Schools Get Waivers for Algebra Law
Since the State Board of Education granted Santa Cruz a waiver earlier this year exempting it from the law requiring high school students to complete one year of algebra, about 200 other districts statewide have scrambled to make the same request.
The fate of about 13,000 students, or 4% of the state's senior class, was at stake.
Santa Cruz school officials went to Sacramento to plead for mercy in January, after discovering that they had overlooked a state law that imposed this requirement, and realizing that more than 150 of their seniors were at risk of not graduating.
"No one in the district was aware of the [requirement]. We didn't think it was fair that the students should suffer for mistakes made by adults," Santa Cruz City Schools Assistant Supt. Carl Del Grande said. "We might have been the first [district] to ask, but in my heart of hearts, I knew there were others."
How right he was.
Some of the other 200 districts that have since sought waivers have claimed ignorance of the law, like Santa Cruz, while others say low-performing students who struggle with algebra's abstract concepts deserve to be excused.
The state board has reluctantly agreed to approve the waivers this year and has ruled out future blanket approvals. Regardless, the rash of requests for exemptions has frustrated lawmakers and education officials who see the math requirement as vital to raising educational standards in California.
"I wonder what they all would have done if Santa Cruz, a district that completely failed in its obligation to its kids, hadn't cleared the way," said state Sen. Charles Poochigian (R-Fresno), who wrote the law requiring algebra. "It's really shameful."
The law, passed in 2000, requires all high school students -- starting with this year's senior class -- to complete Algebra 1 to graduate. The law does not exempt anyone, including students with learning disabilities, English learners or the troubled, at-risk students attending continuation high schools.
It is mostly these students, educators say, who are now struggling to learn the basics of quadratic equations, polynomials and the point-slope formula.
Poochigian and his supporters argue that the law is vital to raising the state's educational standards, to closing performance gaps between minority students and their white peers and to preparing students for college and the workplace.
