Sonoma County high schools trying to boost college readiness

Despite a nationwide push to help students leave high school "college and career ready," only about one in four of Sonoma County's high school graduates leaves school having successfully completed the necessary coursework to apply to a four-year college.

In 2012-13, 26 percent of local graduates had earned a C grade or higher in the 15 so-called A through G courses including foreign language, lab science, intermediate algebra and visual or performing arts. The courses are so named because they fall into seven general subject areas, each of which is assigned a letter.

The number falls well short of the state rate of 38 percent and has remained stagnant for years.

The numbers do not include dropouts, meaning that an even greater proportion of young adults are lacking key pieces of their educational foundation.

"I think every superintendent realizes that in this county, we are low," said Steve Bolman, superintendent in Petaluma, where the two comprehensive high schools, Casa Grande and Petaluma, have A through G completion rate higher than the county average at 39 and 37 percent, respectively.

"Even the student going to the junior college who is hoping to transfer to a UC or Cal State, it would be an advantage for them obviously to have those skills," Bolman said.

California has not changed its graduation requirements in more than 10 years, despite recent upheaval of state standards as well as a nationwide push sparked by President Barack Obama to graduate more students who are college and career ready.

California requires two years of math, three years of English and no foreign language or science labs to earn a high school diploma. Students must have completed the A through G courses with a C or better in order to apply to the state's 32 public universities. The requirements include a year of visual and performing arts, two years of foreign language, two years of lab science, three years of math, four years of English and two years of history/social science.

Within Sonoma County, the rates of completion vary widely.

In Santa Rosa City Schools, the county's largest district, 22 percent of 2013 graduates successfully completed the college-ready requirements. In Windsor, it was 21 percent, in Healdsburg it was 33 percent and in Sonoma Valley Unified, where three years ago the high school began the process of requiring all graduates to pass the A through G classes to graduate, it's 38 percent, according to state data.

In Roseland School District, where the same requirement applies to students at Roseland University Prep, 64 percent of graduates completed the A through G requirements with grades of C or better.

The push to give more students the option of applying to college straight out of high school has included a dramatic increase in the number of career technical courses statewide that now qualify as an A through G-approved course.

In 2003-04 in California, just 1,984 courses offered the rigor required to merit an A through G designation. In 2011-12, that number had soared to 9,105.

"We do know that increasing the rigor in CTE (career technical education) courses is a healthy thing. We want them to be such that they reflect current industry practice," said Stephen Jackson, director of career development and CTE for the county office of education.

But Jackson cautioned against pushing all kids and all courses toward college preparation. Some classes should remain introductory while some students would likely thrive in a postsecondary professional certificate course or AA degree, rather than a four-year university.

"Again, you have to be careful. Do we want all of our CTE courses to be A through G approved?" he said. "Is that necessary that it become A to G? But if it's (an advanced class like) engineering design, yes that should be A to G."

Still, local educators said Sonoma County should work to increase its rates of seniors who graduate with transcripts that make them eligible for four-year colleges.

"Most of the work that we are looking for nowadays requires some sort of college or higher level education," said Chris Heller, principal of Analy High School in Sebastopol, where 46 percent of graduates have satisfied the A through G requirements. Only Technology High School in Rohnert Park and Roseland University Prep in Santa Rosa posted higher numbers at 57 and 64 percent, respectively.

"I'd like to have all kids exposed to (A through G) because I think it opens doors and opportunities to them that they may not realize now," Heller said.

The Sonoma County Office of Education has partnered with 10,000 Degrees, a nonprofit agency that helps historically under-represented students apply to, afford and succeed in college, to send high school students to Sonoma State University for a week as a way to inspire college enrollment, according to county superintendent Steve Herrington.