AUBURN – A meeting to explain the state’s proposed high school diploma requirements will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at Auburn Middle School.

The meeting is for parents, educators and businesspeople, said Wanda Monthey, a policy director for the Maine Department of Education. The proposed graduation requirements would affect the Class of 2010, today’s sophomores.

The proposed requirements would not list which courses students would have to take to graduate. It would force students to demonstrate that they know enough about certain subjects before they could graduate. There would be no single test or exit exam, Monthey said. A series of tests, projects and portfolios would be required over the four years.

The change would effectively eliminate “general” or “basic” courses, because they would not prepare students for the new requirements, Monthey said. For example, students would have to know some Algebra II and take some foreign language classes to graduate.

The goal is to ensure that a diploma from any Maine high school will mean the same thing: that graduates are ready for college or work, Monthey said.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Department of Education representatives will talk and show a video about the changes and then take questions. It’s one of a series of regional hearings being held throughout Maine. The department will use feedback to develop the new graduation requirements.

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