At Sacramento New Technology Early College High School, there is no opting out of college. Every one of the roughly 150 students enrolled at the small Sacramento City Unified charter campus must complete college coursework, an internship and community service before they can collect a high school diploma — and the school says every graduate has gone on to college as a result.
Principal Jessica Martin says the school believes it is the only campus in California requiring college coursework of every single student, as reported by CBS Sacramento. Students take those courses at Sacramento City College, located less than two miles from the high school, attending during the regular school day and choosing which subjects they want to study. Some students can earn an associate degree by the time they walk at graduation.
Martin told the outlet that the model is reshaping how students see their own futures. She said the school is “changing the minds of students who did not think college was possible,” and added that students learn to “navigate college in high school with full support.”
A Junior Balancing High School and College Life
Julio Reyes, a 16-year-old junior at the school, has already earned multiple college credits through the program, per the same CBS Sacramento report. He described college as a markedly different environment from high school, one where students are suddenly surrounded by much older classmates. Even so, he said, the program treats high schoolers like adults.
“It just encourages me to push myself to do more,” Reyes said, describing how the coursework has shaped his ambitions. He hopes to one day own his own business, and credits the early exposure to college-level work and expectations with pushing him toward that goal.
How the Program Fits Into State Policy
Sacramento New Technology's mandatory model is an unusually aggressive version of a broader movement across California. The school partners directly with Sacramento City College, part of the Los Rios Community College District, which allows high schoolers in dual-enrollment programs to complete up to 11 units per semester tuition-free, according to the Los Rios Community College District.
The school's structure fits the state's legal definition of an Early College High School under California Education Code Section 11302, which designates small, autonomous schools that let students earn a diploma and up to two years of college credit in four years or less, per the Career Ladders Project. That framework is backed by real money: in 2022, California lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 181, creating a $200 million competitive grant program to expand dual enrollment and grow early and middle college high schools statewide, according to the California Department of Education.
Why a Mandatory Model Matters
Most California dual-enrollment programs are opt-in, and that structure tends to disproportionately attract students who were already headed to college. Statewide data shows Black and Latino students remain underrepresented in dual-enrollment courses relative to overall high school demographics, according to research cited by EdSource. By requiring every student to participate regardless of whether they sign up, Sacramento New Tech removes that self-selection barrier entirely.
The stakes tied to that gap are significant. Statewide, students in College and Career Access Pathways dual-enrollment programs enroll in college within a year of graduating at a rate of 82%, compared with California's overall average of 66%, per an analysis from the Public Policy Institute of California. More than 112,000 California high schoolers participate in dual enrollment annually, with the California Community Colleges system delivering roughly 97% of that coursework statewide.
A Growing Regional Trend
Sacramento New Tech's wall-to-wall approach is the far end of a spectrum of dual-enrollment expansion playing out across the Greater Sacramento region. Elsewhere, schools are testing narrower versions of the same idea — Rocklin High launched a dual-enrollment class with Sierra College focused on criminal justice earlier this year, rather than requiring college coursework campus-wide.
The economic case for pushing more students toward college credit is stark in the numbers. In the Sacramento region, adults 25 and older with a bachelor's degree earned a median income of $80,401 in 2023, nearly double what residents with only a high school diploma earned, according to data reported by PBS KVIE.
Sacramento New Technology High School first opened in 2003 as a dependent charter within Sacramento City Unified, modeled after the original New Tech High School founded in Napa in 1996. The school operates under the district's Board of Education and reports an average graduation rate of 90%, according to district-cited figures compiled by Niche. For students like Reyes, the campus's unusual bet — that every teenager, not just the ones who raise their hands, can handle college work — appears to be paying off one credit at a time.
