L.A. Unified college prep program is off course
School district's 'A-G' program promises to make university prep classes standard by 2012. In three years, it's made little progress.
Three years ago, Roosevelt High School student Jose Orea went to Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters and handed out pamphlets imploring officials to provide more college preparatory courses. It was the first time he'd gotten involved in politics, and he was filled with enthusiasm.
When the L.A. Board of Education agreed to ensure that all students would have access to the classes by 2006 and to require them for the class of 2012, Orea, then a sophomore, thought he'd made a difference.
"There's a stereotype that students from East L.A. don't want to finish high school, and it was a chance to show everyone that we do want to go to college," he said in a recent interview.
Fast forward to this spring: Orea, now 18, was at district headquarters again, his optimism gone.
"No progress has been made," he told the board. "We need more to be done. We cannot let this lack of effective implementation continue."
The ambitious "A-G" program, named for 15 classes in seven categories students need in order to be admitted to California's public universities, was touted as a way to increase student participation and prepare students for college. But district officials, who began surveying campuses this summer to find out how many students are taking the courses, say the program has made fitful progress.
The percentage of college prep classes has increased districtwide, from 62% of all course offerings in 2004 to nearly 66% last year.
Although the percentage of students, 47.6%, who fulfilled their public university requirements remained unchanged during that time, about 10,000 fewer students completed those classes, according to state statistics.
L.A. Unified officials point out that the district's enrollment dropped by nearly 30,000 students during that time.
But the percentage of such courses has dropped in some areas, notably on the Eastside, advocates say. In 2006, 53% of classes at Roosevelt High School met the requirements, according to a 2007 UCLA study. Last year, half the courses did.
And at nearby Jefferson High School, 59% of classes qualified as college prep last year, a three-point drop from the year before.
Orea's experience also shows what happens when youthful idealism runs headfirst into the bureaucracy of the nation's second-largest school district. Orea had hoped his actions would give his younger brother, Steven, who will be a freshman at Roosevelt this fall, a better academic experience than Orea had.
