1. Platte County High School Board of Education Goal 1: Review and/or modify graduation requirements and course offerings in an effort to improve flexibility, student choice and overall student development.

2.  Expansion of Course Offerings since 2009 2009 Principles of Engineering Introduced (PLTW) A limited number of APEX courses were made available to students wishing to accelerate learning 2010 Engineering Design was introduced (PLTW) A limited number of virtual courses offered through the Clay/Platte Consortium were made available to students in the Spring of 2011

3. 2011 Digital Electronics (PLTW) will be introduced in the fall of 2011-2012 PCHS will partner with Cerner Corporation, with 2 students participating in the Cerner Scholars Program Virtual Course Expansion 20 courses offered through the Clay/Platte Consortium will be available to students 244 APEX courses will be available to students 144 of the courses are not currently offered in a face-to-face format at PCHS 28 of the courses are Advanced Placement (AP) 18 of the AP courses are not currently offered at PCHS

5.  Action Step 1 Work with high school administration to establish a plan for reviewing graduation requirements Weekly meetings were established to develop plan, and discuss progress of goal These meetings included the following: Discussion on the history of current graduation requirements at PCHS Discussion on the history of course development Pros/Cons of current graduation requirements

6.  Action Step 2: Establish a timeline for the process A timeline was established to complete ensuing action steps by final completion date of 2011-2012 school year. Action Step 3: Determine personnel that needs to be engaged in initial process It was determined that the following stakeholders would be integral throughout the process Community members Staff Students Action Steps 2 – 3

7.  Action Step 4 Review district’s previous process for revising course offerings Teachers would submit descriptions of possible course additions in October. The administrative team and department chairs would review recommendation If approved they would be included in the updated Program of Study.

8.  Review DESE’s most current recommendations for course requirements Minimum state graduation requirements were reviewed. It was determined that the following areas exceed state minimum requirements: Physical education Fine arts Citizenship Sherri Copeland with RPDC was consulted as to her understanding on where other area schools were moving with regards to course offerings and content. Action Step 5

9.  Action Step 6 Establish a consensus toward the expansion of course offerings In order to garner support and valuable feedback, surveys were administered to the following groups of stakeholders: Community members Parents Staff Business organizations interested in workforce development

10.  Community Respondents We received 312 responses to the course offering survey 92% identified themselves as parents of current PCR-3 students Breaking down the 92%: 51% had students PK-5 44% had students 6-8 47% had students 9-12.

11. Survey Data on Course Expansion Preferences

12. Based on stakeholder survey data, the following shows the rank of courses in order of course expansion preference. 1Additional technology courses28.6% 2 Additional engineering courses (PLTW) 27.3% 3Expanded science courses27.1% 4Biomedical courses (PLTW)27.0% 5 Video technology & production 18.8% 6Additional foreign language17.8% 7Family & consumer science11.9%

13.  Identify benchmark school districts Kearney Independence North Platte Grandview Park Hill Smithville North Kansas City Action Step 7 Hickman Mills Nixa Northwest R-1 West Platte Ray-Pec Afton Farmington

14.  Action Step 8 Research benchmark school districts and their offerings Each of the identified benchmark districts was contacted by a PCHS counselor in order to gather the following data: enrollment teacher to student ratio number of certified staff traditional and/or honors track graduation credit requirements required fine arts credits required PE credits number of AP courses offered Number of online courses schedule type grading system use of embedded credits use of valedictorian/salutatorian diploma categories dual credit or AP offerings AP course requirement scheduling process

15.  Pertinent Information Concerning Graduation Requirements 45% of the benchmark schools surveyed require 25, or 25.5 credits to graduate 7 of these schools offer students the opportunity to earn 7 credits per year 30% of the benchmark schools require 26 or more credits to graduate 50% of these schools offer students the opportunity to earn 7 credits per year 50% of these schools offer the opportunity to earn 8 credits per year Of the 25% of these schools that require the state minimum of 24 credits to graduate, PCHS is the only district that is more directive than the state.

16.  Action Step 9: Goal Captain will establish bi-monthly meeting with high school administration for reports on progress toward goal Weekly meetings were conducted with goal progress set as an agenda item Action Step 10: Communicate updates to the Board of Education on a monthly basis Action Steps 9 – 10

17.  Action Step 11 Make recommendation to the board for changes We recommend that Item 1 of Board of Education Policy IKF, Requirements for Graduation, change to reflect the following: Decrease in physical education requirement from 1 ½ credits to 1 credit Decrease in fine arts requirement from 1 ½ credits to 1 credit Increase in elective requirements from 5 ½ credits to 6 ½ credits

19.  Next Steps August 2011 Communicate changes to graduation requirements to all stakeholders through various means. September 2011 A student interest survey will be created and deployed in order to collect data for further course expansions.

20. October/November 2011 Specific course descriptions will be developed for new courses to be offered for the 2012 – 2013 school year. New course offerings will be included in the 2012 – 2013 Program of Study. New course offerings will be determined by analyzing the following data: Student interest survey results Community and parent survey results Staff survey results and input December 2011/January 2012 Student enrollment for 2012 – 2013

21. February 2012 Enrollment numbers will be analyzed. Based on enrollment numbers for the new course offerings, determinations will be made in collaboration with district level administration on how to proceed. August 2012 New courses begin. September 2012 Renew the process of collecting student course interest data in order to remain current with student needs.