Loading ...Santa Ana’s graduation requirement is currently 240 credits, which is among the state’s highest benchmarks – but the Santa Ana Unified School District’s (SAUSD) School Board wants to water down that standard to 220. There are reasons to do this, but consider that the new graduation requirement will put the district below even the dreadful L.A. Unified. (See the chart above, which is courtesy of the L.A. Times).
The problem, as I see it, is that this is a slippery slope. The SAUSD School Board is not done watering down their curriculum and standards. They are desperate to increase their graduation rates – and they don’t believe in the ability of local children to succeed. Most of the SAUSD School Board parents either sent their kids to private schools or never had kids in the first place.
I personally don’t understand why they have to drop the graduation requirements below those of L.A. Unified. Couldn’t they at least match their requirements? Why drop the bar even lower than the low bar in Los Angeles?
As a 9th grade student at Segerstrom Fundamental High School I totally agree with you Mr. Pedroza. The SAUSD is sending the wrong message by lowering the standards below that of the LAUSD. I see this more as a political move than a move to help our children. If the district lowers the standards we are not putting our students to their full potential and making them great candidates for a CSU or UC University. Sure it is stressful to have to deal with so many classes, but at least you know that when you graduate you will have fulfilled everything needed to make it into a CSU or UC. As a student you wouldn’t have to worry about what classes to take and what is missing etc. The district is eager to put their graduation requirements up and they’re using the financial situation as an excuse. What the district needs to do is work on a better curriculum and get there act together. I also feel like the district has given up on our students and does not believe in there succeeding, if they did…why would they have to lower our standards. Should the district decide to lower standards? It would be the wrong move!
Thanks for writing, Jonathan. I appreciate your attitude but unfortunately, I have to disagree with you. The district made a mistake when they raised these graduation requirements in the first place. There is no reason in a district such as ours to require more of the students than their peers in other districts. Students who are on a college track will still have plenty of opportunity and possibly more to take the classes they need.
To anon Teacher:
Sure students on a college track will make it, but what happens to those students who aren’t? If the district makes a student excel more than that of a student in Irvine, hey that’s a head start. Even for students who aren’t on the right track for college or aren’t thinking about going, with standards so high if they ever change their minds they have all the requirements to get into a UC or CSU. Point is that in response to your comment; I believe that all students should have an equal opportunity. Also on another note, have you thought about your colleagues, how many of them are going to loose their jobs? Or wont be needed for next year? Point is that the district is giving up on students because of low graduation rates and they are using the budget crisis as an excuse.
Its a mixed up situation Jonathan.
In reality, students who are ‘fringe’ college students who change their mind about going or not going to college are probably going to end up at SAC or OCC anyway.
Lowering the credits will allow SAUSD to not host summer school programs and have students retake classes during the school year.
What we need to have happen is for the school counselors to be very active in promoting students through the curriculum. The requirements being discussed are the minimum, and students should not just have the option to take high-end classes and qualify for UC/CSU, but they should be encouraged… strongly… to take advantage of classes offered.
In your case, Jonathan, Segerstrom has a great counseling staff and you obviously are a motivated student. Its up to you to take advantage of your school site.
Comparing any district to another is like comparing apples to oranges- they are both fruit, but have different makeups and thus must be handled differently. The same goes for students. Some want to be on the college track, some don’t, and trying to shove a square peg into a round hole doesn’t make the peg fit. Options and guidance are what can help our students most… staff and counselors give the guidance, and the district lowering credit requirements will help give students options. It is not a testament to SAUSD’s lack of faith in student success, but rather the district and board FINALLY listening to what high school teachers and counselors have been saying ever since the higher requirements were instituted. To say that higher credit requirements is equivalent to creating success is utterly fallacious, and when the facts are taken into account, this is the right decision.
FYI, This issue was discussed in a previous post and on the 2009 SAUSD thread; I am reposting my further input from those areas.
