Warren Twp. staff outline Bronx "Big Picture" visit and urge restoring graduation credit requirements

Warren Township High School staff on March 18 told the Board of Education about a recent visit to Fannie Lou Hamer High School in the Bronx and pressed the board to restore more graduation-credit requirements and make advisory and support programs credit-bearing.

The presentations and follow-up discussion centered on Big Picture Learning schools’ advisor system, project-based “real world” learning, and how restoring elective/credit requirements could reduce the number of students who disengage because they no longer need credits to graduate.

Counselor Jen Skahill, who performs credit checks for junior and senior students, told the board, “Any student I’ve ever had in May of their senior year who has not met graduation requirements and who has not graduated, it’s because they have failed a core class. I have never ever ever had a student not meet graduation requirements because they didn’t have enough elective credits.” Skahill said 80% of the district’s incoming juniors had already met the current minimal elective requirement at the sending campus but argued that raising requirements would not harm graduation rates while expanding students’ opportunities.

Teacher and trip participant Michelle Faschetti said the staff delegation was prompted in part by concerns that a 2020 reduction in district graduation requirements left many upperclassmen with “a lot of free time” and…