Visalia Unified Board President sets a goal of reaching 75% as staff seeks to increase graduation requirements, offer more college credit courses and encourage more career and technical education classes
VISALIA – Visalia Unified entered the 2021-22 school year with a goal of improving its curriculum and instruction in key areas after 18 months of learning loss due to the pandemic.
A major part of the district’s stated focus for the school year was to “increase the number and percentage of students who are College and Career Ready on the state dashboard.” According to the California School Dashboard, students are considered prepared for college and career if they meet at least one of the following:
- Score a 3 or higher in both English language arts and mathematics on the Smarter Balanced Assessment testing.
- Score 3 or higher on two Advanced Placement exams.
- Earn a C or better in a college credit course for at least two semesters.
- Earn the State Seal of Biliteracy and score a 3 or higher in ELA on the Smarter Balanced Assessment testing.
- Two years of leadership/military science and a 3 or higher in ELA or math and a 2 or higher in the other on the Smarter Balanced Assessment testing.
- Complete a-g course UC requirements OR pathway capstone course with a C or better AND one of the following: Score a 3 or higher in ELA or math and 2 or higher on the other for the SBAC; Earn a C or better in one semester of a college credit course; Score a 3 on an AP exam; or completion of a pathway program.
Prior to the pandemic in the 2018-19 school year, Visalia Unified School District was in-line with statewide numbers for College and Career Readiness. In that year, 45% of VUSD graduates had met state requirements to be considered college and career ready, a percentage point better than the state average but well below Exeter Unified’s 52% and Dinuba Unified’s 69%. Every Visalia high school had a higher percentage of college and career ready grads than the state average except Golden West, trailing by just two percentage points, which was more than offset by VTEC’s 71%, the second highest in Tulare County behind Dinuba High School.
It was also an improvement from 38% in 2018 and the trend is continuing to improve with the district at 46% in 2019-20.
“There is a trend in our college and career readiness, and that trend is upward,” College & Career Readiness Director Vicky Leoni told the board during a presentation at its Jan. 25 meeting.
Board President Juan Guerrero said he wasn’t disappointed in the district’s improvement but said the district would never make any real strides until it set a goal. He set a goal of 75% of graduates being college and career ready at the Jan. 25 meeting.
“Other school districts are there and I want to have that number there,” Guerrero said. “That’s what we need to do as a district to move forward.”
Adding Math
Most VUSD students achieve college and career readiness by meeting admission requirements for the California State University and University of California systems. Known as a-g requirements, CSU/UCs require four years of English, three years of math, two years of history, science and a foreign language, and a year each of visual/performing arts and a college prep elective.
About one-third of Visalia high school graduates were a-g approved in 2019-20 even though VUSD’s own graduation requirements fall short of the CSU/UC admissions requirements. Visalia Unified only requires the state minimum of two years of math to graduate, one year short of the a-g requirements. In 2019-20, 40% of VUSD grads met a-g requirements, less than Cutler-Orosi, Woodlake, Tulare, Lindsay and Dinuba high schools. Only Redwood High School fared better than the state average of 51% of graduates, with Golden West and Mt. Whitney high schools near the bottom of the Valley at 35% and 34% respectively.
Leoni emphasized giving VUSD students access to higher-level courses, such as math, and adding a third year of math to meet a-g requirements would help improve the number of students who are college and career ready.
“Give them the opportunity to complete them as a default to meeting a-g,” Leoni said.
VUSD was on track to require three years of math beginning with the class of 2022 but delayed that for another two years. On Jan. 14, 2020, then Director of College and Career Readiness Jamon Periso recommended the board delay implementation of a three-year math requirement until 2025. Naylor motioned to postpone the requirement which was unanimously approved by the board. At that time, Farmersville, Porterville, Tulare and Lindsay school districts only required the state minimum of two years of math to graduate from high school but Exeter, Cutler-Orosi, Woodlake and Dinuba all required three years.
On June 8, 2021, then Assistant Superintendent Doug Cardoza recommended delaying the requirement again to the class of 2027. That sparked a debate between board members about keeping the start date in 2025 or delaying it another two years. Board Clerk Walta Gamoian and Trustee Joy Naylor pushed for postponing the requirement until a new block schedule was in place and Trustee John Crabtree was also in favor of the delay while trustees Megan Casebeer Soleno and Jacqui Gaebe wanted to keep the 2025 start date. A vote to postpone the date failed twice before the board voted 6-1 to approve the three-year math requirement but did not explicitly say which year it would be implemented. Naylor was the lone dissenting vote.
