How hard should school be?

Most people agree that school should be rigorous, in a Goldilocks sort of way. You know, hard but not too hard.

School is the opportunity engine of modern life. Virtually every country in the world provides free primary and secondary education in the hope that every young person will become a self-sufficient, contributing adult. In the US, opportunity is central to the idea of public education — we want to believe that students from anywhere can go anywhere. We want to believe that every student in every public school, with a bit of grit, has a fair opportunity for success in college and career.

In California, being “college ready” has a specific meaning.

In reality, although most students in California get a high school diploma, a huge portion of them finish high school with a weak transcript. They don't qualify to even apply to a selective four-year college. In some communities, college is effectively out of reach because the high school courses they need aren't available to them. In a 2024 report, EdSource documented and mapped the patterns throughout California. The fifteen-minute podcast episode about this subject is an excellent summary:

California's definition of college-ready

In California, anyone can enroll in a community college, even without a high school diploma. Being college ready has a specific meaning that connotes a higher standard.

To apply for admission to the University of California (UC) or California State University (CSU) college system, students need more than just a high school diploma — they need evidence that they took and passed rigorous classes. Specifically, thy must have passed a set of fifteen college preparatory courses in seven categories with a grade of C or better. These are known as the a-g requirements. (Insiders pronounce it "A to G" or "A through G" and write it in lower case letters for some reason. Go figure.) High school courses don't automatically count: schools must submit course descriptions to UC officials who decide if they qualify as college-preparatory.

California’s statewide a-g requirements differ slightly from the requirements for the UC and CSU systems.

The a-g requirements:

The a-g list of courses is more demanding than the state’s minimum high school graduation requirements or the expectations of most school districts. For decades, data about college readiness was poorly tracked. In 2018-19, the state addressed the gap by incorporating achievement of the a-g requirements into the "College and Career" indicator on the California School Dashboard.

College-ready rates have gradually risen in California, but very slowly and with huge gaps by race/ethnicity, gender, and locale. In 2012, about 38% of the students who graduated from high school were college-ready as measured by completion of the a-g requirements. In 2023 just over half did so. But the rate varies tremendously from school to school, from place to place, and from group to group.

Some high schools don't even offer the full a-g course sequence

The state's minimum requirements to graduate differ from the requirements to attend college in the CSU or UC system. Graduation requirements vary by school district, and not all high schools offer the full a-g course sequence. Even if they do, course scheduling issues can prevent students from getting the courses they need.

In the Ed100 blog:
UC Scout: One answer to the teacher shortage

Students in small, rural, or high-poverty schools often struggle to pass the a-g requirements because the courses aren't offered in their school. There are solutions. Some enroll in courses at a community college, if they can. Others enroll in classes online to earn the a-g course credits they need. The University of California offers all of the a-g courses online and at low or no cost through UC Scout.

Should a high school diploma be more difficult to earn?

About half of California students pass the a-g course sequence, with big gaps.

As explained in Lesson 6.1, the Common Core Standards define a set of expectations about what students ought to learn and when they should learn it. Most students don't achieve these expectations, even if they graduate from high school. One persistent line of "tough love" thinking suggests that this is wrong, and that a high school diploma ought to signal that the student reached some defined level of accomplishment.

There is evidence to support this point of view. For more than a decade in the early 2000s, to qualify for a diploma California public high school students had to pass an exit exam (known as the CAHSEE, pronounced kay-see). To be clear, it was not a rigorous test. Most students found it absurdly easy, passing on their first try in their sophomore year. Students could re-take the test, but even after multiple tries nearly one out of ten students failed it. Some students took it as a cue to quit school. Graduation rates fell.

Ultimately, the exit exam was abandoned as part of the anti-test movement during the state's adoption of the Commmon Core standards.

In an effort to improve educational rigor for all students, and to expand students’ access to college, some California school districts made the a-g course sequence central to their expectations for all students. Los Angeles Unified, California's largest school district, was an early leader in making completion of the a-g course sequence a graduation requirement, a policy it established after years of preparation, beginning with students graduating in 2017. As with the state exit exam, raising standards had both intended and unintended consequences, further complicated by the pandemic. More students took the necessary courses, but many failed them.

Students are more likely to succeed in high school courses if they enter high school well-prepared. Of course, the same can be said of middle school, and of each grade level back to preschool. Knowledge and skills develop gradually from year to year. When students fall behind, it's very hard to catch up. Most don't.

Tips for Parents

In many cases, getting into college requires more than just completing those a-g requirements. Check these out:

• University of California entrance requirements
• California State University entrance requirements
• California Community College entrance requirements

The California State PTA provides resources to help plan for college, including info on application and testing assistance, school research, and financial aid.

This lesson was updated March 2024