Los Angeles School District to lower grad requirements

Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the country, is preparing to ease graduation requirements in order to lower the drop-out rate.

It all started eight years ago, when the school district was brainstorming how to better prepare its students for college. Someone came up with an idea: mandating all students take college prep classes. If all students are required to pass a college prep class in order to graduate, they’ll certainly be better prepared than a student who has not taken the class.

Well, here’s the rub. What if those seniors who are forced to take the college prep class do not pass, and are not able to graduate as a result?

That’s the question LA’s school district apparently did not anticipate eight years ago and is now faced with following the plan to implement the policy this fall. School officials are scrambling to cover their bases and ease the graduation rates for seniors so as not to create another problem for the school district — higher drop-out rates.

Though college prep classes may not be the best preparation for college — despite its name — the issue here is that the school district is backtracking on a plan that it believes would prepare students for college.

This fast-paced education reform is prevalent across the nation. School districts are acting too fast to increase graduation rates, test scores and number of students going to college. These accelerated reforms are forcing schools to dash toward the finish line, all the while missing crucial steps in between.

Schools: Slow down and focus on how to better prepare students for life after high school. Don’t just push them in a class titled “college prep.”