Requiring all students to pass college-prep courses risks raising the drop-out rate, concludes a Public Policy Institute of California report.
San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco and San Diego have raised their graduation requirements: Unless they sign an opt-out form, all students must pass all the courses required for admission to state universities, reports the San Jose Mercury News.
Without strong supports, weaker students may give on earning a diploma, warns the PPIC report, which analyzed San Diego’s transition to the new requirements.
“San Diego students will need to dramatically change the courses they take,” said report co-author Julian Betts, who is also a UC San Diego professor. ”Clear communication with students, parents, and teachers about the new requirements is critical — and that communication needs to begin in middle school, if not earlier.”
The study recognizes that students may have a harder time graduating with the more rigorous standards, unless schools undertake major interventions to ensure they can succeed.
Requiring college prep may discourage students from taking career tech ed courses, PPIC warned.
In addition, districts “will need to guard against two unwanted side effects: the watering down of a–g course content and possible grade inflation that allows students to graduate even though they are not mastering the content of a–g courses.”
When San Jose Unified required college-prep for all, teachers were under great pressure to give students a D- in chemistry, advanced algebra, etc. so they could earn a diploma.
