Giving Compass' Take:

• Although more students in California high schools are passing standardized tests, many are still woefully unprepared for college.

•  How can high schools incorporate courses or curriculum material beyond standardized test preparation?

• Read about what charter schools are doing to prepare students for college.

On the preK-12 front, California is moving in the right direction in preparing students for college. Graduation rates are rising — reaching a high last year of 82 percent in the spring of 2016.

High school test scores, at least as measured by the standardized tests students must take each spring, are going up.

Most encouragingly, more students are completing A-G course requirements for admission to UC and CSU than ever before. The number of students who completed the A-G requirements went up from 125,516 in 2006-07 to 194,698 in 2015-16. Even more impressive is that the number of low-income students meeting the requirements has increased at a far greater rate, in fact tripling over the same period.

But too many are still arriving at college without the skills they need to succeed. Last year, 49 percent of students in California “met” or “exceeded” standards on the Common Core-aligned Smarter Balanced tests in English language arts, and only 37 percent did so in math. No wonder then, that at CSU nearly 4 in 10 entering freshmen are still in need of some remedial work in math and English.

Clearly, the more help students get before they graduate from high school the less pressure there will be on colleges to get them up to speed in key academic areas.

Read the full article on arriving at college prepared by Louis Freedberg at EdSource