The online policy is intended to be flexible enough to accommodate synchronous, asynchronous, and blended online course providers, while simultaneously addressing the program features that UC faculty considers necessary to offer a quality online learning experience for students. These features include, among others, primary instruction and academic support by content experts, maintenance of a "human touch" in the learning process, and integrity of student assessment.
Full text of the online policy is available on this site. A letter of invitation and an application are also available for potential providers. Contact for additional information or with questions.
In recent years, the University of California (UC) has received submissions for "a-g" approval of an increasing number of project-based courses. With the growth of alternative and charter schools in the state, this trend is expected to continue. These courses have in common the preference for students to pursue their own interests and be self-directed in their learning. However, the commonality stops there. Recent submissions include senior projects, and topics in science, medicine, engineering, history, and more.
UC has been challenged to approve these courses to satisfy the "a-g" requirements because often the course content and student expectations are ill-defined and may change significantly from year to year. Ultimately, UC would like to accept academically rigorous project-based courses that focus on the core subject areas expected for University eligibility.
In order to assist schools, we have created some Project-Based Course Resources, available on this site, intended to assist those teachers who are developing project-based courses and writing them up for presentation to UC for "a-g" approval.
UC staff and faculty have established a policy that would govern the instructional conditions under which a non-classroom-based, independent study program/school would be eligible to establish and maintain a UC-certified "a-g" course list. New schools are required to be aligned with the policy at the time of submitting a "New School" application, and schools that currently have a course list will have to be aligned to the new independent study policy by the beginning (September) of the 2009 -2010 school year. The policy ensures the academic integrity of the school, defines teacher qualifications, and sets a requirement for the amount of student/teacher interactions.
In mid April 2008, policy announcement letters, policy statement and alignment applications were sent to all independent study schools that had either contacted UC, were classified in Doorways data base as an independent study school, or was identified by the Department of Education as offering primarily an independent study program. For additional information regarding the non-site based policy please contact Jeanne Hargrove at Jeanne.Hargrove@ucop.edu.
The "a-g" Guide web site, launched in 2000, has undergone a complete overhaul of its "back end" technology, bringing it up to current day state-of-the-art web technology standards. Content of the site is mostly unchanged, but the upgrade has encouraged project staff to wade through the entire site with a fine-toothed comb to delete outdated material, to modify responses to FAQs, et cetera. As a result, both the back end and the front end of the site are refreshed.
The most significant positive result from the overhaul is that now project staff can directly and immediately add, delete, and/or modify any site content using Macromedia Contribute software. This allows staff to keep information on the site current rather than waiting for IT support staff at UC to assist.
In December 2007, every public and private high school in
California with an approved UC "a-g" course list was sent a mailing from
the UC Office of the President. The mailing contained:
1. A letter that highlights some new policies and procedures, and requests schools/districts to submit their 2008-09 course list updates to UC.
2. User ID and Password information for the "a-g" Online Update web site, and
3. Notification that the course submission update site will close October 1, 2008
This mailing was sent to the high school principal/headmaster, the college counselor, and (for public schools) the district secondary curriculum director.
In the letter, we strongly encourage schools to use the "a-g" online update process accessed from the Doorways web site. Use of this site will provide several benefits:
A. A customized home page for your school with electronic archived records of your submissions
B. Faster reviews and feedback from UC
C. Facilitated submission for districts that manage the course list update process for their schools; and
D. Elimination of UC data entry errors
PLEASE NOTE: Information posted to the "a-g" guide web site has been updated to reflect the 2008-2009 submission cycle.
The Doorways "a-g" Course List web site has been enhanced in several ways. The enhancements affect every high school's course list.
The most significant change is the addition of the middle column, called "Category." It clarifies for students, parents, counselors and UC admissions staff the specific component of the "a-g" subject area that is satisfied by the completion of that course. For example, a Spanish for Spanish Speakers 1 course may be categorized as "LOTE 2," meaning that completion of that course satisfies the 2nd year of Language Other than English (LOTE) requirment. Alternatively, a course entitled The Latino Experience may be categorized as "US History," thus clarifying that this course meets the US History requirement, rather than the World History/Geography/Cultures component of the "a" History/Social Science area.
