High School Graduation

February 8, 2022

California offers graduation honor to encourage active civic engagement

Students can earn a Seal of Civic Engagement if they learn how to research issues and effect change by getting involved in community issues.

John Fensterwald

January 28, 2022

California high school graduation rate held steady during pandemic 

California's graduation rate held steady last school year, despite Zoom schooling. But the numbers don't tell the whole story.

Diana Lambert And Daniel J. Willis

January 4, 2022

Hit hard by Covid, California high school seniors struggling toward graduation

California school districts are reducing the number of credits needed to graduate, changing school schedules and adding tutoring to help seniors earn their diplomas.

Diana Lambert

June 24, 2021

Grading changes, other Covid accommodations await Gov. Newsom’s signature

An extra year in high school, a Pass or No Pass option and minimum graduation requirements would help undo damage from the pandemic.

John Fensterwald

April 6, 2021

How California high schools plan to pull off ‘normal’ graduations

Ceremonies will be outside, probably in shifts, on a sports field with bleachers, or like Fresno and Natomas, in a big pavilion and minor league ballpark.

John Fensterwald

June 4, 2020

As she and her family battled Covid-19, graduation seemed out of reach

Maria Amaya, the first in her family to read and write, also wanted to be the first to graduate high school. Then her family came down with Covid-19.

Betty Márquez Rosales

May 28, 2020

Oakland Unified helps seniors overcome graduation challenges

District reaches out to families through wellness checks, changes grading and graduation requirements, provides some technology to seniors.

Theresa Harrington

May 21, 2020

California’s smallest districts plan ‘socially distant’ in-person graduations this spring

State officials are developing guidelines on how to safely bring students back to campus.

Sydney Johnson

May 14, 2020

Oakland eases graduation requirements to address student challenges during crisis

Oakland Unified school board temporarily waives its 2.0 GPA and senior project grad requirements during emergencies such as school closures.

Theresa Harrington

September 26, 2019

More math adds up to more Long Beach high school students eligible for college

Some warn that it will be difficult for other districts to increase math graduation requirements due to budget and staffing constraints.

Sydney Johnson

January 30, 2019

California schools help unaccompanied immigrant students combat trauma, language barriers

Unaccompanied immigrant students face a daunting set of obstacles to finish high school. Many students have survived severe trauma in their home countries or missed years of school.

Zaidee Stavely

August 14, 2018

Ethnic studies should be a high school requirement

Schools would tailor their courses to reflect the student demographics in their communities, authors say.

Luis A. Alejo and Jose Lara

July 27, 2018

California high school grad rate drops with new methodology

Corrected for problems with past years’ calculations, 82.7 percent in the Class of 2017 got their diplomas compared with 83.8 percent the year before.

John Fensterwald

July 1, 2018

Need to rethink tying high-school diploma to college course requirements

Requiring graduates meet California State University requirements may deny diplomas to otherwise prepared students.

Russell W. Rumberger

November 7, 2017

Q&A: High school dropout researcher asks: What’s behind a diploma?

UC Santa Barbara researcher discusses high school dropouts, graduation rates and plans to study courses taken and grades earned to receive diplomas.

Theresa Harrington