Course Code Management Changes 2024-2025  

The Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and Division of Career and Technical Education (DCTE) course code changes have been identified for the 2024-2025 school year.  The SY24-25 Course Code Updates spreadsheet capturing the changes to be made to the Course Code Management System (CCMS) may be found on the Course Approvals webpage under “Related Links.”  Districts/schools should compare their master schedules with the changes found in the spreadsheet.  Courses will be updated in the CCMS by June 2024.  

Course Catalog 2024-2025 (see attachment)

The DESE is delighted to release the new course catalog. The course catalog is an official publication of the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) published annually by the Division of Learning Services to inform all stakeholders of approved courses. Each local community and school district are encouraged to use the catalog in consultation with students and families to select challenging academic courses and make informed decisions about educational paths. Annually, the course catalog updates may include newly introduced courses, modifications to existing courses, or other adjustments.

Summary of Course Code Changes  

There are many changes in the Course Code Management System and the course code listings this year. There are course deletions and additions, and there are multiple courses with changes that could include changes or corrections made to the name, licensure codes, grade band, state grad requirement, AQT, credit, and/or class size.  

AR Required High School Courses  

Districts are required to offer distinct courses to students in grades 9-12. The DESE and the State Board of Education (SBE) have provided flexibility in the AR Required High School Courses to ensure that districts are able to offer and teach viable courses to their students. Courses that can be used to fulfill AR graduation requirements can be found here in the Arkansas Graduation Course Code List.

CTE Courses & Computer Science Courses 

ACT 654 of 2023 created the process of identifying and designing CTE courses that will meet the required one (1) unit credit of Computer Science needed by public high school graduates beginning with the ninth-grade class of 2022-2023. 

Currently, any Computer Science course (beginning with the sequence 465 or 565) or any of the below existing CTE courses may count towards one (1) credit of computer science or computer science-related career and technical education course: 

Additionally, the following courses have been created for the 2024-2025 school year that may count towards one (1) credit of computer science or computer science-related career and technical education course in addition to the courses listed above and any course that begins with the sequence 465XXX or 565XXX: 

This does not change how the computer science flex credit is applied. Any computer science course (465 or 565) can count as flex credit towards a student’s 4th math, 3rd science, or career focus credit requirements.  

Professional development will be provided during the summer of 2024 for any teacher interested in teaching these newly created courses. The Statewide Computer Science Specialists, Division of Career and Technical Education (DCTE) program advisors, and CTE Coordinators will be available throughout the school year for additional teacher support in these newly created courses. 

The Office of Computer Science within DCTE will continue to work across DCTE to create additional computer science related courses in a variety of pathways to expand the options students have towards meeting the Computer Science graduation requirement. 

Additional courses are under development and will be added to the approved list for the 2025-2026 year.  

This Commissioner's Memo will be updated as needed. Please contact Amy Counts, at amy.counts@ade.arkansas.gov with any questions regarding course codes.