The Palo Alto Unified School District will change the high school language graduation requirement at the Apr. 23 school board meeting. Starting  with the Class of 2016, students will be able to fill the requirement with one year of a language at level two, rather than the current standard of two years of a language in high school.

The adjustment is meant to make the PAUSD gradation requirements more in line with the University of California and California State University admission requirements. The UC/CSU admission standards only require completion to level two of a language compared to the current PAUSD standard of two years of language in high school. Though completion to level two is the minimum requirement for UC’s and CSU’s is two years, these colleges recomend a total completion of three years, according to Dr. Michael Milliken, director of secondary education.

“We want to clarify that it [the UC/CSU requirement] is 20 units of high school credit or level two and thus the two proposed changes,” Milliken said.

Previously, students were required to accumulate 20 credits (two years) of a single language other than English while in high school. Beginning with the Class of 2016, a single year of a non-English language will be accepted as long as it is at level two. If students take two introductory years of a language in middle school they will be able to complete the graduation requirement by taking one year of a level two foreign language in high school, according to Milliken.

“If students take Spanish 1A and 1B in the middle school and then Spanish 2 in the ninth grade and stop there, they have met the minimum UC requirement even though they have only taken 10 units of high school credit,” Milliken said.

The district will also accept demonstrated competence of equal to two years to fill the graduation requirement. The district will base its measures of competence on the UC/CSU measurements.

“(Beginning with the Class of 2016) World Language, 20 units of coursework or completion of Level 2, in a single language other than English or demonstrated equivalent competency in alignment with UC/CSU proficiency requirements” the proposed amendment to the graduation requirements reads.

According to the UC/CSU admission requirements website, competency may be demonstrated by high enough scores on SAT subject tests, AP tests or IB examinations.