Portfolios Required to Graduate

VALLEY GLEN â€”  Students at eight Valley high schools who want to don a cap and gown in 2002 will need to come up with a plan for when they take off those accouterments of graduation, LAUSD Subdistrict C Supt. Bob Collins told students Thursday.

Starting next year, the subdistrict will require seniors at its schools in Van Nuys, Valley Glen, Reseda and Woodland Hills to commit to a post-graduate education, whether at a four-year or community college, a trade school, in the military, or a job-training program.

A high school diploma is no longer a ticket to lasting employment, and nearly every field requires extra training, including acting, car repair and even professional wrestling, said Collins, who is visiting the high schools he oversees this month to inform juniors of the impending rule.

“A whole variety of careers await you--opportunities that will guarantee your future--but we’ve got to move now to make it happen,� Collins told 11th-graders at Grant High School in Valley Glen.

Graduating seniors who fail to produce post-secondary plans would still receive their diplomas if otherwise eligible, but they would not be able to participate in graduation ceremonies, traditionally attended by proud parents, relatives and friends.

Students who heard Collins’ presentation seemed to respond positively and were already concocting plans.

“It made me realize that they actually care about us,� said Michael Giordano, 17, who added that he may join the Air Force, or attend UCLA or UC Irvine.

“There’s a lot of opportunities that I never realized I had,� said student Marcos Torres, who is considering attending a trade school to learn to repair helicopters. “The time starts now. You’d better get your act together.�

Counselors at Subdistrict C’s high schools--Grant, Birmingham, Cleveland, Reseda, Taft, Van Nuys, Valley Alternative Magnet and Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies--will survey juniors on their early plans and work with them during the next 16 months to achieve their goals, Collins said. Enrolling in summer school, taking an advanced placement class next semester, visiting a military recruiting office or signing up for the SAT may be required.

“Whatever your goals are,� Collins said, “we’re going to get you there.�

Collins first instituted the rule as principal of Grant High School. In 1987, the first year he tried it, just 3% of the graduating seniors lacked a plan for more schooling. At other Valley high schools, which did not have the requirement, a survey found at least 30% of seniors were without a plan.

Currently, compelling students to commit to a post-graduation plan is not a requirement in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 10 other subdistricts.

Collins figures many of Subdistrict C’s students have their lives mapped out, at least in their heads. For them, college has always been a given, and their surveys indicate plans to apply to universities such as Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Stanford and Harvard.

Others, however, may have never considered the possibility of more school--and would not consider it unless somebody made them.

In addition to pitching his “post-secondary commitment� requirement, Collins is using his tour of Subdistrict C’s high schools to promote a character-education curriculum that will be launched in all grades in the next school year.

Employers want job applicants to have college degrees and specialized training, he told the Grant students, but they also want to hire trustworthy and responsible people.

“They’re not half as interested in your grades as they’re interested in what kind of person you are,� he said.

Later this spring, Collins plans to resurrect another requirement for seniors, beginning with this year’s graduating class--that they produce a “professional portfolio� of their high school transcript, diploma, resume, autobiography and any awards they have won to help them reach their post-high school goals. Seniors would compile these portfolios in their English classes.