After years of graduating students without the full state requirements set in 2011, a semester of freshman civics will now cover the study of economics.

To meet the state requirements that all students take an economics and geography course the social studies department decided to adjust the freshman and sophomore courses. While previously most of the geography standards had been met in the AP World History and AP European History classes, not all were reached.

Those students who took certain courses and missed the economics or geography requirements had the requirements waived, however that is no longer an option.

Social studies teacher and department head Carley Kregness said she thinks in the importance of including economics curriculum in school.

“I do believe that every student should have some economic education,” Kregness said. “It has been a weakness in our system that so many students graduated without having any economics.”

To address the state standards, the geography standards will be embedded fully within later classes, while the economics standards will become a whole semester in the freshman civics course. The exact changes within the classes regarding projects is not yet known.

Junior Parker Bretl said he thinks the change is a good idea because it will add a different element to the freshman classes.

“It will be an interesting thing to look at, changing it up and giving a little more variety, more than just the base class,” Bretl said.

Curriculum writing will occur over the summer to meet the needs of the new courses with some teachers going to Minnesota Council on Economic Education training course for updated teaching skills. Kregness said while the school had some economics teachers, more training is going to be required to meet the school’s need.

“We have a couple of economics teachers but we don’t have as many as we need that have been teaching it recently, so we will be going to the training course,” Kregness said.