The San Diego Unified School District saw an uptick in the number of seniors who passed California's high school exit exam this year. Test results also show San Diego is doing better compared to the state as a whole. Even so, the district will launch a series of reforms in hopes of getting all students to pass the test with flying colors. KPBS Reporter Ana Tintocalis has more.
Preliminary test results show close to 92 percent of this year's graduating class passed both the math and English portions of the exit exam as of May. District officials expect the number to grow because test results in July have not been included yet.
The final total of seniors who passed both portions of the exam the year before stood at 92 percent. Even so, School Superintendent Terry Grier says the district needs to do more for struggling students.
Grier: We almost have to prepare an individualized education plan for those students. It may require extensive tutoring before and after school, it might require double dosing for students during school.
Double-dosing is when students double the amount of time studying one subject.
Students must first take the exit exam as sophomores. They have to pass the test in order to get a diploma.
District officials say while more students are passing the exit exam this year, there's also a large number of who never take the test because they dropout of high school.
They also say there are more than 45,000 students across all grade levels who are still struggling in reading and math.
Chuck Morris heads up curriculum and instruction. He says to expect a series of intensive reforms this year -- from holding more students back to hiring teams of graduation coaches.
Morris: We're going to start to change the culture and mindset of how we work with children. With 45,000 students, you can't do business as usual. And we're not going to do business as usual.
There will also be reforms in special education. Test results show only 13 percent of students with disabilities are doing well in English compared to 52 percent without disabilities.
Ana Tintocalis, KPBS News.
