For more than a decade, San Diego Unified School District leaders took pride in the more rigorous high school graduation standards they implemented in 2011. They could not avoid that too many graduates were leaving high school without having taken the minimum classes to get into college.

They’ve had enough of that rigor.

Earlier this year, the school board approved an alternate graduation pathway that makes it easier for students to graduate by watering down standards.

Why the change? At a January board meeting, Jennifer Roberson, the district’s head of instruction, unveiled a startling statistic: Fewer than 60 percent of current high schoolers are on track to meet district requirements.

“There are times when we have tried all the interventions and supports, and we have to have another

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