Records show that in school year 2007-2008, 595 graduated from the five public secondary schools on Saipan, Rota and Tinian.
PSS this year has over 500 potential graduating senior students.
At Saipan Southern High School, principal Peter Le’au yesterday said they have 98 seniors.
Last year, SSHS had 170 graduates.
Le’au said although he agreed and supported the change in the requirements, he prefers the 28 credits to be distributed as follows: six credits for English, four each for math, science, and social studies; and the rest will be obtained from vocational courses and extra-curricular programs.
The new policy requires eight English credits, six for math, three each for social studies and science, two for P.E. and one for other language while the remaining five will be obtained from career and technical programs offered at schools.
“So with this new requirement, if a student fails in English he needs to repeat it and he can’t enroll in such programs as JROTC,” he said.
The initial graduation rate at SSHS is 79 percent, according to Le’au.
At Marianas High School, there are approximately 250 seniors who now have to comply with the new credit requirements.
MHS principal Karen Borja said they are working with the students and offering remedial classes and summer schools so they will not be behind in their credits.
Borja opposes the change in policy as she believes that some of the added credit requirements repeat existing subjects.
“I am not in favor of the change because basically the change between 21 to 28 credits was basically to double English and math,” she told Variety.
She said based on the SAT-10 scores last school year, students need additional help in reading and math.
At Kagman High School, principal Alfred Ada said they have 143 seniors this school year compared to last year’s 90.
Ada said the change in requirement is a big boost to the system’s mission of producing “quality graduates.”
“This is to prepare our students in their college…and career after they graduate from high school,” he told Variety in an interview.
Rota High School acting principal Sharlene Manglona doesn’t expect the new policy to have a “big impact” on senior students.
“We set our schedule and we put them into the required courses so they can graduate on time. We’re not seeing a major impact on our students here,” she told Variety.
She, however, expressed some concerns about the specifics of the new policy.
She believes that identifying what specific career or vocational courses should be taken will help students to become better prepared after graduation.
Manglona said there are 38 seniors enrolled at RHS. The vocational courses offered to seniors include traditional art, journalism and cooperative class.
Tinian High School last year graduated 37 students.
