GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS H.B. 4326:
SUMMARY OF HOUSE-PASSED BILL
IN COMMITTEE
House Bill 4326 (as passed by the House)
Sponsor: Representative Greg VanWoerkom
Senate Committee: Education and Career Readiness
CONTENT
The bill would amend the Revised School Code to do the following:
-- Specify that, for the purposes of high school graduation requirements, computer coding would be considered a language other than English.
-- Modify the tests requirements that a specialty school must meet in order for it to remain a specialty school.
Language Credit; Coding
The Code prohibits the board of a school district or board of directors of a public school academy from awarding a high school diploma to a pupil unless he or she has completed the prescribed number of credits in the Michigan merit standard (e.g., courses in mathematics, health and physical education, and social studies). In addition, a pupil must complete at least two credits in a language other than English. For the purposes of this requirement, American Sign Language is considered a language other than English. Under the bill, computer coding also would be considered a language other than English.
Specialty Schools; Exams
Pupils who attend a high school that is designated as a specialty school are not required to complete the four credits in English language arts or the three credits in social science that are required by the Code. The specialty school is not required to ensure that each pupil is offered the curriculum necessary for meeting those English language arts or social science credit requirements.
A specialty school is exempt from the curriculum requirements described above only if it meets certain other requirements. Among these is that, for the most recent year for which data are available, the mean scores on both the mathematics and science portions of the ACT exam for the pupils of the specialty school exceed by at least 10% the mean scores on the mathematics and science portions of the ACT exam for pupils of the school district in which the great number of the pupils of the specialty school reside.
Instead, under the bill, for the most recent year for which data are available, the mean scores on the mathematic portion of the SAT exam and science portion of the applicable State assessment for the pupils of the specialty school would have to exceed by at least 10% the mean scores on those tests for the pupils of the district in which the greatest number of the pupils at the specialty school resided.