Fitting every student into the same A-G requirement mold does not ensure success and instead often has the result of discouraging those who do not excel academically from being involved in the electives that keep them interested in school. Lowering the number of required credits does NOT mean lowering the expectations for our students to achieve the required state standards in English, math, social science, or science- it gives more room to focus on those key subjects and find skills in other realms. If a student under the current system needs remediation and has to take a special reading or math class, those classes take up room in their schedule that could otherwise be used to encourage a different type of intelligence the student may possess, like art, music, shop, or athletics. Further, more requirements do not equal better students, otherwise we would have a higher graduation rate and number of college bound students than schools with lower credit requirements like University HS, Troy HS, or Oxford Academy, the top three high schools in the county. We need to look at what the majority of our students need, which is remediation and differentiation, and address those things. Those students who are college bound are going to achieve the extra units and A-G requirements, regardless of the number of credits required to graduate.
AMEN #5!
IF the educational establishment really wanted to increase graduation rates, they need to bring back and encourage courses that leads to a career in the “trades”. There are many job opportunities in the world that do not require a college degree and many students who aren’t equipped to be successful in college academics.
Rather than calling this a “smart move” it’s better to call it “undoing a dumb move” which raised the credit minimum for a diploma to 240. The effect of this was to leave absolutely no time to retake a failed course in the regular school day. Hundreds of students who failed a class are shunted into the far inferior and underfunded before/after school classes or summer school. Students are packed into these classes in high densities, they’re all failing students. The teachers are seldom the higher-level teachers, but those desparate to work longer hours to make some extra cash, and there is significant administrative encouragement to pass any student who attends regardless of whether they show any mastery of the topic. Then they’ll be promoted to the next level of study (algebra 2?), without the prerequisite knowledge and fail again.
This is the reality of school life seen from the classroom, which administrators miss. Palacios was wrong on this one. It was a good move.
In both ways is “good & bad”. Is bad becuase”SAUSD does not have the resources to even be at 240″. It might look good in paper but in reality it does not look good!Both teachers &
High School students in Santa Ana have enought to worry about,both inside of the box and out side of the box . Even if you have 240 u still need to pass the CAHSEE test in order to graduate …..
And it will help both the Students & the teachers.
SAHS teacher,
Your argument is right. There has to be consideration of the diversity in student interests and personal – economic challenges.
A one size fits all is just not good administration.
To properly serve a community, a school system must be able to adapt to it’s student body and the winds of change.
I believe our school systems not doing this is a major reason why we need to out source jobs and recruit foreign students.
Colleges do not function on a one size fits all mentality. Why do K-12 public schools have to?
K-12 should concentrate on finding what a student’s talent is and nurture that. Most students are bored and completely loose interest in high school, because their interests and talents are not addressed.
Many say I don’t care about high school because there is nothing that interests me. I will wait to graduate and go a community college to learn what I am interested in.
Unfortunately this is difficult to do after 18 years lost.
220 240 or 200 It is clear that the academic ability of SAUSD graduates and/or near graduates is sorely lacking.
I defy anyone to claim different.
Like EVERY district in California there are standouts.By and large the district does a poor job at preparing students. This is not the fault of teachers, staffmembers, parents, society and culture alone, or dare I say school board members.
It is a unique mix of all. having said that aggressive, FORWARD thinking leadership needs to be put in place. people with no attachement to the community (Noji, Richardson etc.) need to be dumped and replaced with:
A) PARENTS
OR
B) Education Professionals who have unique solutions.
The fact is, most kids in SAUSD are from ESL families, this needs to be core in the cirriculum. Secondly, the calendar needs to be adjusted so that more days are spent in the classroom. This can be ceaply and easily if the management is aggressive.
Simply put, as long as disiterested politicans sit in place of cncerned parents on the SAUSD NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE. They might as well reduce the requirement to 5.
SAUSD graduation credit requirement is higher than my daughters private college prep high school by 5 credits.
Unfortunately, reducing grad requirements to a reasonable level will not bring back those many electives that take students above and beyond.