Course Options

• One of the great aspects of personalized learning is the freedom to structure your own learning. There are state standards and graduation requirements guiding your learning, but within this is great variety. Below are some ideas of different ways to structure your coursework and taking advantage of this variety.

A-G Courses

• The “a-g course list” are courses that have been submitted to the University of California and the California State University for approval as college-preparatory classes. CORE’s list can be found here (www.ucop.edu/doorways). Admission to either university system requires taking certain courses from each category (a – History/Social Science, b – English, etc.).
  See UC’s website and CSU’s website for specific admission criteria.

Basic Coursework

• Basic coursework is an option for students that provides California state standards content at a lower reading level, for those needing it. Contact your teacher for more details. Students planning to apply for a 4-year college/university should not take basic courses, but should work towards college-preparatory (i.e. “a-g list” – see above) coursework. Also, students wishing to accelerate (i.e. take more than 35 units/semester) may not do so while taking any basic coursework.

Advanced Placement (AP)

• Advanced Placement is a program administered by the College Board (www.collegeboard.com) and widely accepted by universities across the country that allows students to prepare for an AP Exam in May with the potential of earning college/university course credit for acceptable exam scores. There are a few different ways to take AP courses, though it is recommended to take courses at the local community college rather than AP, as there is more support at the community colleges and there is more potential of transferring credit. Contact your teacher or school counselor for more details.

Community College – Concurrent Enrollment

• Students are able and encouraged to take community college courses concurrently with their high school coursework. Certain colleges allow any student (even younger than high school age!) to take courses with your school’s permission. Yuba College, however, requires that students be a minimum of 10th grade w(link to section that describes community college concurrent enrollment) with parent/school permission. For more information, see our College-University page for details.

Regional Occupational Program (ROP)

• Each region of CORE has its own ROP. ROP is a way for high school students to gain practical career/technical skills while earning high school credit. It is also free for high school students and can count towards specific subject requirements. See each specific ROP site for course details.
• ROP TCA (www.bcoe.org/rop/ or 530-879-7457)

Work Experience Education

• Work Experience Education is a way for students to learn while you earn. Along with a paying job, students take accompanying coursework to earn up to 10 units/semester. See this link for more information.

Internships/Apprenticeships

• An internship is a way for students to gain practical training in a career field with supervision. One of the main differences of an internship as opposed to Work Experience Education is that an internship usually in unpaid. This may sound unattractive to students until one considers that the skills that an employer (who would otherwise not have hired an unskilled high school student) will impart will probably increase a student’s future potential in more desirable, higher paying employment. Here is a great article about internships.