High school is the culmination of the K-12 education experience. Many factors affect California students’ potential for success when they enter high school, as they progress through grades 9 to 12, and as they make the transition into the adult worlds of college and work.

This section of our website focuses on secondary school, the latter part of students’ public school experience: from the measures used to gauge their progress, to the varied kinds of schools they attend, to the pathways they encounter as they transition out of school. It also provides important information about California's community colleges, the next educational step for almost a third of the state’s high school graduates.