While high schools across the state are toughening their graduation requirements to prepare students for college, one of the state's largest school districts is planning to make it easier for students to graduate.
In a proposal that would cut out health, college and career planning, world geography and earth science as required courses, the Santa Ana Unified School District is seeking to reduce the number of credits necessary to graduate.
Santa Ana's graduation requirement -- 240 credits -- is among the state's highest benchmarks. And like several other school districts, Santa Ana's move to lower the credit requirement to 220 may be an admission that it had pushed too hard, especially in a district where administrators struggle with keeping students in school.
"It will have a positive effect on dropout rates," Deputy Supt. Cathie Olsky said of the proposal. "It puts graduation in reach."
State education officials, however, traditionally encourage efforts to increase graduation requirements rather than weaken them. Over the last decade, high schools throughout California, including those in Santa Ana, San Jose and San Francisco, have imposed stiffer requirements meant to challenge more students and propel them toward college and successful careers. Many have moved to require all students to complete the minimum courses for admission to the UC and Cal State systems, a trend the state has applauded.
"Through this culture of high standards and high expectations we have seen improvement," said state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell. "But we need to continue to expect more of students, not less."
In Santa Ana, a city of mostly Latino immigrants where 60% of the students are learning English as a second language and nearly 4 in 10 at some schools do not make it through their senior year, officials say they are contemplating a more pragmatic approach.
Students' schedules are so packed with required courses that if they fail a class or two, they can lose hope of graduating, officials said.
Last year, administrators began crafting a proposal that would turn four courses typically taken during students' first two years into electives, but would still require students to take all the courses required for admission to the UC and Cal State systems -- something other big-city school districts such as Los Angeles and San Francisco have not done.
