Category Archives: Community colleges

EdSource Today: A mind is still a terrible thing to waste

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By Michele Siqueiros and Arun Ramanathan

What if we told you that no matter how hard you tried, you only had a 5 percent chance of succeeding? What if it was your first day of kindergarten and we told you those were your odds of getting a college degree at a California university?

We don’t tell our kindergarteners that. In fact, we tell them the opposite. “You can be anything you want in life if you work hard enough.” But in California that’s just not the case for the nearly 4 million students who are Latino or African American. They have a 1 in 20 chance of graduating from a California public university. California’s prosperity is dependent on us changing these odds.

According to a recent report from the California Competes Council, California will need 5½ million new college degrees and technical certificates by the year 2025. We simply cannot meet these needs without improving results for our Latino and African American students, who are the vast majority of our student population.

via A mind is still a terrible thing to waste – by Michele Siqueiros and Arun Ramanathan.

EdSource Today: Community colleges move closer to rationing enrollment

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By Kathryn Baron

With so many students vying for a shrinking number of classes at community colleges, the California Community Colleges Board of Governors is on its way to offering priority registration as a way of motivating students to develop and pursue an educational goal. At a public hearing in Sacramento this week, the Board agreed to put the issue up for a vote at its next meeting in September.

Under existing regulations, several groups of students are already allowed to jump to the front of the line: active duty military and veterans, former and current foster youth, disabled students, and students in the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS), for low-income, struggling students.

via Community colleges move closer to rationing enrollment.

The Reporter: Community colleges consider changing priority

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By Sarah Rohrs/ Times-Herald, Vallejo

With state funds for higher education growing more scarce, some community college students may have a harder time getting into classes.

A newly released California Community Colleges Board of Governors plan would reward students with clear academic goals by giving them first crack at classes.

The board also gave final approval to regulations that prevent students from repeating classes they have already passed, said Paul Feist in the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s office.

Both changes would be put into place at Solano Community College and Napa Valley College if they won final state board approvals in September.

via Community colleges consider changing priority.

EdSource Today: Better choice of courses for serious community college students

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By Kathryn Baron

Community college students who show that they’re serious about reaching their educational goals would get priority registration for classes under a proposal coming up Monday before the California Community Colleges Board of Governors.

Under the recommendation, “students in good standing, who are making progress toward a certificate, degree, transfer, or career advancement objective” would be allowed to step to the front of the line for registration.

The plan was one of the 22 recommendations from the Student Success Task Force, a group of teachers, students, and administrators charged with boosting the number of students who graduate or transfer from community college.

via Better choice of courses for serious community college students.

The Educated Guess: Assembly panel pursues college success

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By Kathryn Baron

Retiring Community College Chancellor Jack Scott watched his signature initiative move closer to becoming law. The Assembly Higher Education Committee yesterday unanimously passed SB 1456, the Student Success Act of 2012.

The bill would implement two of the 22 recommendations developed by the Student Success Task Force, a panel of educators, policymakers, students, and researchers that spent last year studying and taking testimony on ways to improve the completion rate at California’s community colleges.

“SB 1456 is about community college students and the tremendous fierce urgency of doing something now,” the bill’s author, Democratic Senator Alan Lowenthal of Long Beach, told the Assembly panel.

As TOPed previously reported, studies have found that after six years, only 30 percent of community college students earn a degree or certificate or transfer to a four-year college.

via Assembly panel pursues college success – by Kathryn Baron.

EdSource Extra!: Expanding the role of community colleges in adult school programs

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By Susan Frey ~ EdSource Extra]

As school districts throughout California make major cuts or consider abandoning their adult schools, advocates for adult education programs are searching for ways to prevent their demise, including a possible heightened role for community colleges.

According to an EdSource report released today, At Risk: Adult Schools in California, 23 of the state’s 30 largest districts have made major cuts to their adult education programs since the beginning of the Great Recession, including Anaheim Union High School District, which eliminated its 73-year-old program in 2010–11. Only one district — Montebello Unified — reported no change.  (The full EdSource report can be downloaded here.)

Just last Friday, the Los Angeles Unified School District — which has a $138-million adult education program — negotiated an interim agreement with union negotiators, and backed away from the threat of terminating its adult school program entirely. But the district is still planning on making significant cutbacks.

In a report issued earlier this year, the Little Hoover Commission, the independent state oversight agency, recommended that community colleges take over all adult education programs in the state.

via Expanding the role of community colleges in adult school programs.

Vallejo Times-Herald: Community colleges concerned about California budget

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By Sarah Rohrs/ Times-Herald, Vallejo

Dwindling revenues are taking a toll on California’s community colleges, and state leaders are worried that greater losses could occur under the governor’s new budget plan if new money isn’t found.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget plan calls for $8 billion in cuts, and twice that amount in new revenues to close the $16 billion deficit, state leaders said Tuesday.

