By Megan Yang, Ayla Ozturk, and Ryan Kaspar

The Visalia Unified School District [VUSD] Board of Education added a third year of mathematics to the graduation requirements.

On Tuesday, September 13, 2022, the VUSD Board of Education approved a revision of the VUSD graduation requirements.

Starting with the class of 2028, students must complete three years of high school math to graduate.

Currently, students must take Integrated Math 1 and 10 units, or one year, of “other math”.

Once the requirement is fully implemented, students will need to take Integrated Math 1, Integrated Math 2, and a year of “other math”.

According to Board President Juan Guerrero, the topic has been a discussion item for a while.

The Board came close to implementing the change in 2017. Guerrero says, “There was a concern with regards to losing electives,” so the Board decided to keep the two-year requirement.

Assistant Superintendent Mark Thompson presented the research and the plan for implementation at the meeting.

He said, “We want our students connected, and electives are an important piece of that.”

Superintendent Kirk Shrum said “[The change] will not impact students’ ability to take elective courses or participate in all of those things that make school a special place.”

A-G criteria are the California State University [CSU] and the University of California [UC] admission requirements. Each letter represents a certain academic area. The “C” requirement is three years of math.

Currently, if a student were to complete two years of math, they would be able to graduate but would not be able to attend a CSU or UC.

According to VUSD’s data, 43% of the class of 2022 met the A-G requirements. The 57% who did not meet them did not fulfill the math requirement.

Guerrero says, “We wanted to strengthen [students’ math skills] so that we can improve our students [and] our data [as to] A-G and [going from] school to career.”

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Chart-1.png — Data table: Redwood High School vs Madera High School¹. MHS has a 3-year math requirement. [Created by Ryan Kaspar]

According to Redwood’s 2022-23 School Plan for Student Achievement [SPSA], socioeconomically disadvantaged students’ math performance was 41.6 points below standard on average, while English learners were 144.6 points below standard on average.

Shrum says, “When you set expectations for students with the right support, they rise to that expectation.”

Alex Elick, ’23, serves as Associated Student Body [ASB] President at Mount Whitney High School.

The ASB Presidents at VUSD’s four traditional high schools serve as student representatives on the Board.

Elick says, “I guess from a student standpoint, it’s like, “Ugh, why?”, but I definitely understand setting higher standards for our students.”

Voices from the Class of 2028

Mason Brown, ’28, says, “I feel like it’s a good decision and… I think it is fair because math is an important part of being an adult and solving real-world problems.”

Brown says he would have “already taken 3-4 years of math,” so it wouldn’t affect any plans for high school.

Kadence Hetherington, ’28, says, “The new graduation requirement is very reasonable… It will only help kids grow and learn more.”

Hetherington “thinks it’s fair in the sense of why we need it,” being with math “is used in everyday life.”

Hetherington says the extra year of math affects her plans for high school by, “[having] to work hard in [her] math classes throughout the years… It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to continue this process.”

“Many students struggle as it is, and adding another year is just going to put more stress and pressure on them, which isn’t going to make high school any easier,” says Hetherington.

Jessica Brammer, ’28, says, “I’m not sure how I feel about adding another year of math. I think they should just enroll students into more advanced classes of math so that students won’t have to take another year.”

Brammer “sees the reason as why they would add another year… Buying a house, getting a job, [and] paying bills, are all surrounded by math.”

Brammer says, “I’m not worried about the change, I never really liked math but I’m pretty good at it.”

Emma Ellis, ’28, says, “I feel like that it’s fair for some kids and not for others. One positive thing about the extra year is [students] will get to learn more.”

Ellis says, “If I could describe it in one word, it would be frustrating because you already do so many years.”

Sean Reng, ’28, says, “I think that the new graduation requirements are fair, as in my opinion there should have been three years of math required for a lot longer.”

The new requirements do not affect Reng, “as [he] was planning on four years of math… so it doesn’t mean anything to [him].”