Rethinking graduation requirements as the Palma Scholar pilot enters its seventh year
By Annika Holliday ‘20, Britt Masback ‘20
Graduation requirements for students at Catlin Gabel. Graphic created by Annika Holliday. Photo courtesy of Athens State University.
Most Catlin Gabel School (CGS) Upper School students can recite the graduation requirements backwards and forwards - a minimum of 18 total academic credits, with four years of English, three years of social studies, three years of the same foreign language, three years of science, two years of health, and two semesters of Lifetime Fitness (with a possibility for exemption based on participation in after-school sports).
As an independent school, CGS is not required to meet state curriculum standards for graduation. However, the school currently meets or exceeds not only state standards, but also expectations held by many competitive universities.
Aline Garcia-Rubio, Head of the CGS Upper School, believes that the current required curriculum develops critically informed students able to speak on political and social issues.
“We have a responsibility toward graduates for them to be able to function as informed citizens that vote...I think all graduates should have a basic understanding of modern world history and the civil rights movement, [for instance],” said Garcia-Rubio.
Dave Whitson, the Palma Scholars Program Director, believes graduation requirements can be valuable in pushing students out of their comfort zones to discover new passions.
“I do realize the value in a general understanding and being pushed to take different things. The person who we are in eighth grade is not going to be the person we are in twelfth grade. Unless you are forcibly exposed to certain things, you may miss out on something that you really come to love later on,” said Whitson.
However, CGS also prides itself on inspiring critical thinking through experiential learning, concepts often associated more with bold and innovative educational parameters than with stringent graduation requirements. In fact, CGS has already begun to investigate whether its Upper School graduation requirements should be re-evaluated to better prepare students for 21st-century learning.
The Palma Scholars program is now entering its seventh year of collecting data on the patterns and choices students make when they are given the freedom to design their own course of study free of graduation requirements.
The Palma Scholars program pilot
The Palma Scholars program was launched in the fall of 2011 to bring academically accomplished students with potential in leadership, athletics, and service to the Upper School. Palma Scholars receive a merit scholarship and recognition as part of the college process. Currently, the three to four new students selected every year are exempt from the normative graduation requirements that apply to the rest of the student body. Their course requirements consist only of taking three years of the Palma Seminar and completing a senior capstone project.
The history of not having graduation requirements for Palma Scholars began in 2013 with the initiation of a pilot study. The change addressed what Palma Scholars felt were overly stringent expectations that left no time in their schedules for electives. According to Whitson, the requirement to take three years of the Palma Seminar in addition to regular graduation requirements was hurting recruitment and admission yields as prospective Palma Scholars reacted negatively to the inflexible schedules. Furthermore, the pilot also gave CGS the opportunity to study the viability of eliminating graduation requirements for all students in the future.
There are unanswered questions about how the pilot results could lead to changes in policy for the rest of the student body. One unknown is understanding how removing graduation requirements impacts college admissions.
“One of the big questions we have is, ‘Are we going to harm our student’s chances at college admissions if they don’t take certain classes?’ We can ask colleges that question...but we don’t always know how it will play out in reality,” said Whitson.
Seven Palma Scholars have graduated free of graduation requirements for all four of their high school years. Whitson wondered about the “appropriate sample size that will allow [us] to feel good” in making a decision to reduce graduation requirements for everyone. However, the answer to how colleges view students who choose their own academic curriculum is dependent on the choices that a student makes if given the freedom to design their own course of study.
There are currently no plans for the administration to review the pilot, define success indicators or establish a timeline to relax graduation requirements for the rest of the student body.
“Right now, we don’t have a projected process for re-analysis and decision-making [regarding the pilot program]. That’s not to say that we couldn’t embark on it,” said Garcia-Rubio.
Palma Scholars chart their own course
In its Palma Scholar program marketing, the CGS website describes the advantages claimed by students without graduation requirements.
“No graduation requirements affords them the opportunity to customize their course load, pursuing a set of classes that aligns with their personal goals and cultivates their intellectual passions,” the website reads.
Garcia-Rubio admits that there are fairness issues in allowing a select few the freedom to design their own coursework catered to their passions.
“Anytime you have a subprogram within a program, there are questions of fairness. There’s a cohort of students who have access to a trajectory that is not available to everybody,” said Garcia-Rubio.
Palma Scholars have taken advantage of the relaxed graduation requirements by designing their coursework in different ways. Some students have doubled up on languages, while some have opted to take computer science instead of health. Some students have chosen not to take either English or social studies concurrently with the Palma Seminar.
