The Galt Joint Union High School District is in the process of reviewing the current graduation requirements for our students and developing a proposal for the School Board's consideration to increase those requirements to ensure that we are adequately preparing our students for college, career, and civic life. 

With the move to block schedule last year, our students are able to take as many as 320 credits during their 4 year high school career.  That is 80 more credits (8 courses) than they were able to take on the traditional 6 period day and 100 credits (10 courses) more than the current graduation requirements.  The reason we moved to block schedule was to allow our students to take more courses so that they would be better prepared for life beyond high school.  By increasing the graduation requirements, we are providing a framework to ensure that students are taking full advantage of our expanded schedule by requiring them to take a variety of courses at an appropriate level of rigor to prepare them for whatever their future may hold.  As you will see, the proposed increases in graduation requirements still provide students with plenty of choice in the courses they take and allow for remediation, acceleration, support and/or the occasional mistake which requires a student to retake a course. 

Over the past three months, a committee of our staff members has been researching graduation requirements from schools across the state. In this process, we have compared our current graduation requirements to:

·         State graduation requirements,
·         Requirements for admission to Universities of California and California State Universities, and
·         Graduation requirements at schools that are on similar schedules. 

After much discussion and deliberation, the committee has developed a proposal that will be brought to the board in February for approval.  Along with the approval of these graduation requirements, we will also be asking the School Board to make a full committment to the block schedule.  If the School Board approves these requirements in February, the staff will begin the process of developing courses to provide the increased opportunities and supports necessary so that each and every one of our students has an achievable pathway to meet these new requirements and graduate on time. 

To ensure that we are considering all the potential impacts of these changes, we want to make certain that we are getting feedback on the proposed changes from our stakeholders, including parents, community members, students, teachers, and staff.  In our efforts to reach out to parents, students, and community members, we are providing this survey as a way for our stakeholders to make comments and ask questions about the proposed changes to the graduation requirements.

A summary of the proposed changes to the graduation requirements can be found here.  

Sincerely,
Sean Duncan
Director of Educational Services
Galt Joint Union High School District

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