Weekly Update

_{Huffman High School student Malik Richardson takes measurements on a wooden wall his architecture class is building. Credit: Ariel Gilreath/The Hechinger Report}

A new kind of high school diploma trades chemistry for carpentry

Starting this fall, Alabama high school students can choose to take state-approved career and technical education courses in place of upper level math and science, such as Algebra 2 or chemistry.

Alabama state law previously required students to take at least four years each of English, math, science and social studies to graduate from high school. The state is now calling that track the “Option A” diploma. The new “Option B” workforce diploma allows students to replace two math and two science classes with a sequence of three CTE courses of their choosing. The CTE courses do not have to be related to math or science, but they do have to be in the same career cluster. Already, more than 70 percent of Alabama high school students take at least one CTE class, according to the state’s Office of Career and Technical Education/Workforce Development.

The workforce diploma will give students more opportunities to get the kind of skills that can lead to jobs right after high school, legislators said. But there’s a cost: Many universities, including the state’s flagship University of Alabama, require at least three math credits for admission. The workforce diploma would make it more difficult for students on that track to get into those colleges.

The law passed in 2024 alongside a spate of bills aimed at boosting the state’s labor participation rate, which at 58 percent as of January remained below the national rate of 63 percent. Simply put, Alabama wants to get more of its residents working.

After the wildfires, Beverly Hills shut out students whose school burned

The dispute between two Los Angeles-area districts raises a broader question of what a school district owes its neighbors after a major disaster.

International students may be among the biggest early beneficiaries of ChatGPT

A study of writing quality analyzed more than 1 million student submissions at a large public university.

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