MEMBER NEWS: WHCCD gets federal grant for RuBICON – rural broadband

$1 million USDA grant awarded to West Hills CCD

for broadband cooperative formation

Project director recruitment underway

 

The West Hills Community College District (WHCCD) has received a $1 million federal grant that will play a pivotal role in establishing the Rural Broadband Initiative Cooperative Network (RuBICON), a project aimed at providing affordable broadband services to rural communities and farms in the Central Valley.

The district, a Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) institution member, announced the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) award Feb. 21 as well as a search for a project director for RuBICON, which aims to empower local communities by forming a cooperative that delivers reliable and cost-effective broadband access, bridging the digital divide in the rural Central Valley.

The district said this groundbreaking endeavor draws inspiration from the historic electric co-op movement, envisioning equitable change and progress for rural America in the 21st century.

Jeff Seed, WHCCD associate vice chancellor of Information Technology, emphasized the broader impact of this grant, stating, “This is not just about broadband access – it’s about fostering sustainable farming, building robust local economies, and empowering our rural communities for the digital future.”

In a social media post, Chancellor Kristen Clark, who is also CVHEC Board of Directors chair, said, “Excited about this opportunity for the West Hills Community College District to help support high-speed broadband on the Westside of the Central Valley.”

Project RuBICON has garnered support from a diverse coalition of partners committed to assessing and delivering connectivity to rural communities in the Central Valley. The initiative will collect comprehensive data to understand current needs and identify solutions to address connectivity gaps. In addition to infrastructure development, West Hills will offer digital literacy education for local communities and leverage its Farm of the Future to create a framework for agricultural technologists, propelling the community toward Agriculture 4.0.

“This project is designed to facilitate cost-effective broadband deployment, with the goal of serving as a model that can be replicated across the country,” Seed added.

For WHCCD media inquiries, contact Amber Myrick at 559.934.2132 or ambermyrick@whccd.edu.

 

See:

WHCCD press release

Project direction position and application process info 

CVHEC broadband video press release

$1M boost for affordable Internet in the Central Valley – YourCentralValley.com

CVHEC SPOTLIGHT: Consortium at national DREAM Conference with CVCF

Ángel Ramírez (right) represented CVHEC in the Central Valley Community Foundation delegation of area leaders attending the Achieving the Dream Conference in Orlando Feb. 19-22 (from left): Carlos Castillo; Phong Yang; Estefania Avalos Chavez; Vianey Barraza Chavez; Julie Vue;  Ángel. Not in picture: SCCCD Chancellor Carole Goldsmith.

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium is participating this week in the 20th anniversary convening of DREAM, which brings together thousands of practitioners from hundreds of colleges “to exchange evidence-based approaches to accelerating student success in a manner that champions equity and drives economic vibrancy.”

Ángel Ramírez, director of operations and finance, is representing CVHEC in the Central Valley Community Foundation delegation of area leaders led by Julie Vue, CVCF senior program officer, attending the four-day event in Orlando, Florida

Other CVCF delegation representatives are Carlos Castillo, chief of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Fresno Unified School District; Phong Yang, associate vice president for Strategic Enrollment Management at Fresno State; Estefania Avalos Chavez, board member, Higher Education For All; Vianey Barraza Chavez, director of Education Programs and Special Projects for the Education and Leadership Foundation; and Dr. Carole Goldsmith, State Center Community College District chancellor who also led a SCCCD delegation to the conference.

The conference is presented by Achieving the Dream, a national organization of  more than 300 community colleges across the country partnering to build customized growth plans to address the unique challenges each institution faces.

It embodies Achieving the Dream’s longstanding belief in advancing community colleges as accessible hubs of learning, credentialing and social mobility that eliminate inequities in students’ educational and workforce outcomes.

Through plenary sessions with critically acclaimed scholars, educators, and activists and breakout sessions with higher education thought leaders at the Orlando gathering, a nationwide network of colleagues are sharing 20 years’ worth of lessons learned in the student success field and promoting a vision of higher education as an engine for equity and a catalyst for community transformation.

The Central Valley Community Foundation, the only accredited community foundation in the region, drives strategic investments and offers best-in-class charitable tools to connect donors to the causes they care most about with $140 Million in assets under management.

