But every year, 15 or more college-bound seniors fail algebra II.

Now, state education leaders want every high school student to take and pass more rigorous classes -- including algebra II -- even those students not planning on college.

"In theory, that's nice," said Wakefield Principal Steve Takacs. "What will happen, though, is you'll get down to graduation and there will be a big panic."

Educators and child advocates are challenging a plan the State Board of Education endorsed earlier this month that would place nearly all students on a college-prep curriculum that now includes courses in advanced math and two years of foreign language.

Teachers and principals worry that it could lead instead to more students failing and dropping out.

Critics of the more demanding requirements say they will place graduation out of reach for many unless the students are better prepared before reaching ninth grade, and unless the state finds ways to solve a chronic shortage of well-qualified teachers -- especially in math and foreign languages.

"If you have a high standard, you have to have substance to back it up," said the Rev. William Barber II, president of the state chapter of the NAACP. "If I tell you to climb a mountain, it's incumbent on me to be sure to provide you with the boots, the rope and all the equipment to help you."

Jasmine Hart, an English teacher at Sanderson High School in Raleigh, said that setting standards too high may discourage some students.

"We have to balance rigor and realistic expectations," said Hart, whose classes include one for ninth-graders who need to repeat English. "Some of the students I teach are going to get overwhelmed. They're going to say, 'Forget about this; I can't do this,' and leave."

Hart said she doesn't disagree with the goal of having all students graduate from a challenging high school program. "But we don't want to set them up to be unsuccessful," she said.

Already limited

Neither does Kathy Taft, a state board member who has been leading the push for the tougher graduation requirements. Many students, Taft said, are set up for limited success from the time they start high school if they choose the state's basic course of study -- which doesn't meet the requirements of the UNC system or the state's community colleges.

"We want equal opportunity for all students," she said.

Taft said allowances will be made for students who want or need less-challenging classes.

The state board will consider concerns of local school leaders, parents and others during a series of public meetings next month.

Thousands of students in North Carolina high schools struggle to meet the state's current expectations. About a third of students who begin high school in the state fail to graduate four years later, and more than 20,000 students drop out of high school each year.

Under a new set of graduation requirements starting with this year's ninth-graders, students must pass state exams in five core subjects: algebra I, biology, civics and economics, freshman English and U.S. history.

But statewide, the highest passing rate on any of the exams for those five subjects last year was 83 percent, in English; the lowest passing rate was 57 percent, in U.S. history.

"We have a concern about the large number of kids who are not doing as well as they should be under the current standards," said Eddie Davis, president of the N.C. Association of Educators. "Many kids are reaching high school without mastering the skills they should already have."

School leaders in Johnston County -- which embraced tough accountability measures before the state in the 1990s -- are now questioning the latest push.

The funding question

"We don't disagree with higher standards," Johnston Superintendent Tony Parker said. "But there are some things that the state board doesn't have any control over. One of those things is funding. We're going to need money for additional remediation .... and to attract additional math and foreign language teachers, because we're having a tough time attracting them now."

The tougher requirements would fall especially hard on schools struggling already, often because of poverty and shortages of well-qualified teachers.

Efforts are under way to turn around about three dozen low-performing high schools, but progress has been limited. Lawyers and civil rights leaders involved in a long-running court fight over finances say the newest call for higher standards is more about politics than substance.

"It feels good at a sound-bite level and in headlines," said Lewis Pitts, a lawyer with Durham-based Advocates for Children's Services. "It seems like that it's political posturing with no essence."

Pitts said the state's first obligation is to ensure that the low-performing high schools are in compliance with state law. Under the rulings in the finance case known as Leandro, students in all schools are entitled to well-qualified, capable principals and teachers as well as adequate resources.

"The burning issue is the grossly inadequate funding for public education," Pitts said. "These hare-brained proposals create the appearance of educational improvement and divert attention from the fundamentally inadequate funding to create adequate education."

But Taft defended the tougher requirements as being realistic for students to meet as long as educators have a hand in developing the final standards and that adequate resources are provided. She said current funding can be reallocated.

"It's realistic," Taft said, "but we're going to have to do things a bit differently."