Will Indiana’s New Diplomas Serve Students & State Well?

Chip Timmons, Wabash College’s dean of enrollment management, has two sons, “who have, and will likely continue, to follow markedly different academic paths. One pursuing an advanced degree and the other straight to the workforce.” So, he thinks as much about what’s best for each of them as he does about incoming Wabash students when he weighs the Indiana Department of Education’s new diplomas and requirements.

The question is whether their kids will be well-served by another change to Indiana’s graduation requirements, which were implemented as the four-tiered General, Core 40, Core 40 with Academic Honors and Core 40 with Technical Honors in 2007.

Neuroscience tells us that humans undergo two periods of unprecedented brain maturation that deeply affect human identity, cognitive skills and emotional maturity. The first is from 0-5 years old. The second begins in the adolescent years, with start times varying, but lasting from 12-25 years old broadly.

It should be no surprise then, that at least one-third of college students change majors at least once, according to Inside Higher Ed. The National Center for Education Statistics reported in 2017 that, “the rate at which students changed majors varied by their original field of study. Whereas 35 percent of students who had originally declared a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics  major had changed their field of study within three years, 29 percent of those who had originally declared a non-STEM major had done so.”

An 18-year-old declares biology major intending to be pre-med may end up in accounting, or history, or philosophy or finance. Harvard Business Review reported in 2022 that only 27 percent of college grads work in a field closely related to their major.

It seems that humans don’t follow linear job or career paths. For this reason, professional educators have resisted “tracking” students for workforce, college or military, an idea that’s been floated as far back as Plato in The Republic and treated with skepticism in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Yet Timmons, parents and educators are concerned that Hoosier politicians and IDOE professionals have leaned into such tracking with the new diploma tracks.

In early drafts of the new requirements, Purdue’s President Mung Chiang, and other college leaders, pushed against the change, saying that Hoosier students would be even less qualified for admission to competitive schools like Purdue. Legislators and IDOE tightened and improved requirements but modified the base diploma to make students less equipped for non-linear life paths.

The base diploma, tentatively called the “Future New Indiana Diploma,” is similar to the current Core 40 diploma with some modifications: eight credits of English, including a communications-based course; math requirements include Algebra 1 and a personal finance class, plus four additional math credits; social studies requirements replace economics and world history with a “world perspectives” requirement; 12 credits of student choice electives, which can be used to pursue seal pathways.

Students can earn up to three honors seals in addition to the base diploma: an honors enrollment seal, honors employment seal and honors enlistment seal. These are designed to help ninth graders and their parents make a path through high school.

The honors enrollment seal resembles the current Core 40 with Academic Honors diploma. It helps students who think they will attend college. It requires four credits of world languages and six credits of social studies, eight math credits and six science credits. Students must earn at least a C in all courses and maintain a B average. Additional requirements include AP, IB or college credits, or minimum SAT / ACT scores.

The honors employment seal requires 100 hours of work-based learning and completion of a “market-driven credential of value” or three courses in a career and technical education pathway. Students must demonstrate communication, collaboration and work ethic skills. It is designed to help young people who want to go directly into the workforce with proof of employability.

The honors enlistment seal requires students pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery with a minimum score of 31, the minimum for Army enlistment. Students must complete an introduction to public service course or one year of JROTC and be mentored by veterans or current military personnel.

Each seal also has a “Plus” tier with more advanced requirements, including additional coursework, work experience, or higher test scores.

The new diploma system, adopted in 2024, will begin with the Class of 2029.

Maybe they’re being pragmatic. After all, plenty of educators hear parents bemoan why their kids need to learn algebra, and certainly adding personal finance into the curriculum is a life skill. While many people will not literally solve for X or Y in their careers, they have to solve problems with unknowns and think abstractly, especially in an increasingly technical workplace. They may not have drawn a straight line from “I need to earn X number of dollars, minus taxes, housing, utilities and transportation. So can I afford to buy this?” but they were using abstract, algebraic thinking. That life question involves both personal finances and a wild number of X, Y and other unknowns that change across the years of life.

It’s why so many teachers and parents have long told young people “We’re teaching you how to problem solve, how to think, not what to think.”

               Next week, Chip Timmons will offer deep insights in the change.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, multi-issue political organization which encourages informed and active participation in government. For information about the League, visit the website www.lwvmontcoin.org; or, visit the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, Indiana Facebook page.