Upcoming freshmen for the 2010 school year have to meet new standards in order to graduate high school. The project is called the Tennessee Diploma Project.
Students will be expected to have four years of math, an extra half credit of physical education, and a half credit of a new class known as personal finance. This, plus the other requirements, will add up to 22 credits they will have to earn in order to graduate. Student will no longer be required to pass Gateway exams, but end of course exams will be taken and will count as 25 percent of a student’s grade. Freshmen will have to have a focus in Career Training Education or in academics.
“The project is about preparation. High school students were not performing up to business standards,” WCHS instructional facilitator Medora Willmore said. The project came about by businesses telling high schools that students were underprepared to enter the real world.
Although the new requirements are for the next freshmen class, there are current students who will see the effects of the Project in their younger siblings. One such example is Tiffany King and her seventh-grade sister, Mindy King.
When asked how she thought the new standards would affect the next class of freshmen, King said, “It is going to make it harder on them. They will have to study more. Some may not want to work, so they will fail.” As for King’s own sibling, she thinks her sister will do well because she studies and does her work.
As for if the Tennessee Diploma Project will affect the current 9th grade class, 9th grade principal Jeffery Martin doesn’t think so. “They will have to make the current 20 credits.” Martin also hopes to see the graduation improve as a result of the Project.