One of the issues I’ve found myself thinking about a lot is the trend toward stricter (more “rigorous”) high school graduation requirements, in particular the trend in California towards “A-G” graduation requirements which would make passing the courses needed for admission to UC/CSU a requirement for a high school diploma.
I think perhaps the best arguments for doing this, or something like it, are that it will help address equity issues. Currently Hispanic and African-American students are less likely to complete A-G requirements in high school therefore under-represented among UC and CSU applicants. Requiring all students to complete A-G classes helps level the playing field.
But it seems to me, like many reform trends in education, to be a simplistic response to a complicated problem. The most obvious UC and CSU are mandated to serve (respectively) the top 12% and to 33% of high school graduates; preparing more students to meet the entrance requirements is not going to significantly increase the number of students that UC/CSU serve, leading to an obvious question: Is an A-G curriculum the best preparation for the 2/3 of CA high school graduates who will not attend UC or CSU? It’s not obvious that the answer is “no,” but it’s also not obvious that the answer is “yes.”
Notes on Science and Education 