said that approximately 1 percent of special education students in the state have received a significant cognitive disability ruling.

“The proposed diploma options will ensure that the vast majority of Mississippi’s students are getting the instruction they need to earn a traditional high school diploma,” said state Superintendent of Education Carey Wright. “Our students deserve the opportunity to graduate with a diploma that is recognized by employers, postsecondary institutions, the military and colleges, and universities.”

The proposal now goes to public comment for 30 days.

Contact Bracey Harris at 601-961-7248 or bharris2@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter.