School board considers lowering graduation requirements

DOWNEY – In response to many of the struggles that students are still facing in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Downey Unified School District is considering dropping the number of required credits for graduation by 30.

Currently, DUSD requires 220 units for students to earn their diploma. The District’s requirements are made up through a combination of state demands and UC / CSU system “A-G” qualifications.

Of course, the onset of the Coronavirus significantly shook-up matters for last year’s class of 2020. As such, several adjustments were made including reducing the required credits to 190 and offering a pass/no pass option for grading.

At their meeting on Tuesday, the board considered a proposal that would extend the 190-credit requirement through the 2020-21 school year.

There is also a slight change to course requirements, with the district only requiring three years of English as opposed to four. The new opening would not necessarily be earmarked for an elective, as counselors could then work with a student’s individual schedule to address other needs.

Students would still be held to normal grading standards, as universities have not suggested that they would continue to consider the pass / no pass grading as they had for last year’s spring and summer sessions.

“That grading variant is not part of that recommendation,” said John Harris, Director of College and Career Readiness. “The university system has not adopted the same policy.”

“We try to align ourselves with what higher education is doing so we don’t place our students in any kind of odd positions. Some districts continued the pass / no pass, and some students are having some difficulties because they need grades.”

Under the new requirements, students would no longer meet eligibility for the UC and CSU systems, and would therefore need to attend community college to complete transfer requirements.

At Downey and Warren High Schools, the percentage of D and F grades given in the first semester have increased from 17.67% and 13.31% to 25.76% and 24.12% respectively, compared to last year.

In contrast, Columbus High School decreased from 30.62% to 18.84%, which Harris attributed to its number of students and ability for more one on one guidance, as well as “a number of unique interventions they can apply.”

Should the board decide against adjusting the graduation requirements, many students may need to transfer to the continuation school.

“If [changing the unit requirement] isn’t something we’re interested in, we’ll probably need to move a lot of kids to Columbus because they have this reduced graduation rate,” said Assistant Superintendent Roger Brossmer.

“That would be very disruptive, but in the best interest of those students, that’d be something we’d have to look at and we’d have to increase staffing significantly to accommodate that.”

The Board will revisit and potentially decide on this issue at their next meeting, scheduled for Feb 10.