Rockland High updates program of studies, alters MCAS graduation wording

The Rockland School Committee on Jan. 27 approved three changes to the Rockland High School (RHS) program of studies, including the removal of a long-unused elective, the expansion of a law elective to include government, and the addition of a Global Perspectives and Geography course.

The changes will also update RHS graduation language to reflect a November ballot question that removed passing the MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) as a diploma requirement; students will still be required to take the MCAS but will not be required to continue testing until they pass. The district said it will continue to offer retests and support students who seek retesting to preserve eligibility for awards such as the Abigail Adams Scholarship.

Miss Shipper, presenting the proposed changes for RHS, said, "We're looking to remove 'American Conspiracies'; that was a class that had run for a while, but it hasn't run in the last 5 years." She described the law elective change as adding a government component and said the new Global Perspectives and Geography elective would "focus[] on multicultural awareness, and the interplay between human and physical geography." Shipper also explained the graduation-language change: "So students will still be expected to take the MCAS. They will be allowed to take retests... but they won't be mandated to continue taking it until they pass." These remarks came during the agenda item on the program of studies.

Committee members asked whether either the renamed law course or the new geography elective would require new textbooks. Shipper said no immediate textbook purchases were planned for either; course materials would be added or developed as needed after measuring student interest. The committee also approved streamlined language governing schedule changes, limiting schedule alterations to cases of scheduling conflict or staffing inability and removing a lengthy set of previous bullet points and paragraphs on permitable changes.

A motion to approve the three proposed changes carried after a second; the committee did not record a roll-call tally in the public transcript.

The approved edits will appear in the published program of studies; committee members and staff indicated implementation steps will follow through guidance and school administration.