CVHEC $1.5m funding renewal: higher ed strategies for ‘economic, social and educational well-being of valley students’

In a 21-year quest to improve the postsecondary success of students in its region, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium has once again gained College Futures Foundation (CFF) refunding with a $1.5 million grant to continue championing dual enrollment, math pathways, Open Education Resources/Zero Textbook Costs measures and transfer student support as well as strengthening data access for improved strategy planning.

Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director, announced the new three-year grant (Jan. 2024 – Dec. 2026) from its primary funder this week saying it will allow the consortium — made up of 28 institutions of higher education throughout the Central Valley’s nine-county region that represents one-third of the state of California — “to implement equity-driven strategies that decrease disparities in student persistence and higher education attainment and provide students a timely pathway to completion.

“We appreciate the College Futures Foundation’s continued support for CVHEC activities that are designed to impact student success most efficiently at our member institution,” said Durán, who is president-emeritus of Merced College.

Established in 2005, College Futures Foundation uses a wide variety of human and financial resources and tools — including nearly $20 million in grants annually —  towards its mission:  increase postsecondary completion for learners who are underserved centering learners and their aspirations and needs on the path to achieving their educational goals.

“We collaborate with organizations and leaders across California’s postsecondary ecosystem and beyond that share a vision of equity and upward mobility for Californians,” its website states

The partnership between CVHEC and College Futures began in 2016 when the consortium was awarded its first CFF grant.

The long-term vision for the consortium’s CFF proposal is that “initiatives and projects shepherded by CVHEC will result in policies, programs and best practices that will be institutionalized in Central Valley institutions of higher education and will lead to improving the economic, social and educational well-being of the students in the valley.”

Durán added that the funding shows CFF recognizes how CVHEC has intentionally engaged in establishing a cohort of colleges and universities working collaboratively to implement strategies and practices that can help transform the higher education attendance and degree/certificate attainment rates in the region thus creating meaningful pathways for Central Valley students.

With a membership of 28 accredited public and private colleges, universities and community colleges from San Joaquin County in the north to Kern County in the south, CVHEC’s Board of Directors is composed of chancellors, presidents and campus leaders of those member higher ed institutions. As the CVHEC Board of Directors, they speak with a single voice for advocacy, policy and legislation for higher education in the Central Valley region, Durán said.

The CFF grant reflects a commitment to the goals and priorities of the consortium through these five equity-driven strategies designed to decrease disparities in student persistence and higher education attainment for timely pathway to completion:

  • Dual Enrollment — expand the dual enrollment course offerings in the Central Valley to enhance opportunities for underrepresented students in rural and underperforming urban high schools and decrease time to degree or certificate attainment.
  • Transfer Student Support — increase the number of students transferring with an Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) to all Central Valley CSU and UC campuses, as well as its non-profit independent institutions members (Fresno Pacific, National University, and University of the Pacific).
  • Open Educational Resources — collaborate with the Statewide Real Colleges Task Force and West Hills College Lemoore President James Preston, a member of the SRC Task Force, to form a Central Valley Open Educational Resources Task Force and establish successful models of OER courses at member colleges.
  • Data Development – expand the Central Valley Higher Education Student Dashboard to include essential student metrics at all member colleges and universities.
  • Mathematics Pathways – collaborate with the Charles A. Dana Center, College Bridge) and Valley colleges and universities to support the scaling of mathematics pathways from high school through postsecondary education and into the workplace, aligned to students’ goals and aspirations.

Other CVHEC projects and accomplishments include serving an integral role in the development of four state-funded K-16 Collaboratives within the nine-county region supporting regional efforts to develop and streamline equitable pathways from high school to post-secondary education and into the work force.   CVHEC has initiated the K-16 Collaborative Master’s Degree Upskilling English and mathematics initiative to prepare high school teachers to teach college dual enrollment courses at their high schools, resulting in 100 high school math teachers and 100 English high school teachers earning their Master’s degrees that allows them to meet minimum qualifications to teach college courses at the high school.

CFF funding also supports major CVHEC activities such as its annual Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Summit as well as hosting or participating in other conferences and regional convenings.

