Beginning February 2022, the annual course submission period will span February 1 - June 30.

• A-G list managers are highly encouraged to complete all updates to their course lists during the Primary Phase. 
• This ensures course lists are up to date by the time the UC application is available to students on August 1. 
• All course types may be submitted during this phase:
  • New course submissions (including new courses modeled after already approved courses)
  • Course revisions
  • Activations of archived courses 
  • Program and Regional Occupational Center/Program course adoptions
• Self-reported online publisher courses may also be added to course lists during this phase.

• Only courses eligible for auto approval may be added to lists:
  • Eligible courses include adoptions of program courses, self-reported online publisher courses as well as certain types of revisions and modeled courses.
• All other course submissions may be drafted during Course Management Month and then submitted during the Supplementary Phase.
• Course list edits such as updates to transcript abbreviations, local course codes or the course learning environment may be made at any time of the year, including during Course Management Month. 

• All course types may be submitted during this phase:
  • New course submissions (including new courses modeled after already approved courses)
  • Course revisions
  • Activations of archived courses 
  • Program and Regional Occupation Center/Program course adoptions
• Self-reported online publisher courses may also be added to course lists during this phase.
• Once the course submission period ends on August 31, users will need to wait until the next submission period to add courses to their lists.

Every institution that serves high school students in California needs to submit courses to the A-G Course Management Portal (CMP) for review by UC.

Each person that supports the A-G course submission process, whether by writing courses or managing the A-G list, should register for their own user account on the A-G CMP.

• Review the different types of course submissions
• Review the course description & content requirements
  • Review the A-G subject areas to ensure your course meets all of the requirements.
  • Visit the Writing A-G courses page to learn about what you need to include in your course description.
• Use your resources
  • Work with your course content experts (e.g. teachers, subject department chairs, curriculum directors) to write the course.
  • The Search feature on the A-G CMP homepage allows you to search for and view other school’s A-G approved courses.
  • Utilize the Share draft course feature on the A-G CMP to collaborate with other users on course drafts.

Course and reference list managers are responsible for submitting courses to UC for review via the A-G CMP. All A-G CMP users with basic permissions must forward courses to their course or reference list manager, who must review each course before making the final submission to UC.

Find out your results

Log into the A-G CMP to view your results under the Results tab in the A-G Courses Manager.

New courses are generally reviewed within two to four weeks of submission. However, depending on the time of year and volume of submissions, it may take longer.

Not approved courses

If your course does not get approved and is eligible for resubmission, resubmit the course after making modifications to the submission based on the analyst’s comments.

New courses

Brand new courses are courses created by your institution. Before you start writing a course, review the A-G subject requirements to ensure the course meets the criteria and guidelines of its respective subject area.

See the Writing A-G courses page for information on course description requirements, guidance, and sample courses.

Modeling after another institution's course

Schools can model after courses already approved at another school using the "Model after another institution's course" feature on the A-G CMP.

When modeling after another institution’s course, make edits to the course description as necessary to reflect how the course will be taught at your institution and meets current A-G subject requirements and submission requirements.

Adding program courses

Programs (e.g. the College Board Advanced Placement Program, CSU Early Assessment Program) submit their own standardized courses to UC for review.

Students are not able to directly enroll in program courses to fulfill the A-G subject requirements. These courses are A-G approved for the program to sell or license their curriculum to be taught by teacher or administrator within the local high school or district.

Program A-G reference lists can be found on the A-G Reference List website.

Adding ROC/P Courses

ROC/P's maintain A-G lists in the A-G CMP so that schools may choose to add these courses to their own A-G course lists. For more information about the courses developed by an ROC/P, please contact a representative from the ROC/P directly. Contact information is available on the A-G Course List site. 

Self-reporting online publisher courses

As of February 1, 2020, schools add online publisher courses to their A-G course lists by certifying and self-reporting courses from UC-registered online course publishers. More information about certifying and self-reporting courses can be found in the summary of the updated online course policy. 

