We're grading you: Los Angeles parents, students and education advocates demanded school reform and won.(FEATURE)

AS COMMUNITIES OF COLOR IN CALIFORNIA grew over the past 40 years, the state's schools became increasingly racially segregated. Today, two-thirds of California's K-12 students in public schools are children of color. These students are more likely than whites to attend schools with overcrowded classes, underqualified teachers and less challenging curriculum requirements. California now ranks below all but Mississippi in terms of the number of high school seniors who go on to attend four-year colleges.

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In 1988, the University of California (UC) took a stab at reforming K-12 education by creating what has become known as its A-G policy. Each letter represents a category of classes that students must pass with a C or better to be eligible to attend a state four-year university in California. The policy was intended to be a partnership between UC and low-performing high schools, encouraging those schools to improve their classes.

The A-G policy was supposed to help students attending schools in places like Los Angeles, which has the second largest school district in the nation. Only 25 percent of Black students and 14 percent of Latino students in the district's 2003 graduating class were eligible to attend college. Forty-four percent of Black students and 56 percent of Latino students in that class dropped out.

If it's hard to grasp how large the problem ...