This executive summary of a 28-page EdSource report highlights three powerful levers that state policymakers and local schools can use to strengthen high school curriculum. These levers are: (1) California's Academic Content Standards; (2) Eligibility to Attend the State's Public Universities, and (3) Career and Technical Education. It also…

Although K-12 schools and community colleges share responsibility for the futures of a vast number of young Californians, and both are under pressure to improve student academic achievement, the groups operate under separate governance systems, pursue distinct missions, gauge success based on different measures, and are seldom looked at together.…

Throughout most of the 20th century, vocational programs focused primarily on job skills and served students who were either struggling in an academic program or were not seen as "college material." In the early 1990s that emphasis began to shift. The adoption of more rigorous academic standards for all students, combined with increases…