Activating archived courses

Schools and districts/school networks can activate archived courses that will be taught in the upcoming academic year.

Activations require a full review of the course. When activating archived courses, update the course description information to ensure it meets current A-G subject requirements and submission requirements.

Your course description should include relevant information that would assist those reviewing your course in having a better understanding of and clarity about how the course meets the A-G subject requirements.

• Course Overview: Describe the overarching content and goals of the course.
• Unit summaries and assignments: Include one summary and one sample assignment for every unit in the course. Use these sections to show how the unit content and assignments meet A-G subject requirements.
• Unit labs for science D courses: For each unit, describe a teacher-supervised, laboratory activity that involves inquiry, observation, analysis and write-up.

When you see Unit Summary, think of how you would answer, “What are your students learning in this unit?”

Our UC High School Articulation analysts expect to see about 5-7 sentences that succinctly describe the critical thinking, depth, and progression of skills and content covered in the unit. 

When you see Unit Assignment, think of how you would answer, “How do your students demonstrate learning in this assignment?”

Include about 5-7 sentences that summarize a key assignment for each unit. Make sure you mention how students complete each assignment, what (e.g. 3 page essay, diorama, model) students produce, and what (e.g. list of concepts, design process, collaboration skills) students learn. When describing what students learn, focus on explaining how that learning aligns with the A-G criteria for the course's given subject area.

Keys to successful course submissions
This High School Articulation webinar will focus on supporting A-G CMP users in writing successful course submissions for the following subject areas: science (D), visual and performing arts (F) and college-preparatory elective (G). For the 2023–24 submission period, courses submitted in these three subject areas were the most in-need of resubmission for A-G approval. 

When February 21, 2024 at 10:30 a.m. (90 minutes)
Registration is required.

If you are seeking UC honors designation for your course, you will need to include additional information, such as a final exam or project, to meet the general UC honors requirements below and subject area specific UC honors criteria. You can find the subject area specific UC honors course criteria on each individual subject area requirements page.

Beginning with the 2016-17 submission period, the following course criteria are effective for honors-level courses seeking A-G approval:

Honors courses designed by an institution to demonstrate distinctive features that set it apart from regular high school courses in the same A-G subject area are eligible for the UC honors designation. These courses should be comparable in terms of workload and rigor to Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) or introductory college-level courses in the subject.

There is no limit to the number of UC-designated honors-level high school courses that may be approved for an institution's A-G course list.

General UC honors course criteria

1. Honors-level courses are specialized, advanced courses designed for 10th-, 11th- or 12th-graders who have already completed foundation work in the subject area. High school courses offered at the grade 9 level that schools might locally designate as “honors” are not eligible for the UC honors designation.
2. Courses must have established prerequisites, as appropriate to the discipline.
3. Honors-level courses must have a comprehensive final examination or a substantive, culminating project. The purpose of the final exam/project is for students to exhibit depth of knowledge and sustained mastery of subject material.
4. In general, it is highly recommended [but not required] high school courses being considered for the UC honors designation will have a non-honors equivalent course offered at the same frequency (e.g., annually, every other year, etc.), in the same subject area, and at the same grade level.

The purpose of these course excerpts is to give course authors a model for how to construct course overviews, unit summaries, and sample assignments. In a complete course submission, analysts look for the course criteria for a given subject area to be fully present. Because different units emphasize different criteria, these excerpts provide a snapshot of what analysts look for. Only portions of the subject specific course criteria are present in each excerpt. We encourage all course authors to consistently review the criteria specific to the subject/discipline for which they are submitting their courses.

Registered users of the A-G CMP can access the full repository of A-G courses using the Course Search feature. 

• A History / social science
• B English
• C Mathematics
• D Science
• E Language other than English
• F Visual & performing arts
• G College-preparatory elective

As of April 2019, the University of California has an updated online course publisher policy that supports quality online A-G courses through shared oversight.