For community colleges, full or empty coffers are dependent on three main revenue sources, California Community College Chancellor Jack Scott and Community College League of California CEO Scott Lay said Tuesday.

via Community colleges concerned about California budget.

The Educated Guess: Bill me: Legislative week in review

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By Kathryn Baron

John Fensterwald co-wrote this article.

One day after Democrats on the Senate Education Committee rejected his sweeping approach to getting rid of poorly performing and badly behaving teachers, Republican leader Bob Huff mentioned an often cited but much disputed quote of the late Albert Shanker in letting the Democrats have it.

via Bill me: Legislative week in review – by Kathryn Baron.

EdSource Extra!: New statistics course aims to accelerate college students’ path to success

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By Sue Frey

Some California colleges are helping struggling math students complete all the math they need in a single yearlong course, instead of requiring them to take the usual sequence of courses that can take years to complete and that many never finish.

via New statistics course aims to accelerate college students’ path to success.

The Educated Guess: Community colleges hurt by CSU freeze

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By Kathryn Baron

President Obama has called community colleges “the unsung heroes of America’s education system.” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said, “no other system of higher education in the world does so much to provide access and second-chance opportunities as our community colleges.” Yet community colleges can’t catch a break.

via Community colleges hurt by CSU freeze – by Kathryn Baron.

Dan Walters: Protesting California students have a point about budget

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The thousands of college students who marched on the Capitol on Monday to protest rising fees and decreasing state support had a point: Higher education has taken a disproportionately heavy drubbing in recent years as politicians attempted – and largely failed – to balance the state budget.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/06/4314073/dan-walters-protesting-california.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: Protesting California students have a point about budget.

Daily Republic: Solano college hopes to benefit from federal job training focus

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by Jessica Philipps

WASHINGTON — California, home to a quarter of the nation’s community college students, could reap huge benefits from President Barack Obama’s $8 billion plan to pair local businesses and schools.

via Solano college hopes to benefit from federal job training focus.

The Educated Guess: Community College placement exams are ineffective

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By Kathryn Baron

Tens of thousands of California community college students may be wrongly assigned to remedial English and math courses based on placement exams that are flawed. At a time of increasing state and national scrutiny on completion rates, two national studies from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Columbia University’s Teachers College found that the most common placement exams are poor predictors of college success.

via Placement exams are ineffective – by Kathryn Baron.

EdSource Extra!: Commission: Community colleges should take over adult schools run by school districts

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By Louis Freedberg and Sue Frey

Community colleges should take over all adult school programs from cash-strapped school districts, the Little Hoover Commission, a state watchdog agency, recommended yesterday.

The commission pointed out in a just-released report that successful examples already exist for such a model, most notably in San Diego and in San Francisco.

via Commission: Community colleges should take over adult schools run by school districts.

The Educated Guess: Low college transfer rate linked to high school

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By Kathryn Baron

President Obama has long been a champion of community colleges and he demonstrated that commitment Monday, when he traveled to Northern Virginia Community College to release his 2012-13 budget proposal, which calls for an $8 billion program to train students for jobs in high-demand industries.

via Low college transfer rate linked to high school – by Kathryn Baron.

Education Week: Obama to Highlight Education in Budget Rollout

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by Alyson Klein
In his fiscal 2013 budget request slated to roll out today, President Barack Obama is making a big push for continued investment in education, including emergency aid for K-12 schools, competitive grants for teacher-related programs, and a new $8 billion fund to encourage jobs training initiatives at community colleges. Overall, the president is requesting $69.8 billion for the U.S. Department of Education, an increase of $1.7 billion, or 2.5 percent.

via Obama to Highlight Education in Budget Rollout.

EdSource Extra!: Doubling classroom time helps community college students overcome math hurdles

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By Sue Frey

If you’re having trouble with math, try spending twice as much time in class learning it.

That strategy plus intensive support from tutors and counselors inside and outside class are making a difference for students at De Anza Community College trying to overcome one of the major stumbling blocks to academic success.

via Doubling classroom time helps community college students overcome math hurdles.

The Educated Guess: LAO nixes Gov’s community college budget

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By Kathryn Baron

Gov. Brown missed a chance to save millions for community colleges by reining in Board of Governors fee waivers, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. The LAO released its review of Brown’s 2012-13 higher education budget plan yesterday, and raised red flags on that program and on the governor’s proposals to make major changes in the way community colleges are funded, as well as big changes in categorical programs.

via LAO nixes Gov’s community college budget – by Kathryn Baron.