District’s Scenario for Failure

The Class of 1989 that graduates from the Saddleback Valley Unified School District will be like no other high school class in the United States. It will include no students with grade-point averages below C-minus (1.75). Teachers and parents will be justifiably proud of the graduates.

But the day will not be all smiles and handshakes. Students who, no matter how hard they tried, couldn’t manage to get a 1.75 grade-point average and dropped out will not be there. Their absence will not be something the district should point to with pride because the failure will be the district’s as much as the students’.

This scenario will come about because last week the district board, in addition to stiffening academic requirements beyond the newly adopted state minimums in the so-called core subjects of English, math, science and social science, also raised the requirement for a high school diploma. Instead of the present D average (1.0) required by all other school districts in the county and state, Saddleback will switch to C-minus beginning with next fall’s freshman class.

Saddleback may well be the only school in the nation with such a requirement, according to the district’s research. One Northern California school district, in Exeter, adopted a C requirement for graduation two years ago but is scheduled to abandon it at the end of this school year because of the resulting high dropout rate. The district has anticipated that it could well lose half of its students to transfers, dropping out or the far more drastic step of a family move if it continued to require the higher average.

Saddleback has a relatively low 19% dropout rate now as compared to the state average, which hovers around 30%. If the C-minus rule had been in effect last year, about 4% of the district’s graduates would have been denied diplomas.

We strongly support academic excellence and programs that encourage its pursuit. But we have qualms about Saddleback’s decision to stiffen graduation requirements by adopting the new C-minus minimum. The strong potential for increasing the dropout rate is reason enough for concern, but it is not our only reason.

The change establishes a dual grading system and could put some Saddleback district students who are denied a diploma at a disadvantage in competition with students from other districts who will receive diplomas even though their grades were no better.

Not all students are good students. Some are simply not as academically oriented as others. Others are not in a good learning environment. Some have to struggle and are not as interested in building a grade-point average for college entrance as they are in passing their courses, getting their diploma and finding a job.

The existing system of grading courses with an A, B, C, D or F (the only failing grade) will remain the same. But for all practical purposes the new graduation requirement holds students to a system of A, B, C and F, because although the D is considered good enough to pass a course, it will be too low an average for graduation. That’s unfair. And it could prompt grade inflation by some teachers who might start giving C-minuses instead of Ds.

It would be different if Saddleback were a private school operation. Trustees could then hang out a sign saying, “D Students Not Welcome Here,” and the students would have the option of going someplace else.

But Saddleback is a public school district, and students don’t have that choice. The result will be that many of those who pass their courses with a D grade will be prompted to drop out, and the district will be denying diplomas to some students who would have received them had they attended high school in any other district in the state or nation. It would be fairer to change graduation requirements statewide.

Saddleback trustees deserve an A for their desire to motivate some students and push academic excellence, but they come in below C-minus for creating a situation that may make it even tougher on students who are having a tough enough time as it is.