• Visit the FAQs page for answers to specific questions about the updated policy.

Online course publishers can now register to be included in UC's publicly available directory that will serve as a statewide resource to California high schools seeking online courses to fulfill A-G subject requirements for University admissions.

Online course publishers are eligible to register for the directory if they meet at least #1 through #4 of the following criteria:

1. Author their own curriculum;
2. Rely on the student’s home high school to report the completed online course (grades and credits earned) on the student’s official high school transcript;
3. Submit documentation (e.g., letter of intent, purchase agreement) that public high schools in at least two California school districts (or at least two private high schools) have committed to using the online publisher’s courses for their students’ college preparation (i.e., to fulfill A-G subject requirements); and
4. Agree to maintain at least two years of data on California high school course enrollments for UC audit purposes.
5. Only for publishers offering instructors with their online courses: Online course publishers that also employ instructors must earn accreditation as a supplementary education center/program from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

Online course publishers that had an active A-G reference list prior to January 2020 now appear in UC’s new publicly available directory of online course publishers. UC no longer maintains individual online course publisher A-G reference lists, and instead maintains a single directory listing all online course publishers registered with UC.

UC's new directory will serve as a statewide resource to California high schools seeking online college-prep courses by identifying all online course publisher options that UC recognizes. Online course publishers no longer submit courses to UC for review and A-G approval. Rather, schools now: 1) certify that the online courses from their selected UC-registered online course publisher(s) are comparable to A-G courses offered at the high school, and 2) self-report the courses to UC so that they are added to the school’s A-G course list along with all the non-online courses they also offer.

As of February 1, 2020, the process to add online publisher courses to a school’s A-G course list involves the high school certifying that the online courses from their selected UC-registered online course publisher(s) are comparable to A-G courses offered at the high school, and then self-reporting the courses to UC. Specifically, here are the steps:

Please review this video demonstration, which walks schools through the process of self-reporting an online publisher course.

1. CERTIFY: Principal certification of online publisher courses

• Principal certification is a process by which a California high school can review coursework that is completed through another institution, organization, or program that does not have an A-G list.
• Principals must certify online publisher courses are comparable to A-G courses offered at the high school. Online courses must meet UC faculty’s A-G course criteria for the relevant subject area.
• Online courses must also incorporate clear measures for ensuring the integrity of student assessments. Refer to the Quality Matters standards or the National Standards for Quality Online Learning for guidance on student assessments, and especially Standard B in the National Standards for Quality Online Courses, which outlines content guidelines, including explicit expectations for academic integrity.
• UC faculty expect that principal certification follows a careful review of the course by the principal, department chair, district curriculum director, or other qualified school/district personnel. UC strongly recommends such reviews be conducted using national standards for quality K-12 courses, as issued by Quality Matters or the National Standards for Quality Online Courses.
• Principals will designate their certification by granting permission for the course(s) to be listed on the student’s official high school transcript, along with credits granted and letter grades earned.

2. SELF-REPORT: High schools self-report online courses from UC-registered online course publishers

• To add online course publisher courses to their A-G course lists, high schools will self-report principal-certified online publisher courses via the A-G Course Management Portal (CMP) during the annual A-G course submission period (February 1 - June 30).
• Schools can self-report principal-certified courses from any online course publisher that is listed in UC’s online course publisher directory.
• Self-reported courses will appear on schools’ A-G course lists along with all the non-online courses they also offer. 

UC will conduct a random review of self-reported online publisher courses during the annual A-G course submission period.

• Online course publishers that authored the randomly identified courses will be asked to submit course descriptions via the A-G Course Management Portal (CMP) to be reviewed using existing A-G course review procedures and A-G course criteria.
• Courses that do not align with the A-G course criteria will be removed from high schools’ A-G course lists for the upcoming academic year and online course publishers and high schools will be notified. Reasons for removal will be shared for recalibration of principal certification processes, and opportunities for A-G training will be offered, as needed.
• Online course publishers whose college-prep courses are found more than once to not align with A-G course criteria will be removed from UC’s directory of registered online course publishers. Such publishers will need to have the specific course(s) in question certified by Quality Matters before they may register again to re-join UC's directory.

