AUGUSTA -- Months after putting off efforts to reshape Maine's high school graduation requirements, the state is back at work on the initiative in hopes of bringing a proposal before legislators during their winter session.

Since August, members of a committee including teachers, school administrators and Education Commissioner Susan Gendron have met to determine points of agreement and negotiate differences.

The committee's 15 members -- appointed by the Legislature's Education Committee -- agree on the basic shape of new graduation requirements for the state's high school students.

The details and time frame for implementing new measures, however, are sticking points.

Group members favor multiple forms of testing, rather than allowing one high-stakes examination to determine whether a student earns a diploma. A preliminary proposal also would require that schools develop individual plans for each student's education.

At a task force meeting Monday, members appeared to support allowing students to earn credits toward graduation through hands-on projects, technical education programs, online classes and experiences other than traditional classroom time.

Currently, students must earn specified numbers of credits in English, arts, health and physical education, mathematics, science and social studies -- with credits measured in hours of classroom time.

The new measures being discussed are preliminary and could change before schools implement them.

"I think there's actually a lot of agreement around the table about what it is we should be achieving," Gendron said. "The concern is that we will put a statute in law that is not achievable."

While the task force is working toward a legislative deadline, it is "not a sure thing" the Legislature will see a new proposal in the winter, Gendron said.

"I think they realize it's a work in progress, something that's going to take more time," said Jaci Holmes, a Maine Department of Education federal liaison.

Some changes require legislative approval, while others do not, according to Gendron.

Last winter, members of the Legislature's Education Committee were poised to vote on a proposal to revise graduation requirements; but Department of Education officials pulled the legislation, saying the timing was not right for imposing new standards on school districts as they struggled to sort out the state's school-district consolidation mandate and deal with a year of budget cuts.

As merged school districts begin to take shape and set their academic priorities in the coming year.

However, Gendron said it would be helpful to have new requirements in place.

"It was important to get it to the table sooner rather than later," she said. "The sooner they have this guidance, the better."

As other states implement similar revisions to what they require of graduating seniors, Gendron said, Maine should not risk falling behind.

"We're now being judged across the country: Where does Maine fare?" she said. "We don't want to be perceived as not having a competitive program in place."

The task force charged with reshaping Maine's graduation requirements has referred to Maryland's standards, especially in specifying the variety of ways students can earn credits.

"What we're all trying to figure out is a fair and equitable system where we honor all students," said Scott Phair, director of Augusta's Capital Area Technical Center.

Before the Department of Education decided to withdraw the graduation requirement proposal in March, Phair had raised concerns that the new requirements valued insufficiently the skills students learn in technical education courses.

As committee members work this fall to figure out what to require of graduating seniors, Phair said he is optimistic that career and technical education priorities will figure into the final legislation.

"Kids in high school are going to have many opportunities, and they're going to have different ways to demonstrate" what they have learned, Phair said.

According to Phair, committee members easily can develop a graduation framework they agree is ideal for students; but the set of requirements could quickly become "an unreachable fantasy," he said.

"If we had unlimited funds, unlimited time, this would be easy work," Phair said.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com