PRAIRIE CITY – Students have filled the halls and classrooms of Prairie City School (PCS) for two and a half weeks now, and the new beginning for the 2008-09 school year is looking good.

PCS students gathered for a spirited assembly with deafening victory chants led by the school’s cheerleaders Sept. 5 to get everyone fired up for a football game against the Pine Eagle Spartans.

“I think we’ve had a very, very positive start,” said Superintendent David Kerr.

While everything appears in order for this school year, Kerr is concerned about keeping his students’ futures as bright as they are today.

During the summer break the Oregon Board of Education made a decision to increase high school diploma requirements.

It used to be that if an Oregon high schooler had completed all the required credits for graduation, they were granted a diploma and sent on their way.

Higher graduation standards have been in place for Oregon high school students for a while, including requirements that students: develop an education plan and profile, complete a senior project, demonstrate career-related knowledge and gain career-related experiences.

Now there’s more.

Starting with today’s PCHS ninth-graders, and other freshmen across the state, students will be required to pass statewide assessment tests designed to check their “proficiency in essential skills” in order to receive their diploma.

This includes tests in math, writing, reading and speaking. Alternatives will be available – for example, instead of the state math test a student could instead complete two in-depth math problems (the local teacher’s choice) to demonstrate their proficiency.

These Oregon high schoolers – beginning with the class of 2012 – will have 3 chances each year, starting in 10th grade, to take the tests, except they’ll only have one window of opportunity each year to take the writing test.

Kerr said he’s a strong proponent for the writing test, however, he would like to see the writing exam offered more than once a year.

Of grave concern to Kerr are the new math requirements for the Class of 2014.

These Oregon seventh-graders and the other classes that follow will be required to have three credits of math at higher levels – algebra I and above – in order to graduate. After taking algebra I, those students would then face geometry and algebra II.

“I’m alarmed by that,” Kerr said.

Kerr said the state is building in alternative ways to complete the new math standards – “applied and integrated courses aligned to standards.”

But because algebra II requires such abstract processing he’s “not sure how realistic (it) is to expect every student in every school in Oregon” to meet the higher math challenge.

Bob Park, PCS math teacher, said these expectations in math used to be in place a long time ago, however, they weren’t a state requirement.

He said that students planning to further their education will need to complete these high school math courses in order to “avoid remedial courses once they get to the college level.”

“It’s to the students benefit, actually,” he said.

Still, for those students who aren’t going on to college or tech school, math programs will need to be developed to meet their needs.

He said some students ask the question, “How am I ever going to use this in real life?”

“A critical aspect of the new math requirements”, he said, will be providing courses that “meld the math with applications.”