Preliminary data show 74 percent of LA Unified seniors met new graduation requirements
Sarah Favot | June 21, 2016
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Miranda Rector, who graduated from Venice High School, with LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King at Tuesday’s district graduation ceremony. (Credit: LA Unified Communications and Media Relations)
*UPDATED
Preliminary data show that 74 percent of LA Unified high school seniors met new graduation requirements, the first class required to pass college preparatory classes, the district announced Tuesday.
Superintendent Michelle King made the announcement during a morning ceremony with the school board celebrating Class of 2016 graduates.
“This is the first class that stepped up to meet this challenge,” King said, according to a tweet from the district’s official Twitter account. “They are the pioneers.”
Supt. King said, “This is the first class that stepped up to meet this challenge. They are the pioneers.”
— LAUSD (@LASchools) June 21, 2016
This year marks the first year seniors had to pass A through G standards, a series of courses required for acceptance into California’s public universities, in order to graduate.
In January, the district said just 54 percent of high school seniors were on track to graduate.
At Tuesday’s graduation ceremony, from left, former Laker A.C. Green, Canoga Park High graduate Jeremiah Brown, Washington Preparatory High grad Adonis Warren, Superintendent Michelle King and Laura Adkins, who also graduated from Washington Prep. (Credit: LA Unified Communications and Media Relations)
King called for an “all hands on deck” approach to get students on track to graduate, along with aggressive implementation of a $15 million credit recovery program.
The district will have a graduation rate estimate in late August. The California Department of Education releases the previous year’s official graduate rate each spring.
That graduation rate will include students who dropped out. The 74 percent of students who passed their A-G courses are of students who were enrolled in school. It does not include students who dropped out along the way, officials said.
Last year’s graduation rate was 72 percent when the tougher standards were not required.
• Read more: By the numbers: Did ‘all hands on deck’ save LA Unified’s sinking graduation rate?
*This story has been updated to show that 74 percent is not the graduation rate, but is the percentage of enrolled students who met new graduation requirements to pass college preparatory courses.