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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Lots of ‘ifs’ in adopting A-G | Thoughts on Public Education

Lots of ‘ifs’ in adopting A-G | Thoughts on Public Education

Lots of ‘ifs’ in adopting A-G

Districts must make a deep commitment to students
By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

Five large urban school districts*** have joined San Jose Unified in adopting the course requirements for admission to California’s four-year universities as their high school graduation requirements, and plan to impose them within the next five years. A report by public policy seniors at Stanford University concluded that other districts also should consider doing so – but “if and only if they have the means to implement the policy properly.”

With heavy budget cuts on the books and more looming, that will be increasingly difficult to do. Last month, the school board of one of the five districts, San Diego Unified, voted to push back the start of the new graduation requirement two years because of the expense involved in hiring more counselors, helping students struggling with higher standards, and adding