By SDCN Staff
San Diego, CA — Students in the San Diego Unified School District have surpassed pre-pandemic benchmarks for college and career readiness, according to the California School Dashboard.
School district officials say the Class of 2025–26 is on pace to achieve a 4% increase in college and career preparedness compared with last year’s graduating class.
San Diego Unified graduated 90.3% of its senior students in 2024-25, and these students were more prepared to pursue University of California A-G diplomas than those in the Los Angeles, Fresno, Long Beach, and San Francisco Unified School Districts. San Diego Unified’s A-G Completion Rate was 26% better than all large urban schools in the state of California.
“The data shows that more of our students are on track to graduate than last year. We are pleased that more of our students are ready to meet the requirements of all public California universities and more of our students are ready to pursue post-high school careers,” said Superintendent Fabi Bagula, Ph.D., San Diego Unified School District. “The steady year-after-year progress of our students is a testament to the dedication of our education and the hard work being put in by students and their families. We’re proud that more of our students are trending in the right direction, but we have a lot more work to do.”
Since the College and Career Indicator was developed by the State of California in 2017, student preparedness for life after high school has improved from 53%.3 from San Diego Unified’s Class of 2017 to 66.6% for the Class of 2025.
Each San Diego Unified School is different, but district officials attribute the overall improvements to some key student performance outcome indicators, research-based levers which include strategic scheduling, strong student-adult relationships, and supportive 8th to 9th grade transition “bridging.”
“Our students are graduating at higher rates and are better prepared for college and careers than their peers in other urban districts across the state,” said Richard Barrera, President of the Board of Education, San Diego Unified School District. “We are delivering targeted support to academically struggling students, which is reflected in our higher graduation and college and career readiness rates. We are encouraged by these academic improvements.”