“I really appreciated that I had no graduation requirements as a Palma Scholar, as it gave me more flexibility to personalize my schedule in terms of my interests and academic needs,” wrote Maya Fernandez-Powell, former Palma Scholar and recent 2018 graduate in an interview conducted via text message.
“For example, during my first year in the Upper School, I was not required to take the freshman history course. This allowed me to take the Palma Seminar where I developed skills that helped me in future history courses, and two language courses, a personal area of interest,” said Fernandez-Powell.
Not having graduation requirements allows Palma Scholars to pursue their passions and explore more electives.
Based on course enrollment data provided by Upper School Registrar Robyn Washburn, of the 14 Palma Scholars who graduated in the last four years, 71% opted to take at least one year of Computer Science. Meanwhile, only 29% of Palma Scholars took the full three-year social studies continuum of Human Crossroads, Modern World and U.S. History or American Studies. Since competitive colleges want to see a completed math sequence through Algebra II, it is not surprising that 100% of Palma Scholars met the math graduation requirement.
Colleges also like to see the study of languages on high school transcripts. For example, Stanford University encourages three or more years of a modern language, while Harvard University urges applicants to take four years. 93% of Palma Scholars met or exceeded the CGS graduation requirement of having three years of the same language. Similarly, 93% of the Palma Scholars met or even exceeded the four-year English requirement compared to 100% of the student body.
“It’s important to note that by the end of my four years at Catlin, I ended up meeting nearly all the graduation requirements. Having no graduation requirements did not mean that I only took one or two subjects and neglected all others. Instead, it allowed me to make small adjustments to my schedule, without resulting in a completely unrounded transcript,” wrote Fernandez-Powell.
Concerns over removing graduation requirements for everyone
As the Palma program continues its pilot, the rest of the student body operates under the school’s long-held set of requirements. One reason CGS has not considered reducing graduation requirements for all students is due to the potential impact on non-core disciplines such as art, health, and modern languages. Students without graduation requirements could choose to replace these classes with core classes in the hopes of increasing their chances of admission to selective colleges.
“One of the overriding fears is that if we get rid of the graduation requirements - is anyone going to take art? Are students still going to take foreign language? Or are they going to load in more science and math to look even more rigorous to colleges?” questioned Whitson.
For Garcia-Rubio, the likely consequence that students would take fewer art courses is an area of concern.
“This one worries me...I see the arts as a vehicle for creativity that is healthy to human development, to self-knowledge, and to a sense of aesthetics that isn’t being particularly valued in our Catlin Gabel culture and in the larger national culture,” said Garcia-Rubio.
While the pilot program data is limited, the results substantiate concern over a decreasing enrollment in art classes should the school eliminate or reduce the current requirement of two years. Only 21% of Palma Scholar graduates between 2015-2019 met or exceeded the art requirement. Almost a third graduated without taking a single art class.
Another potential programmatic loss is that of the health program. Since health classes became optional for Palma Scholars, only one student elected to take one year of health compared to the two years of health required for everyone else.
“I am concerned that they [Palma Scholars] are not taking health because I actually think that some of the life choices that we make require that kind of information. My inclination would be to require Palma [Scholars] to take health rather than to have nobody take health,” said Garcia-Rubio.
Another administrative concern is the impact that eliminating graduation requirements would have on staffing and teachers.
“It’s very hard to run an organization where the personnel needs vary from year to year...How do you preserve a culture and community of teachers?” asked Garcia-Rubio.
Whitson added that although many teachers fear change, the Palma Scholar pilot data could actually be used to allay some concerns. With the possible exception of art and health classes, students still take a balanced curriculum across many different subject areas even when graduation requirements do not force them to do so.
“There is an overriding fear when you revisit graduation requirements that this might result in people losing their jobs or feeling like their areas of expertise aren't valued…We have all this data on what students do and one of the things we can do is push back on teacher fear that they might lose their job,” said Whitson.
Benefits of fewer graduation requirements for all students
Reservations aside, Whitson agrees that allowing all students to create their own paths would increase student engagement in their classes. Levels of intrinsic motivation are higher when students feel ownership over what they study.
Many students would welcome a change to relaxing graduation requirements as a way to highlight their individual skills and interests to colleges. Gordon Lam, CGS senior, explained this view in terms of the computer science program.
“I think that a lot of people don’t choose to even explore computer science because it’s just hard to add to their schedule,” said Lam.
Greater flexibility in class choice would also allow students to specialize earlier in preparation for their college majors.
