Tougher High School Requirements Urged

California’s elected schools chief called Thursday for the state’s 1.7 million high school students to take a tougher load of courses that would help them become at least eligible for the University of California, even if their grades were not high enough to enroll or they had no interest in higher education.

Jack O’Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction, said teachers and administrators must require more of students if schools are to close an achievement gap between rich and poor youngsters and better prepare them for college and work.

“It’s time to change high schools from the inside out, to focus

To be eligible for the UC and the Cal State systems, high school students must take four years of college preparatory English, three years of math, two years of laboratory science, two years of social science and courses in other subjects.

The two state university systems also consider grades, SAT scores and other factors in admissions.

Students, however, can graduate from California high schools with a far less rigorous program.

The prospects for O’Connell’s universal college prep curriculum remained uncertain. A similar idea pushed in the Legislature last year died after vocational education advocates argued that their programs would suffer.

O’Connell said that his plan would not hurt students in vocational educational programs, but would raise the bar for them and all others.

Leaders of several education groups who attended the speech praised O’Connell for focusing attention on the plight of high schools, which have shown little improvement in recent years on standardized tests.

Some in the audience also said they were pleased that O’Connell had singled out the federal No Child Left Behind education law as being too “inflexible and prescriptive” in measuring academic progress in schools by testing.

The superintendent called for a renewed effort to attract and train the best high school teachers and principals, to improve instructional materials, and to get more parents and businesspeople involved at high school campuses

The state superintendent used the speech to establish his own voice on education reform apart from other leaders, including state education secretary Richard Riordan.

As the elected superintendent of public instruction, O’Connell oversees the state Department of Education and is the chief policy advisor to the State Board of Education. He is in the second year of a four-year term.

Riordan was appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to the cabinet-level post of education secretary.

He is the governor’s chief voice on education policy, but has no direct authority over O’Connell.

Riordan is pushing his own agenda, calling for an overhaul of the school finance system and giving more power and money to principals.

O’Connell said he welcomed efforts to streamline school financing and said he saw no conflict between his ideas and Riordan’s.

But one prominent lawmaker who attended O’Connell’s speech questioned whether the two education platforms could make their way through the Legislature this year.

“It makes it difficult to know what will be the main focus, the main agenda,” said state Sen. Dede Alpert (D-San Diego, head of a legislative committee that is reviewing state education policies. “I hope we can all come together on a common agenda.”