INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indiana State Board of Education on Wednesday unveiled its new plan for high school diplomas.

The board’s first plan got major backlash from state leaders as well as parents and educators.

Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said Wednesday that the new plan is simpler than the first one. “We have been not stopping until we got this to a better place for Indiana.”

The board will get input from Hoosiers about the second plan.

At the board of education meeting in a conference room at Indiana Government Center South in downtown Indianapolis, Jenner broke down some of the criticism that led them to completely revamp their plan. “Having every student take all the same things is not working for every student. That was the No. 1 most popular; please find a way to keep flexibility.”

She says that’s what the second plan has done, “maximize the flexibility for students so that they can personalize the journey while maintaining rigor.

“This second one was probably, I would say, our weakest point, and I own that with the first proposal. The simplicity just was not there. It was too complex,” Jenner said.

The first proposal would have emphasize work-based learning. Students in middle school would have chosen between the Graduates Prepared to Succeed (GPS) diploma and the GPS Plus diploma.

To make things simpler the new plan is scrapping the idea of having multiple types of diplomas.
“The two diplomas, Indiana GPS and Indiana GPS Plus, are gone. One base diploma,” Jenner said.

Instead, students can earn an Honors seal or an Honors Plus seal. Both have detailed criteria — for example, required language courses for the Honors seal, or getting an associate’s degree while in high school for the Honors Plus seal.

Purdue University President Mung Chiang, who was critical of the first plan, likes the new one.

Chiang said in a letter to Jenner, “It is excellent to see the introduction of the Honors Seal and Honors Plus Seal. Thank you for the open-minded willingness to provide a broad range of choices and clearly illuminated pathways for all high school students.”