19 Competencies Replace Carnegie Units at Littleton

Littleton, Colo.--As a crucial part of its school-restructuring effort, Littleton High School scrapped the use of Carnegie units as graduation requirements and replaced them with a list of 19 competencies. It began to develop a system of assessments to measure student attainment of these abilities.

Beginning with the class of 1995, all students must demonstrate "proficiency'' on each of the requirements, and "excellence'' in two of them, in order to graduate. Students can graduate in less than four years if they meet the requirements early; even if it takes more than four years, they must remain in school and fulfill the requirements in order to earn a diploma.

According to the new requirements, the Littleton High graduate will have demonstrated skills in the following areas:

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