To have any real chance of success in the workplace or in college, high school students must regularly engage in more rigorous, intellectually challenging work and must make more progress during their high school years than they do now. This report, presented to the California Senate Standing Committee on Education, states that in California, statewide minimum curricular requirements do not prepare high school students adequately for work or college. The problem in California, the report contends, is that the education system channels most high school students--especially poor students and students of color--into a low-rigor curriculum, which makes a high school diploma practically useless for their future in the workplace or college. The report goes on to examine the expected impact of implementing a high-rigor college-readiness curriculum as the default curriculum in California's high schools. The report also presents data that show how school districts in California that have implemented college-readiness curriculum as the default curriculum have recorded higher assessment scores, lower achievement gaps, and increases in students' desire to attend college and eligibility to apply to the California University System. (Contains 29 figures and 15 references.) (WFA)