Plans are in the works for future high school students of Los Angeles to establish new graduation requirements beginning next school year. The changes that the L.A. Board of Education wants to make are regarding college prep courses that each graduating student will be required to pass. As a future college student who is about to enter high school in this upcoming year you need to be aware of the importance of these changes. Overall required completed courses to graduate will be lessened to balance out the weight of the college prep Los Angeles courses that will added to the student’s workload.

The superintendent believes that this will point high school students toward better opportunities for college and a future career. By requiring every student to complete the necessary college preparation courses for high school graduation this will also ensure that every student even has the opportunity to consider attending a four-year public university. Being that these courses are essential to the start of a proper college education and making serious college plans, other academics will no longer be required so as to allow the students to focus on these more important classes.

The main concern of putting these new policies into practice is that the high school dropout rate will increase because the plan puts expects too much and the pressure on students will be overwhelming. This is subjective, and each individual school district will have the authority to tailor the plan to its own standards. On the other hand, firm supporters say that the bar should be set even higher for graduating high school and students should definitely be required to pass these important classes to graduate and stand a fighting chance at attending a four-year state college.



It may be a challenge getting students to comply with the new requirements of having to pass two years of math after Algebra 1 (that would make it three required years of math total) as well as two years of a foreign language which is actually not enforced under the current policy of L.A. Unified. It only seems logical to put these requirements into action so that students have a real shot at getting into college after they graduate high school. The new proposal will suggest reducing the amount of electives a student needs to enroll in and drive the focus toward these core academic classes to prepare students for the transition to pursuing a college education.

Read more on this topic here: L.A. school board to vote on new graduation requirements