Albany High School

At Albany High School, we are committed to preparing our students for the rigors of college-level work but we were finding evidence that too many of our students were not well-prepared. For example, in 2006, the first year we offered our Juniors to take the California State University Early Assessment Program (EAP) Writing test, only 16% of them passed (ironically, this figure was much higher than most high school results from across the state). This figure didn’t seem in alignment with our 90% college attendance rate. In addition, in 2006, we had only 34 students take the Advanced Placement Language test. Even though 32 passed, this represented only about 10% of our Senior class population. The problem was further clarified by the data coming out of the University of California which showed that only 66% of our entering graduates passed the Analytical Writing Requirement in 2006 (as compared to 79% statewide), and the California State University that showed only 48% of our entering graduates were exempt from their EAP writing requirement in 2006 (as compared to 36% statewide).