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Los Angeles Times/ ­- Politics, Qua, 18 de Abril de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Civil Rights)
LAUSD considers lowering the bar for
graduation
The district could face a flood of dropouts if it doesn't
ease its policy that all students pass college­-prep
classes. By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times April
18, 2012 Eight years ago, the Los Angeles Board of
Education adopted an ambitious plan to have all
students take college­-prep classes to raise academic
standards in the nation's second­-largest school district.
Now, that plan is about to take effect: Beginning this
fall, incoming freshmen will have to pass those classes
to graduate. On Tuesday, district officials backtracked,
offering details of a proposal to reduce overall
graduation requirements and allow students to pass
those classes with a D grade. They must change
course, Los Angeles Unified School District officials
said, or they would open the doors to scores of
dropouts and others who can't pass the more rigorous
requirements. The new plan, which still must be
approved by the board, would allow students to
graduate with 25% fewer credits. "If we don't do
something, we have to be prepared to be pushing out
kids as dropouts," said Deputy Supt. Jaime Aquino at a
school­-board committee meeting Tuesday. "We face a
massive dropout rate in four years." Currently, a
student must earn 230 credits to graduate. Under the
proposal, that requirement would be reduced to 170
credits, the minimum set by the California Department
of Education. Among the requirements to be dropped
are: health/life skills, technology and electives that
cover a broad range of subjects, including calculus and
journalism. "I know of no other school district in
California that is reducing graduation requirements by
60 units and calling it an improvement," said former
senior district official Sharon Robinson, who now is an
advisor to school board member Marguerite
Poindexter LaMotte. LaMotte added that she isn't
convinced the district can carry out the policy
successfully. Former school board member David
Tokofsky, who supported the original plan, also was
bothered by the reduced credit requirement. He said
that officials instead should focus on getting younger
students prepared to succeed in high school. Students
who pass all their classes typically would earn a
minimum 180 credits by the end of their junior year.
Under the staff proposal, students also could pass the
college­-prep classes with a D even though California's
public university systems require a C or better for
admission. Former school board member Marlene
Canter, who also supported the more rigorous
requirements, said, "It doesn't make sense," to push
for a college­-prep curriculum but not the grades
necessary for the courses to count. District officials
said they hope to raise the bar — mandating that
students earn at least a C — for the class of 2017. The
expectation is that even D students benefit from more
difficult classes, even if they don't qualify for a
four­-year college. "These courses are the markers of a
more rigorous curriculum," said USC education
professor Guilbert Hentschke. Since most students
don't attend a four­-year university, a college­-prep
curriculum also "should have a giant effect on success
in a two­-year community college," Hentschke said. Of
those who started as freshmen in the class that
graduated four years later in 2011, only 15% were
eligible for admission to the University of California and
California State University systems. Even among
graduating seniors, close to half failed to complete
what's called the "A through G" curriculum, the
college­-prep classes. If those students suddenly were
unable to earn a diploma, the graduation rate would
plummet, officials said. Reducing the required credits
means that students will be able to retake college­-prep
classes or get extra help for them during the regular
school day, said Gerardo Loera, the district's executive
director of curriculum and instruction. "We're not
considering this as an ideal solution," Loera said. "It's a
creative solution with the amount of resources we
have." The school board approved the more rigorous,
phased­-in graduation requirements in June 2005. At
the time, community and school activists pushed hard
for the changes, saying that poor and minority students
lacked equal access to college­-prep classes. Today,
they say they are disappointed with the pace of
progress, but still support the initiative. The goal
remains to get students to a grade of C in college­-prep
classes — and to give them the support they need to
get there, said Maria Brenes, the executive director of
InnerCity Struggle, a local nonprofit that helped lobby
for the changes. "Almost always these policies are
done for really good motives," said Gary Orfield, who
directs the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. "It would be
great to mandate that everyone would get an A. My
belief is that just passing a rule that says you will
achieve such and such does not change the world. If
it's done without adequate thought and support, it
increases the obstacles for students already facing
tremendous obstacles and risks denying them crucial
high school credentials." Some college­-track students
at Los Angeles High School said recently that they
have no problem with more difficult requirements.
"Most students don't have a problem getting through
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