Grade 9 to Rise, Shine by 7:15 a.m.

All ninth-graders in the Santa Ana Unified School District will sit through an extra hour of school starting this September to prepare them for the state’s upcoming high school exit exam and ultimately for college.

Starting at 7:15 a.m., while older students sleep in, freshmen who are behind in their academic skills will take remedial courses in math and English. More proficient students are not off the hook, either; they will take regular courses they can apply to high school graduation.

School officials say the $1.6-million program, which will give the district’s 4,000 freshmen close to eight hours in school, is necessary if Santa Ana teenagers are to meet the district’s new graduation requirements as well as pass the tough new high school exit exam. District and state education officials said Santa Ana is the only district they know of in California to make such a program a requirement.

“It’s not enough to say we’re going to increase the graduation requirements. We need to provide them with the way to do it,” board member John Palacio said. “We can’t afford not to take risks because our students have tremendous challenges. But with challenges come opportunities.”

If the program seems to succeed this year, the district will continue it and might add an extra hour for upperclassmen, said Linda Kaminski, the district’s chief academic officer. This year’s sophomores will be the first students required to pass the high school exit exam.

Approximately two-thirds of Santa Ana’s students are still learning English, and the district has some of the lowest test scores in the state. Fewer than 15% of the district’s ninth-graders scored above the national average in reading on the Stanford 9 test last spring.

District officials have put in place some of the most rigorous graduation requirements in the state. Starting in 2004, all seniors must pass the state’s high school exit exam before they can get a diploma. That makes the extra hour practically a necessity for many students in Santa Ana, officials said. Although the state mandates that students spend a minimum number of minutes in class, local school districts can extend that period if they choose.

Education experts said the early-morning experiment could pay off--provided teachers are qualified and students remain focused throughout the day.

“That’s fairly unprecedented,” said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley. “But lengthening the school day tends to have a positive effect on student achievement.”

Although many parents praised the longer school day, others criticized the school board for adopting the change quietly in July, meaning many students found out about it only when they started registering for classes last week. And even parents in favor of the longer day worried about the inevitable morning fights over rousing sleeping teenagers, while others fretted about more complicated transportation arrangements.

“My son is having problems with language arts, and I feel this extra hour is really going to help him,” said Cristina Barba, whose son Jose will attend Santa Ana High School in the fall.

Maria Bell of Saddleback High School said she is upset that board members voted during the summer, when many parents could not attend meetings to give their input.

“I just know it is going to be a hardship for people,” said the PTA member whose child is a sophomore and will not be required to show up early this year. “It’s hard enough to get them up during regular school hours . . . and some of them don’t need to go.”

In an era of school accountability and emphasis on basic-skills improvements, Santa Ana has been ahead of the state in terms of developing remedial programs for children and making educators responsible for their schools’ performance.

Earlier this year, two elementary school principals were reassigned after test scores failed to improve at their schools.

Many of the district’s initiatives, such as the 5-year-old “Above the Mean” program, which emphasizes reading and math over arts and music, were controversial at the beginning but have won parent support as scores have risen.