Rescind the Mandated CTE Graduation Requirements

SDUSD approved an initiative mandating all students to take 2 years of Career Technical Education (CTE) courses in the same subject in order to graduate. We want the Board of Trustees to rescind this new requirement for the following reasons:

• The CTE graduation requirement was voted by the Board without a full analysis of the impact of implementation, possible shortcomings, and without alignment of CTE courses offered with UC’s and CSU’s.
• The CTE requirement is being implemented without notifying parents of affected students until after it is too late for them to take World Languages in middle school, so they are already behind schedule.
• It’s inequitable. It’s impossible to offer all the CTE courses at all the schools, and the district does not offer transportation for students whose career plan would benefit from a CTE course offered at a different school.
• Forcing a two-year CTE requirement in conjunction with new “a-g” graduation requirements severely curtails or eliminates space for any electives (including in 7th and 8th grade, when they must take a world language), particularly electives that showcase leadership skills that colleges covet, such as ASB, yearbook, etc.
• Intervention programs for “a-g” requirements and D and F grades have not been well developed and may necessitate additional course time, but with the CTE requirement, there will be no time in a student’s schedule to implement them.
• The 2-year CTE requirement forces students to choose a career pathway at a minimum of age 16, with no opportunity to change their minds.
• CTE courses dampen down GPA. Because none are weighted with a 5.0 grade point, they effectively “drag down” a student’s GPA compared to those courses with more rigor, such as AP and Honors.
• CTE courses reduce academic rigor. Students applying to college with CTE courses will appear to have had less rigorous academics and be viewed poorly relative to students from other districts without CTE requirements.
• Community colleges already offer career courses students beginning at age 15.
• High school students transferring into SDUSD (e.g. military families) won’t be able to fulfill these requirements as no other district has these mandates.