Westfield teachers have been among the most vocal critics of the state’s proposed overhaul of the diplomas that high school students receive upon graduating from high school.

When the state unveiled a revision of its plan, Westfield teachers said the revision was better but still did not meet the standards that needed to be set for children to graduate from school having reached their full potential.

“I hope we are still in the design phase because there is still a lot of work to be done to make our students competitive with other students, not just at universities abroad but at universities in Indiana,” said Dawn Knight, an English teacher at Westfield High School.

The revised plan scrapped the original plan that would have given middle school students a choice between two GPS diplomas. Instead, the state will return to a single diploma as it exists now, but it will offer honorary seals that students can pursue in the same spirit as the GPS diploma.

The goal is for students to learn in a career-focused way to prepare early for the careers they are interested in. However, the GPS plan sacrificed some core requirements in math, science and foreign languages, which Westfield teachers said was unacceptable.

Jen Haslar Troutman, a Spanish teacher at Westfield High School, tells WISH-TV that there is nothing wrong with the state’s current model.

“If you look at what we currently have in the academic honors degree, there is much more clarity and students know what they want to achieve,” she said. “It’s good to have options, but if it’s just options and not requirements, … they need to know what to do and how to go beyond that to get the award.”

The state continues to accept suggestions from the public on how to optimize its latest proposal.