Other enhancements include:
1. Reliance on the gold star to designate UC honors status, removing the underline that previously indicated honors status;
2. Reliance on the blue diamond to designate that a course cannot be utilized to meet the "g" elective requirement, removing the asterisk that previously indicated this status;
3. Addition of term type information (i.e., semester, trimester, block);
4. Clarification of WASC accreditation status, indicating whether a school is a candidate or fully accredited, and if accredited, through what year;
5. Addition of the school's CDS code; and
6. Other minor textual changes
We hope that the enhanced site will be more informative to the range of users.
UC faculty approved a change to the rule governing how students may clear a deficiency in chemistry. Implementation of the rule change has been delayed until fall 2007 to avoid disadvantaging high school students who applied to UC in 2005 and 2006.
The change means that high school sophomores who took chemistry in the 2004-05 school year and received a D or F grade in the first semester must repeat this semester and earn a grade of C or better to satisfy part of the "d" subject requirement. The semester of coursework may be repeated any time prior to high school graduation.
Students who applied to UC in 2005 and 2006 were not affected by this change and will still follow the current validation rule. Under the current rule, a student who earns a D or F grade in the first semester of chemistry may clear the subject omission and scholarship deficiency if he or she earns a grade of C or higher in the second semester of the course.
Statistics
UC faculty has also changed a rule regarding validation of lower level mathematics courses by the successful completion of statistics. Under the new rule, which will be implemented for students entering the University in the fall of 2007, successful completion of a statistics course will continue to validate Algebra 1 and Algebra 2, but will no longer validate geometry.
The University of California (UC) has partnered with Agriculture Education Programs around the state to facilitate procedures for adding approved agriculture courses to the UC-approved course lists of high schools.
In order for students to benefit from UC-approved agriculture education coursework, the school must teach the course(s) following the CDE standardized curriculum and the approved agriculture courses must be listed on your high school's course list. To do so, the counselor, assistant principal, or other school staff member who is responsible for regularly updating the UC "a-g" course list must request that these courses be added to your school's "a-g" course list. This should be done during the regular course list update process (March deadline) or as a revision in the summer/early fall.
Please note that the following agriculture courses have been approved by UC. For reference, the course descriptions of the approved courses are all available on this web site under Course Descriptions.
Agricultural Biology, approved as a college preparatory course to meet the "d" laboratory science requirement, yearlong course.
Agriculture Business & Economics, approved as a college preparatory course to meet the "g" elective requirement, yearlong course.
Agriculture & Natural Resources, approved as a college preparatory course to meet the "g" elective requirement, yearlong course.
Agriculture Science II, approved as a college preparatory course to meet the "g" elective requirement, yearlong course.
Animal Science, approved as a college preparatory course to meet the "g" elective requirement, year-long course.
Environmental Horticulture Science, approved as a college preparatory course to meet the "g" elective requirement, yearlong course.
Plant & Soil Science, approved as a college preparatory course to meet the "g" elective requirement, yearlong course.
Veterinary Science, approved as a college preparatory course to meet the "g" elective requirement, yearlong course.
In order for the administrator or counselor responsible for updating your school’s "a-g" course list to request the addition of the above agriculture course(s) to your school’s course list, he/she should follow the procedures described in the attached letter [MS Word].
In the past few years, since the addition of the Visual and Performing Arts requirement, many schools have submitted for UC approval visual arts courses with a focus on design. These courses include architectural, graphic, interior, fashion, floral, furniture, landscape, and culinary design, as well as animation, video production, and others. However, many of these courses have not been approved because they fail to meet UC faculty guidelines.
In an attempt to assist arts educators to better understand faculty expectations, UC has worked with The California Arts Project (TCAP) to develop some useful resources for teachers of design courses. These Design Course Resources are available on this web site.