 

BACKGROUND: Founded in 2002, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC), strives to implement strategies and practices that can help to transform the higher education attendance and degree/certificate attainment rates in the region to create meaningful pathways for students in the region by successfully establishing and engaging a cohort of colleges and universities that work collaboratively towards that end.  CVHEC is a 28-member strong consortium of accredited public and private colleges, universities, and community colleges members in a nine-county region of California from San Joaquin County in the north to Kern County in the south. Member chancellors, presidents and campus leaders serve on the CVHEC Board of Directors speaking with a single voice for advocacy, policy and legislation for higher education in the Central Valley region.  These institutions of higher education serve 4.3 million people living in California’s Central Valley, a 27,500 square mile region the size of South Carolina that is rural in general, with an extensive array of farms, ranches, small towns and growing cities – including Fresno, the fifth largest city in California. The Central Valley is historically distinctive as one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the United States with challenging socio-economic and college going rates.  

MEDIA INQUIRIES: Tom Uribes, CVHEC Communications/Media coordinator – 559.348.3278 (text) or cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu

 

WHAT THE CV-HEC IS HAPPENING BLOG (January 2024): CVHEC 2023 — surging forward for Central Valley students

To kick off our 2024 “What the CV-HEC is Happening” Blogs, CVHEC Regional Coordinator Stan Carrizosa, Sr. follows up the year-in-review published in our December newsletter issue by offering a perspective of the consortium’s progress in 2023 that sets the stage for a productive new year. Carrizosa, who is president-emeritus of CVHEC member College of the Sequoias and an integral part of the CVHEC team, serves as the lead for the consortium’s Central Valley Transfer Project. The CVHEC blog features perspectives about the higher education community and issues. Submissions are welcome for consideration: Tom Uribes, cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu.

Propelling successfully, purposefully like a guided rocket

 

BY STAN A. CARRIZOSA, SR.
CVHEC Regional Coordinator
(President-emeritus, College of the Sequoias)

 

As a child, I remember watching a weekly science show called “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” that explored the ocean and marine biology.

One fascinating episode depicted how an octopus at any moment could be moving wildly with all eight legs and not advance at all. But once the octopus contracted its core by simultaneously snapping all eight legs in the same direction, a burst of air coming from the fish propelled it successfully and purposefully through the water like a guided rocket.

Stan Carrizosa, Sr. (left) and CVHEC Central Valley Transfer Project team partner Tom Burke presented at the Community Colleges League of California in November along with UC Merced grad student Araceli Tilley who discussed her success with the project’s Program Pathway Mapper software and Jennifer Johnson of the Foundation for California Community Colleges (right).

Over the course of the past 12 months, CVHEC has flexed its octopus legs and undertaken otherwise separate projects like Math Bridge and Master’s Upskilling (dual enrollment) and the Central Valley Transfer Project. By aligning them and their sub-parts, CVHEC has achieved the snapping of its octopus legs successfully surging us forward in the form of real achievement results for higher education in the Central Valley and for our region’s students specifically.

As we move into 2024, the work of CVHEC continues to be more aligned in ways that leverage each element and make the wholistic effort more cohesive and successful. This reminds me how effective it was to do this same thing as a college president. It was important to have clear goals and objectives and planned actions designed to address specific aspects of an issue to ensure greater success.

This past year, CVHEC acted like an organization with big-picture goals for improving student achievement region-wide and a measured plan of actions all designed to work together as a system to achieve success.

The two key drivers of this system for CVHEC success are strong intersegmental partnership commitments to:

  • a robust dual enrollment;
  • increasing successful community college transfers to higher education institutions.

 

Biggest DE challenge: qualified instructors

Armed with direct feedback from our first Dual Enrollment Summit held three years ago, we heard that one of the biggest challenges to implementing dual enrollment courses was the ability to find qualified instructors to teach college courses on high school campuses.

CVHEC responded by creating an upskilling project where high school teachers in math and English could earn a master’s degree in their content areas and be qualified to apply for and teach dual enrollment college courses on their high school campuses.

