High School WasToo Easy
Responding to demands by parents and a concern that high school was just too easy, the San Jose Unified School Board adopted rigorous graduation requirements on the premise that student performance would rise to meet increased academic standards and expectations.
The school was under a court-enforced agreement to boost Latino achievement resulting from a 1971 suit that alleged segregation. So, the district created magnet programs, offered district-wide open enrollment and went through a process of “de-tracking” to put children of every academic ability in classes together.
Half the district’s students are Latino and 40 percent of students come from poor families. The system had been a two-tiered one that placed the students who aimed highest – most of them white and Asian – in college-preparatory and Advanced Placement Courses. The second tier – most of them Latino – were offered basic courses and electives that prepared them for little beyond high school.
Rigorous Courses Required
Beginning with the freshmen of 1998, students were required to complete a series of core academic courses and elective commonly called the “A-G Sequence.” This sequence means at least three years of college-prep math, four years of English, three years of science, three and a half years of social studies, two years of foreign language and one year of visual or performing arts. In addition, the students were required to have 40 hours of community service.
Popular with parents and students, the plan was controversial because skeptics feared many students would dropout. Supporters of vocational education worried the curriculum was too restrictive for students who wanted to go to work immediately after high school. Teachers doubted the district would supply the extra time and help they and students would need to succeed.
To make the world of A-G work, the district crafted a menu of programs for students and teachers who would struggle with the change. Up to two additional periods were allotted for the high school day. Special Saturday sessions were created to help students, especially in math. Summer school was redesigned to be rigorous rather than remedial. The district opened enrollment in Advanced Placement courses to all students, and a more diverse group of students signed up.
Though they hoped all students could obtain a diploma through the A-G curriculum, some students in special education and alternative programs needed another path. About 9 percent of San Jose Unified graduates take an independent curriculum, though they must earn the same number of credits as their peers.
Difficulties included recruiting higher level math and science teachers, immaturity of ninth graders at the beginning of the four-year graduation plan and loss of flexibility with time for fewer electives for freshmen and sophomores.
Myths are Dispelled
San Jose Unified’s strategy is an example to other districts throughout the nation struggling to fix failing high schools and increase minority students’ graduation rates. Data from San Jose shows that their students are thriving, with reading and math scores improving significantly, at a much higher rate than the rest of California. Between 1998 and 2002 African American 11th graders improved in reading seven times more than African Americans statewide. The achievement gap between Latino and White students closed by 43 percent.
More students of every subgroup are taking and scoring higher on the SATs and AP exams. Graduation rates have held steady or risen slightly, depending on the methodology used for graduation calculation. Latino enrollment in chemistry and biology courses more than doubled from 1999 when fewer than 250 took those courses to 2003 when more than 500 Latino students were enrolled.
One concern was that the proportion of students applying to four-year colleges remained around 24 percent even though 64 percent of the 2003 graduates finished the A-G courses, which meet the minimum course standards for admission to the California University System. A grant from a private industry funded an innovative program to help encourage college attendance for students from poor families. As a result, more than 75 percent of San Jose High’s seniors scheduled to graduate in the spring of 2004 had applied to two- or four-year colleges.