I attended a California high school in the 00's and most of the courses I took were prescribed; each year we got to take one "elective" course. Some students use these elective courses to take additional levels of courses that they are required. (For example, students are required to take one year of chemistry; some students such as myself opted to take a second year of chemistry. However, these students were a very small minority; I believe that only around 20 students of a graduating class of 1000 students opted to take more than one year of chemistry in high school. There were also only two tiers of each science course, meaning that you couldn't take a third year of a given science.) I lived in a county with a large Hispanic population (whites were a minority), so Spanish classes were offered and were a popular option for an elective course, with many students opting to spend multiple years in Spanish classes. Some of the elective courses were tied to non-athletic extra-curriculars, like band, orchestra, choir, and the speech & debate team. Other electives included various visual arts, creative writing, "agriculture" (learn how to maintain a garden, "computer skills" (learn how to use Word and Excel), welding, drafting, and cooking, as well as the yearbook committee.