Test Case

By David Hill

Inglewood, Calif.

Like a lot of high school seniors, Rasheda Daniel spends much of her time thinking about college. The Inglewood High School honor-roll student has her heart set on nearby Loyola Marymount University. "I just love that school," she says. Some of her friends have also applied there, and they hope to room together as freshmen. Rasheda, a rail-thin 17-year-old with a quick wit and a flair for the theatrical, has already picked out the décor. "It's going to have all inflatable furniture," she says, "and lava lamps!"

Inglewood High, not far from Los Angeles International Airport, serves about 2,000 working-class students, nearly all of whom are Latino or African-American. About 25 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Academically, Inglewood ranks in the bottom 10 percent of public schools in California, as measured by a new state rating system.

Until recently, the school offered just three Advanced Placement courses, in English, government, and U.S. history. Rasheda took the history class last year and is currently enrolled in the other two. Meanwhile, her peers at Beverly Hills High School, about 10 miles away, choose from more than a dozen AP courses, including chemistry, physics, biology,...