The timeframe for the random review of online publisher courses is as follows:

• May 1 - May 15: Eligible online publisher courses are selected for verification and publishers are notified. 
• May 15 - June 30: Online publishers may submit course descriptions through the A-G Course Management Portal (CMP) for selected courses.
  • One opportunity for resubmission is provided.
  • Resubmissions must be in by June 30.
• Courses selected for verification in the current period, and subsequently approved, are exempt from being selected in the future.
• Courses self-reported by schools after the course verification period ends on June 30 will be considered for selection the following year.

Any institution that offers an online course and includes it on their A-G course list must certify in the A-G Course Management Portal that their institution is in compliance with UC's online learning guidelines.

This certification is required when an online course is added to an A-G course list for the first time and must be completed by an institution’s A-G course list manager (or head of institution) in each subsequent year that online courses are included on the institution’s A-G list.

The University's requirements for institutions offering online courses are as follows:

1. All students should have equal access to all courses for which they are qualified, regardless of socioeconomic status, disabilities, or other factors.
2. Online courses must be developed by content experts in conjunction with those who understand how best to use technology to enhance student learning.
3. Online courses used to fulfill admission requirements to the University of California must be aligned with the A-G course criteria provided by the University.
4. Online courses must provide opportunities for substantial interactions between students and the teacher, and between students and other students.
5. Student progress and learning are to be assessed frequently through a variety of tools, and feedback to the student must be prompt.
6. Institutions must provide qualified teachers who are content experts and are capable of supporting their students’ learning throughout the online course. These teachers must receive adequate professional development to effectively support students in their online learning, and be assigned a number of students that allows for the interaction necessary to achieve positive learning outcomes.
7. Institutions must ensure that the technology infrastructure is adequate for effective learning and that students enrolled in an online course have access to both the necessary hardware and software to be successful.
8. Institutions must provide students enrolled in online courses with appropriate advice to ensure they have the necessary background and technology to succeed.
9. Institutions must ensure that students have local access to qualified professionals (teachers, mentors, counselors, etc.) or paraprofessionals who can support their online course participation.
10. Institutions must have a process in place to ensure that the person submitting material for assessment is actually the student enrolled in the online course.

In addition, the University recommends that online/hybrid institutions offering online courses implement practices and policies found in the National Standards for Quality Online Programs.

If an online course publisher independently seeks and earns Quality Matters (QM) certification for their courses:

• The registered online course publisher will be spotlighted in UC's public directory.
• The online course publisher’s QM-certified courses will be exempt from UC’s annual online A-G course verification process.

Beginning the process of updating your A-G list early ensures you have plenty of time to update your A-G list before the UC admissions application opens on August 1.

The annual course submission period is February 1 to June 30. Please see information under A-G Course Submission Deadlines for more information. 

Schools and extended learning programs

School and extended learning program A-G course lists should accurately reflect actual course offerings for each academic year. Errors on an A-G course list can disadvantage prospective University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) applicants. For more information about the UC freshman admissions process, please visit the UC Admissions website.

Programs

Programs should update their A-G reference lists as early as possible to ensure schools that teach their courses have time to adopt their courses on their A-G course lists before the UC application opens on August 1.

With this in mind, we highly recommend all schools, extended learning programs, and programs begin the process of updating their A-G course lists and reference lists on the A-G Course Management Portal (CMP) at the beginning of Phase 1, which starts on February 1.

Online course publishers

As of February 2020, online publishers no longer maintain A-G lists with UC. This follows our recent announcement of the University of California's updated online course policy.
 
