Graduates in Name Only Don’t Make the Grade

So, school board President Caprice Young was angry because she participated in a June 9 graduation ceremony and gave achievement certificates to students who, in fact, had not successfully completed their course work (“ ‘Graduates’ Honored at a Dubious Exercise,” July 27). Young shouldn’t have been surprised, as phony graduations are rampant throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District. They are called “culminations” and are done at the end of the fifth grade.

Students wear good clothes, in some cases specially bought for the occasion, make short speeches and are given certificates just before they go on to middle school. The problem is that a substantial number of these students are one to three years below grade-level in virtually all their work. For these students, culmination is a fraud, an absolute lie.

Social promotion is the norm in the LAUSD, and until Young and the rest of the school board address this unhappy fact, all their talk of education reform is meaningless.

Joel Parkes

Seventh-Grade Teacher Audubon Middle School, L.A.