Passing but Not Learning

A rigorous curriculum isn’t just about which courses students take. It’s about whether they learn the subject matter.

This is an idea Los Angeles school activists don’t seem to be taking into account as they press the school board to require that all students take the full range of collegepreparatory classes to graduate from high school. And it’s part of the reason the school board should turn them down after it hears arguments at its meeting Tuesday.

At the same time, the board should be careful not to dismiss its critics out of hand.

The coalition of activists, calling itself Communities for Educational Equality, seeks to make the so-called A-G courses -- 15 courses needed for entry to the state’s four-year colleges and universities -- a graduation requirement. About 60% of the district’s graduates now opt out of the A-G sequence. The numbers are worse statewide.

The activists are correct that the district has low expectations for poor children and children of color. Parents often don’t understand the course options. Fourteen-year-olds, meanwhile, shouldn’t have to make their own life-changing decisions about schooling; when prodded into tougher courses, they often surprise themselves.

Moreover, Los Angeles schools already require most of the A-G courses for graduation. All the coalition is asking for is two years of a foreign language, and one extra year of math.

It sounds reasonable. But the plan’s proponents fail to realize that passing college-prep courses is very different from understanding college-prep material. The district already requires two years of college-prep math -- algebra and usually geometry. Yet more than 40% of L.A.’s 10th-graders last year flunked the math portion of the high school exit exam, which doesn’t even require full knowledge of basic algebra. They’re clearly not prepared for two years of higher math.

To bolster its point that even manuallabor jobs require more math, the group has the backing of the State Building and Construction Trades Council, which reports that many L.A. graduates flunk its apprenticeship test, which requires first-year algebra and some geometry. But this only proves the point: The students already are taking those courses and don’t comprehend the material.

There will always be jobs for which knowledge of Algebra II is not necessary. The students who choose those jobs shouldn’t be denied a diploma.

The district can and should take meaningful steps to address the concerns of the activists’ group. Instead of passing a showy requirement, however, it should expect more from teachers, parents and students.

It already is preparing packets for parents that explain the high school curriculum fully. To those packets, it should add a sheet for parents to sign and return, indicating they’ve read the materials and understand the choices. And the district should make A-G the default curriculum -- putting students in those courses automatically unless they choose otherwise.

Then the district needs to require that all students take algebra by the ninth grade. When the vast majority of 10th-graders can pass the exit exam, it will be time to talk about adding higher math to the sequence.

The last thing we need is a new cadre of supposedly college-ready kids who flunk apprenticeship tests and enter Cal State only to enroll in remedial classes.