Doorways is a huge database that houses district, school and course information for every high school in California. As can be expected in any database with almost two million records, improving accuracy is a continuous process. We take this process very seriously and have undertaken a number of initiatives over the past few years that have had a great impact on accuracy. Some changes are based on clarifications or changes of policy; others are a result of review and data entry mistakes over the years. A detailed plan is in place to continue to make necessary adjustments. Click here to download a summary of the course list adjustment plan.
Required for schools to establish "a-g" course lists
In December 2002, the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) approved a policy that requires all public and private schools to be WASC-accredited in order to establish a UC-approved "a-g" course list. As a result, accreditation information is now required when schools update their UC-certified "a-g" course lists using the online submission process.
Schools that currently have UC-approved course lists, but are not WASC-accredited were able to maintain their lists (as provisional) until June 2006, or until they become fully accredited. Schools in this situation were sent a letter [MS Word] in December 2002.
New schools seeking WASC accreditation may establish a "provisional" course list once they become a candidate for accreditation. The provisional list will become permanent once they become fully accredited. Schools requesting to establish a course list for the first time were also sent a letter [MS Word] in December 2002 explaining the new policy.
For information on how to initiate the WASC accreditation process, please go to the "New Schools" section of the FAQs on this web site.
This policy consideration was initiated because many operators of home schools, charter schools, and other educational options inquired about establishing "a-g" course lists. Months of research and analysis on behalf of BOARS led to this policy that UC faculty and staff believe is fair, justified, and upholds the integrity of the UC admissions process. For questions related to this policy, feel free to contact or call (510) 987-9592 .
Students who attend non-WASC accredited schools in California may become Eligible by Examination Alone. If a student meets the eligibility criteria articulated below, he/she becomes statewide eligible (i.e., eligible to all UC campuses). However, eligibility simply means that the student is guaranteed a spot in the system, not necessarily at the campus of his/her choice. Students may qualify for admission to the University by earning high scores on the ACT Assessment plus Writing or SAT Reasoning Test, and two SAT Subject Tests. To qualify this way, one must achieve a minimum UC Score Total--calculated according to the Eligibility Index instructions--of 410 (425 for nonresidents). In addition, the student must earn a minimum UC Score of 63 on each component of the ACT or SAT Reasoning Test and on each SAT Subject Test. Applicants may not use an SAT Subject Test to meet these requirements if they have completed a transferable college course in that subject with a grade of C or better.
If students fail to meet these criteria, the student would need to rely on Admission by Exception, meaning that they are NOT eligible using the three paths to freshman eligibility, but can, at the discretion of the campus admissions director, be admitted based on strong qualifications.
In order to be admitted by exception, it is in the student's best interest to demonstrate proficiency in each of the "a-g" subject areas. This can/should be done by completing coursework at high schools with "a-g" course lists, completing community college coursework that is articulated to UC (listed on the ASSIST web site), completing University coursework, and/or scoring well on standardized subject area tests (SAT II or AP). Of course, the campuses also look at other qualifications, such as community service, leadership, special skills and interests (i.e., the arts, athletics, etc.) and several other contributing factors to understand the complete person and how he/she might contribute to and benefit from University life.
In December 2002, BOARS clarified its policy related to the acceptability of ELD, SDAIE, and sheltered English courses. The clarification states that English Language Development (ELD) and Sheltered or SDAIE English language arts courses are acceptable if they are at the advanced level. Courses at this level must include college preparatory composition and literature comparable to other mainstreamed college preparatory English courses (described in the Specific Requirements: (b) English section of this site).
Policy related to SDAIE and sheltered courses in other subject areas is unchanged. As sheltered and SDAIE course titles simply refer to the instructional methodology (rather than course content), it is expected that sheltered/SDAIE courses in history/social science, mathematics, laboratory science, visual and performing arts, and the elective area would be equivalent in content and skill development to comparable courses taught in the same subject area (i.e., Sheltered Algebra should be equivalent to Algebra 1; SDAIE US History should be equivalent to US History).
