In December 2024, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) successfully finalized new graduation requirements starting with the class of 2029. The new requirements represent an overall prioritization of work-based learning; better preparing students for the workforce or enlistment. The new graduation seals follow a different framework as compared to the previous pathways. According to the IDOE, they, in large part, decided to modify high school graduation requirements considering data presenting fewer students in Indiana graduating from high school, enrolling in college and enlisting.

According to Kevin McDonough, counseling department chair, the new diploma now requires a handful of new credits in addition to eliminating a number of credits previously required.

He said, “With the base diploma, what’s going to graduate you from CHS, you have the option of adding on additional what they call honor seals.”

He said enrollment is aimed at students who plan on pursuing higher education; employment, aimed at students looking to directly enter the workforce; and enlistment aimed at students who plan to join the military. Students have the ability to complete more than one seal. Each readiness seal has its own specific requirements both for the Honors Seal and Honors Plus Seal. Additionally, students are eligible to complete more than one seal. 

McDonough said it’s important to be aware that the new Base Diploma requirements may not meet minimum requirements for college admission. He said the Base Diploma is not the exact same as the Core 40 Diploma.

He shared a number of different resources that may be helpful for students deciding which classes they should take to fulfill the requirements in addition to not losing sight of their elective credits and career pathways.

New AP Course

The College Board is now offering two new AP courses: AP Business and Personal Finance as well as AP Cybersecurity, with the aim to better prepare students for the workforce. David Coleman, CEO of the College Board, said they need to respond to the student disengagement and apathy crisis through equipping them with tools to better prepare them for their future. 

Interestingly, requiring a personal finance credit for high school graduation recently became an overwhelmingly dominant national trend, providing insight into College Board’s foremost intention to create the new courses, likely due to the monetary gain attached to having more students take the AP exam. 

Principal Tim Phares said this school will be offering AP Business and Personal Finance next year. 

“What I know is in our community, our students and our families want to take AP courses,” he said.

He said administrators are still unsure as to whether or not the new course would fulfill a principles of business courses or personal finance credit. 

Whitney Coake, senior director at College Board said, “We are currently reviewing the AP Business with Personal Finance course for alignment to numerous principles as well as a couple of concentrator A courses. The current recommendation has been made for the course to satisfy the required personal finance credit. In each of our conversations with state leadership, we have not encountered mention of any barrier for this.”

Phares said although he doesn’t know how many students will enroll, he said he believes many students will be interested in taking the new course as high engagement in AP courses at this school remains a constant. 

Class of 2029

For freshman Hrishabh Bhowmik, the new requirements won’t significantly change the trajectory of his high school career. 

He said he recalls learning about the new requirements and seals for graduation during eighth grade. 

Despite the fact that economics is no longer a required course, Bhowmik still plans to take AP Macroeconomics with the hope that it would help him in pursuit of a career in business or finance later in life. 

Bhowmik said he believes the IDOE had a good intention to create new requirements. 

“For the regular student who may not be as interested in taking AP or honors classes, simplifying the diploma makes it more accessible to them,” he said.

He said he believes the new requirements are better preparing students for life outside of high school because making people take personal finance and computer science will definitely make people more accustomed to technology in the modern day.

“Overall, I personally don’t believe it’s that huge because if you’re planning on doing a certain thing, you’re still going to have the option to take those classes,” he said.

Grievances against the new diploma 

Not everyone is excited about the new graduation requirements. With a fine arts credit no longer being required to graduate, Andrew Murray, AP Art, visual arts and drawing teacher, said the art department had undergone drastic change starting this school year. 

“Now that some time has gone on since we heard about (the new course changes) at the end of last school year, it’s just absolutely stunning because we’ve lost so much because of it,” he said. “It stinks. All of our classes are smaller, we don’t have as many art classes anymore because students don’t have to take it.”

As a result of the new requirements, Phares said certain teachers facing a more limited schedule, like art teachers, have begun teaching personal finance alongside their normal courses.

He said, “For example, this could be an art teacher with four art classes and then you have to teach two sections of personal finance. We provide the training and things like that to get them up to speed, but that doesn’t happen without conversations with that teacher. ”

Mirroring this statement, Murray said, “We have to teach classes in other departments. I think we have three or four of us teaching personal finance just because it was either that or we have to let some teachers go.”

Murray said he has hope for future years where the present trend may level out, and the art department will get a grasp on the situation through promotion and maintaining the people who are still going to take art classes. 

“I actually think it’s going to improve over time from our heavy dip,” he said. 

On a different note, Phares said, the emphasis of work-based learning had caused a lot of logistical maneuvering in terms of how it will actually be documented and hold students accountable. For this reason, he said administrators are working with work-based coordinators, who are responsible for the programming. 

“We’re in a great place, “ he said, “I think that’s one of the benefits of a larger high school. We have a lot of resources and as these new guidelines and requirements come down. We are constantly  reviewing, learning and analyzing what the next steps are going to be.”