On April 17, 2012, Los Angeles Board of Education district officials proposed an overall reduction in high school graduation requirements. They planned to allow students to earn such credits with a minimum D grade allowing future seniors to graduate with 25% fewer credits.
Officials hoped that this plan of action would decrease the number of high school dropouts by students who couldn’t meet the prior basic requirements.
Currently, students need 230 credits to graduate. Officials plan on dropping requirements in health and life skills, technology and a range of various electives, which cover calculus and journalism. After those cuts, students would only need 170 credits to graduate high school.
Some fear the cuts may be too excessive. Normally, a junior passing all of his or her classes would earn 180 credits by the end of the year, ten more credits than the minimum 170 to graduate.
However, reducing the graduation requirements would allow students to retake these classes to compensate for failing grades or have sufficient time to seek help for more difficult courses during the day. Lower graduation requirements would also benefit poor and minority students, who have fewer opportunities to access college-prep courses.
At the same time, proposals have also been made to raise passing minimums from a D to a C in order to increase the number of students eligible for four-year California public schools. Because these colleges require a grade of C or better on college prep classes in order to be admitted, officials hope to motivate students to become eligible for admission by raising the bar.
Simultaneously, officials hope to improve the success rate in two-year colleges.
“This demonstrates the growing difference in students’ grades,” says Kevin Nguyen (’13). “Competitive students are fighting for college spots and getting higher grades, but at the other end of the spectrum, you have these kids… lowering graduation requirements would save the district money.”
