While the vast majority of students in California—86% of seniors in 2023—graduate from high school, most—56% in 2023—do not complete their A-G requirements, according to an EdSource analysis of data from the California Department of Education. EdSource’s analysis found that Black and Latino students are the hardest hit. In 2023, 68% of Black students and 64% of Latino students did not meet A-G requirements, compared with 26% of Asian students and 48% of white students, according to EdSource’s analysis. The highest non-completion group is foster students at 88%, followed by disabled students at 85% and English learners at 82%. Of 1,766 high schools in California, about half graduated more than 56% of students lacking the required college preparatory courses. Improving low A-G completion rates has been a longtime goal of both educators and state policymakers, but it’s a problem that resists easy answers or quick fixes, said Sherrie Reed, executive director of the California Education Lab at UC Davis and a researcher with Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), an independent research nonprofit affiliated with several California universities. Understanding why any given student may or may not meet A-G requirements requires examining what is happening in a particular region or district, as well as disparities within schools. "The answer is that it is all of that,” said Reed. “No one factor accounts for it."