One of the most reliablie indicators of an achievement gap in California public schools is looking at how many graduates from any particular high school completed the necessary coursework for entrance to a CSU (California State University) or UC (University of California) school.

This category is a strong indicator because it doesn't rely on standardized testing results.  The results from standardized tests can be, and often are, inflluenced by a student's unwillingness to give the tests priority since they carry no weight on the student's GPA nor whether the student graduates from high school or is admitted to a college. 

What does count is whether the student took sufficient math, history, English and science courses. There is a substantial disparity between the number of African American, Latino, Southeast Asian and low income White students who complete the criteria and those students who are White and Asian.

The California Department of Education tracks data on graduates completing CSU/UC requirement at each school   Click here to view the data for Sacramento County, Placer County, San Joaquin County, Yolo, and El Dorado County.