“If a student is very interested in computer science as a major in college but is prohibited from taking more than two years because of these [graduation] requirements, they should be allowed to, because not doing otherwise means that they don’t get that same advantage of specialization that a Palma [Scholar] is afforded,” wrote Hansen Lian, a 2019 graduate, in an interview conducted via text message.
Currently, many non-Palma Scholar students interested in taking advanced or independent computer science classes fulfill the arts requirement by taking the 7:30 a.m. choir class.
The Mastery Transcript Consortium
One potential version of a Mastery Transcript. Courtesy of The Mastery Transcript Consortium.
The unknown timing of the roll-out of a Mastery Transcript appears to be one of the reasons for the current indecision on whether to relax graduation requirements for all students. The Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) member schools are creating an interactive, digital transcript that highlights mastery of both content and interdisciplinary skills. Performance based assessment and competency based learning is the emerging trend in education.
The vision for the transcript includes both foundational and advanced credits. The foundational credits, the equivalent of graduation requirements, will still need to be defined and certified by each school. MTC does not have a prescribed model or a mandated set of what they refer to as “Mastery Credits.” Tim Bazemore, CGS Head of School, is a member of the MTC Board of Directors.
“Students would need to earn a certain number of foundational credits, which would replace current requirements such as ‘4 years of English.’ They also could earn advanced credits in areas of interest and strength. This approach would give students more flexibility in course/credit selection and when they take courses, but the curriculum would still include some required credits to ensure a balanced liberal arts education,” Bazemore said in an email interview.
Although CGS faculty are slowly moving toward competency-based teaching and learning in their classrooms, what these foundational credits end up looking like is an open question. The timeline for implementation could be as early as five years from now, but considerable stakeholder buy-in will be required before that time.
“We’re taking a wait-and-see approach,” said Derek Kanarek, the US Academic Dean.
For Whitson, the timing for implementing the Mastery Transcript will dictate whether it is worth the time and energy to evaluate relaxing or eliminating graduation requirements for all students.
“Talking about changing graduation requirements is an emotionally loaded one. It creates a lot of anxiety. And so if you don’t have a Mastery Transcript down the road, then we should absolutely revisit graduation requirements for everyone. But if we are going to use the Mastery Transcript, then it’s taking up a lot of time and emotional energy for a short-term gain when hopefully you’re building something better,” said Whitson.
Option to relax - not eliminate - graduation requirements
There are short-term solutions available that would allow students more freedom without unilaterally changing the current system while also addressing the fairness question of having different graduation requirements for a select few.
“I think graduation requirements should be looser than they are,” said Garcia-Rubio.
For Garcia-Rubio, change is possible. In fact, she’s done it before by modifying the physical education (P.E.) requirements.
“I modified the P.E. requirements with the understanding that the vast majority of Catlin Gabel students are active independently and they understand how to stay healthy,” said Garcia-Rubio.
Garcia-Rubio suggests the value in rethinking other course requirements to introduce more flexibility for non-Palma Scholar students.
“A good example is how the science courses are set up in that everybody has to take two years of foundational science, but then after that, you can take whatever you want. [For example,] maybe it would be worth exploring that, after the second year, you don’t have to take a third year of science because that doesn’t necessarily give you a specific knowledge base that you need as a citizen,” said Garcia-Rubio.
Condensing the two-year health requirement into one year would also free up students to pursue an elective.
“What I’m not sure about is whether we have the right threshold for the health requirements. So that would be a question worth exploring. What information is essential and are we going beyond?” wondered Garcia-Rubio.
Bianca Nakayama, a CGS science and health teacher, sees the immersives, new 10-day experiential learning mini-courses, as a potential option to allow all students, including Palma Scholars, to take health.
“I think it's an intriguing idea. There could be some exciting opportunities to explore public health in Portland, go on field trips, etc...It could potentially be a way for students to fulfill a health requirement to free up time in their schedule for other courses,” said Nakayama.
For students already fluent in a language, relaxing foreign language requirements could also be considered.
“If someone is already fluent in another language, should they be required to take another language at school, or have they developed the skills that are required for that language?” wondered Garcia-Rubio.
Ultimately, CGS has several options to consider in evaluating whether additional graduation requirements should be added to the Palma Scholars program or whether graduation requirements can be relaxed or even eliminated for all students. Whitson, for one, is willing to make a bold leap forward.
“I feel comfortable with [no graduation requirements] being an option for all students...I’m pro abolishing graduation requirements,” said Whitson.