Online publisher courses not on a publisher’s A-G list prior to January 2020, and not already adopted by high schools can be certified, self-reported, and added retroactively by schools starting with the next 2020-21 A-G course submission cycle, which opened February 1, 2020.

When the annual course submission period opens on February 1, you should log into the A-G CMP and go through the annual update checklist:

• Verify your institution’s information is up to date
  • A-G course/reference list manager 
  • Head of institution
  • Accreditation
• Check your institution’s A-G list for accuracy
• Add and/or revise courses
• Submit new and/or modeled after courses
• Add program or ROC/P courses
• Self-report online publisher courses
• Revise courses
• Activate archived courses
• Remove courses
• Archive courses that will not be taught in the upcoming academic year

If there are no changes to your A-G list, verification of your institution’s information is all that is required.

Districts and school networks can work with their schools on the A-G course submission process to create efficiencies in A-G course submissions and management.

A district or school network A-G reference list consists of all A-G approved courses within the district or school network’s jurisdiction.

Districts and school networks can change their management type January 1 - January 31 on the My Institution page on the the A-G CMP. 

Joint management

• Schools:
  • Are primarily responsible for managing their own A-G course lists
  • Are primarily responsible for writing and submitting courses (school-owned courses)
• District and school network:
  • Can also write and submit courses on behalf of schools (district-/school network-owned courses)
  • Can add/remove approved district-/school network-owned courses associated with schools and not have to submit a revision to UC

Centralized management

• District or school network:
  • Is responsible for managing all of its schools' A-G course lists
  • Is primarily responsible for writing and submitting new courses on behalf of its schools
  • Can add/remove approved courses associated with schools and not have to submit a revision to UC
• Schools:
  • Can also write and forward courses to the district or school network reference list manager to submit to UC

• Adding schools to district or school network-owned courses
  Add multiple schools to district or school network-owned courses without submitting a new course for each school.
• Removing schools from district or school network-owned courses
  Districts and school networks no longer have an archive list; however, they can remove schools from district or school network-owned courses. When the course is going to be offered again, districts and school networks simply add schools to the course without needing to submit an activation.
• Consolidation
  Combine similar school-owned courses into one district or school network-owned course for greater efficiency on their reference list.
• Reporting
  Download Excel reports of the course offerings at all of their schools.
• School archive lists
  Access their schools’ individual archive lists to view/activate courses.

Submit a course revision when there are changes to an approved course, such as subject area and UC honors designation. 

Submit a course revision when any of the following situations arise:

• Changes to the A-G subject area, discipline, CTE industry sector and/or CTE pathway
• Request UC honors designation 

You may be required to update the course description to meet current A-G course criteria and submission requirements.

When a course revision is not approved

If your course revision is not approved, the course will remain on your A-G list as originally approved. You can start and a submit a new revision for review. You are allowed to start and submit as many revisions as you please during the annual submission period (Primary Phase: February 1 - June 30 | Supplemental Phase: August 1 - August 31).

You do not need to submit a course revision if you are:

• Adding an already approved course to previous academic years
• Making course title changes
• Updating transcript abbreviations or course codes
• Changing course learning environment

Please note: Adding an already approved course to previous academic years can only be handled during an open submission period. Changes to course titles, transcript abbreviations, local course codes and the learning environment can be made at any time of the year. 

Updating and adding transcript abbreviations and course codes

You do not need to submit a course revision if you’re only updating transcript abbreviations or local course codes for a given course. You can update this information from the Course/Reference List page on the A-G Course Management Portal at any time of the year. Transcript abbreviations and local course codes can be made retroactive up to four previous academic years.

Adding courses to previous academic years

If an approved course was left off a school’s course list for previous academic years, course and reference list managers can add the course retroactively, up to four previous academic years, using the “Add course to previous year” menu option on your A-G list.

If the course was adopted from a program, the course must be on the program’s reference list for the years you wish to add the course retroactively.