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Zionsville board approves eighth-grade computing credit to meet new state graduation requirement
Summary
The Zionsville Community Schools Board voted 4-0 Dec. 8 to offer the Computing Foundations for a Digital Age course to eighth graders beginning in 2026–27 so students can earn one high-school credit that satisfies a state-mandated computer science requirement; the high school will continue to offer the standalone course for transfers.
The Zionsville Community Schools Board of Trustees voted 4-0 on Dec. 8 to approve an adjustment to the middle-school program of studies that will allow eighth-grade students to earn one high-school credit in Computing Foundations for a Digital Age beginning in the 2026–27 school year.
Kris Devereaux, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, told the board the change responds to a graduation requirement passed in the 2024 Indiana legislative session that requires a computer science course covering algorithms and programming, computing systems, data and analysis, impacts of computing, and networks and internet. Devereaux said the district’s secondary leadership team recommended teaching the computing content together with the eighth-grade science course so students meet the requirement while retaining elective options such as music, art and PLTW.
Devereaux also briefed trustees on the district’s evolving assessment framework, describing a new ILEARN Checkpoints process that assesses learning in October and January with a final summative assessment in April or May; she noted ZCS will continue to use NWEA to measure student growth and cautioned that the new individualized reports could be misread as indicating lower performance when that is not the case. Devereaux said students who enroll at the high school later will still be able to take the standalone high-school version of the course.
Mr. Michael Berg moved to approve the program-of-studies change and Dr. Christy Wessel-Powell seconded. The motion passed 4-0.
The board did not specify additional funding or staffing changes associated with the course adjustment; implementation details and scheduling for the 2026–27 rollout were presented as recommendations from secondary leadership.