A February 2021 report by the Public Policy Institute of California asked the question, “Does Raising High School Graduation Requirements Improve Student Outcomes?” The report noted most districts have graduation requirements that exceed state minimums, which include two years of math and two years of science. During the 2018-19 school year, 59% of districts required three or four years of math. The report noted that higher math graduation requirements are associated with better outcomes, particularly for students in high-need, high-poverty, and high-minority schools with little to no downside.
“These requirements do not appear to lead to lower high school graduation rates or higher dropout rates,” the report concluded.
On June 8, 2021, then Assistant Superintendent Doug Cardoza recommended delaying the requirement again to the class of 2027. That sparked a debate between board members about keeping the start date in 2025 or delaying it another two years. Board Clerk Walta Gamoian and Trustee Joy Naylor pushed for postponing the requirement until a new block schedule was in place and Trustee John Crabtree was also in favor of the delay while trustees Megan Casebeer Soleno and Jacqui Gaebe wanted to keep the 2025 start date. A vote to postpone the date failed twice before the board voted 6-1 to approve the three-year math requirement but did not explicitly say which year it would be implemented. Naylor was the lone dissenting vote.
A February 2021 report by the Public Policy Institute of California asked the question, “Does Raising High School Graduation Requirements Improve Student Outcomes?” The report noted most districts have graduation requirements that exceed state minimums, which include two years of math and two years of science. During the 2018-19 school year, 59% of districts required three or four years of math. The report noted that higher math graduation requirements are associated with better outcomes, particularly for students in high-need, high-poverty, and high-minority schools with little to no downside.
“These requirements do not appear to lead to lower high school graduation rates or higher dropout rates,” the report concluded.
More College Credit/Voc Ed
Twenty-three percent of VUSD students obtain college and career readiness by scoring a 3 or better on both the ELA and math portion of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), signifying they have met or exceeded state standards in the core subjects. Outside of Harmony Magnet Academy in Strathmore, which enrolls students from anywhere in the county, the highest ELA scores prior to the pandemic in 2018-19 were at Redwood High School, where 83% of students met or exceeded standards. El Diamante was second among traditional high schools with 71.78%. Golden West came in at 63% and Mt. Whitney at 62%, both higher than the state average of 51%.
Leoni said the district is expecting more students to become college and career ready in the future by taking more college credit courses, something which has worked for Corcoran Unified School District, where more than two-thirds of graduates are college and career ready. While VUSD had a higher percentage of students who met a-g requirements and who scored a 3 or higher on state testing in both ELA and math, more than two-thirds of Corcoran students were college and career ready, including its socio-economically disadvantaged students, compared with less than half of all VUSD students and just a third of its socio-economically disadvantaged students. A higher percentage of Corcoran students were taking and passing college credit courses as well as career and technical education (CTE), commonly referred to as vocational education courses.
“Students who have early college experiences, they see themselves as college students, they gain confidence, they earn credits, so when it comes time to finish high school, they’ve already had that experience, and they are much more likely to not only go to college but complete college.”
Another 17% of VUSD graduates were close to reaching one of the state standards for college and career readiness. English learners struggled more than other groups to attain college and career readiness, at just 11%, followed by foster and homeless youth at 26%.
One of the district’s major oversights in getting students college and career ready is light senior schedules. Leoni said more than half (57%) of seniors do not have a full schedule of six classes. In fact, 9% of seniors are taking just three or four classes.
“These are students who may not be taking full advantage of things that get them ahead and help them be prepared,” she said.
In order to improve the number of graduates who are college and career ready, Leoni suggested encouraging more students to enroll in CTE pathways where they have access to project based learning, improving reading and math instruction in elementary and middle schools to allow more students to enroll in college credit courses and a a robust and responsive system to support students academically by supporting them socially and emotionally.
More specifically, Leoni said VUSD needed to maintain its involvement in TCOE’s Central Valley Networked Improvement Communities (CVNIC) for math and EL Rise support program for English learners. She said the district should make an effort to bring Pre-AP classes to middle schools to prepare students for AP classes in high school, develop a master schedule outlining all college credit opportunities with College of the Sequoias, and ensure all students can participate in CTE and academic pathways. She also noted the district has taken steps to improve student access to work-related field trips, internships, and scholarships, which will be part of future college and career readiness requirements from the state.
