L.A. Unified to Consider Mandatory College Track
Los Angeles school district leaders are considering an academic reform plan that would require all high school students to complete a set of rigorous courses needed for college admission, a proposal some critics say is overly ambitious.
On average, 67% of courses offered in the Los Angeles Unified School District's high schools meet admission requirements for four-year California universities, according to a recent UCLA study.
Throughout the nation's second-largest school district, students tell stories of being placed in classes that do not meet college admission criteria. They blame a shortage of college track courses, as well as overburdened counselors who either don't inform them what they need for college or direct them to less rigorous options.
The proposal, which will be introduced to the Board of Education today and voted on next month, would require students -- beginning with the freshman class of 2008 -- to complete what is called the "A-G sequence" of 15 high school courses needed for entry into the University of California or Cal State University systems.
The college track program includes four years of English, a recommended four years of math and at least two years of history, science and foreign language.
"If we don't give students access to A-G requirements, we are limiting their choices," said board President Jose Huizar, who is sponsoring the resolution with board member Jon Lauritzen.
"I come across many, many students who in their senior year tell me 'If only I had known, if I only I had taken the A-G requirements, I would be at a university,' " Huizar said.
Supt. Roy Romer said he supports tougher requirements because "we need to raise the level of rigor in our curriculum."
He called on the state to provide funding for the college track initiative if approved, so the district can provide extra teacher training and student support. The district has no cost estimate for the additional classes and teachers.
"You don't turn a school district like this" into a college preparatory school district overnight, Romer said, "but that is the right goal and the right aim."
Huizar's proposal comes amid heightened local and national debate over how to fix failing high schools, particularly in large urban districts such as L.A. Unified, where a recent Harvard University study found that fewer than half of those expected to graduate in 2002 did so.