Early results from dual enrollment courses showed that students were more successful when the teacher for their college courses was a member of their regular high school faculty. Under the leadership of Dr. John Spevak, CVHEC regional coordinator and vice-president emeritus of Merced College, who facilitated an impressive package offering high school teachers the opportunity to earn a MA degree in their content areas through our partner universities, this opportunity had many residual benefits such as:

  • improving the quality of teaching for their high school classes,
  • earning higher salaries at their high school,
  • creating a professional learning community between high school and community college teachers,
  • and most importantly, changing teacher attitudes about the ability for high school students to succeed in college-level work.

The benefits for high school students are enormous.

Those enrolled in college dual enrollment courses experience pass rates of 80-plus percent while mainstream college students pass rates are in the 50 percent range. Finally, dual enrollment has proven to be a game-changer for first-generation college students in closing the equity gap among them and their college prep peers.

If students are able to take their college math and English courses before graduating high school, they start their college career on a level playing field by having completed their first required courses in transfer-level math and English. This enables them to get on the right pathway and stay straight toward their degree completion.

 

Incentivizing the efforts to increase transfers

The second key driver for CVHEC in 2023 and moving into the new year is the Central Valley Transfer Project!

The breakthrough moment in this project came when UC Merced agreed to review the CSU ADTs and approve these lower-division sequences as meeting the requirements for successful transfer to UCM. Central Valley CSU’s including Bakersfield and Stanislaus have bought in to the Transfer Project as well.  Over the past three years CVHEC has worked to complete implementation in eight of our CV community colleges with three more joining the project this year.

Again the student benefit stands clear: early results show that students in the Transfer Project increase their percentages of on-path course completion each semester by 20 points to 80-plus percent. The same students also reduce their number of units to degree from a high of 85 down to 62.

Meanwhile the new statewide Student Funding Formula starts to provide enhanced per/FTES revenue for successful transfers to four-year institutions, further incentivizing the efforts to increase transfers.

We know that of all the successful graduates earning degrees from CSU’s, 50 percent started their education at a community college. Most recently, California Community Colleges Chancellor Dr. Sonya Christian unveiled her VISION 2030 which includes the Central Valley Transfer Project as a Demonstration Project for the entire state. As a result, CVHEC is now being recruited in both southern and northern California to share the success of the CV Transfer Project with those regions through presentations at various convenings.

 

Thoughtful and effective continuum creating unprecedented leverage for success

In summary, in addition to tracking and assessing our efforts as individual projects, it is equally if not more important to step back and see the bigger picture in the CVHEC body of work for 2023 that sets the stage for promising 2024.   We can see there is a thoughtful and effective continuum that links these efforts together creating unprecedented leverage for success:

  • CVHEC started by looking at the data and listening to the practitioners in the field to develop an agenda of work to support our colleges.
  • Dual enrollment shows great promise but needs more qualified instructors.
  • High school students in dual enrollment courses can close the equity gap between them and their peers thus advancing their personal confidence and capacity to succeed in college.
  • Most higher ed students start in our community colleges and now through the Transfer Project they have a clear pathway of courses to take for a successful transfer to four-year universities.
  • Once our community college students successfully complete their transfer, statistics show that they represent 50 percent of all university graduates.

So, looking back over the past 12 months, CVHEC – like the octopus snapping our legs to successfully surge forward – has successfully linked together major initiatives to build upon and strengthen each other allowing students to experience a continuum of effectiveness and success in achieving their higher education goals and objectives. To close out 2023 and look ahead, our executive director Dr. Benjamín Durán sums up the CVHEC spirit best in his newsletter director’s message published in our December issue:

“This year we are happy to salute and greet our K-12 partner districts who have joined us in creating meaningful pathways from middle school and high school to college.  As we prepare to welcome 2024, stay tuned as we continue to nurture many roads leading to one destination – getting students to and through college in a timely manner!”

HIGHER ED NEWS: CCLC, Talent Hub and CCA national convenings


CVHEC and the national/state perspective: industry and

education working off the same playbook  

 

At two national conferences this month and one state convening last month, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium team reconnected with partners in pursuit of mutual aims: the Community Colleges League of California Annual Convention Nov. 16-18 in Indian Wells, Calif., the Talent Hubs and National Talent Network Annual Convening, Dec. 4-7 in Mobile Alabama and the Complete College America 2023 Annual Convening: Future Ready Dec. 10-12 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“These dynamic convenings of nation higher education and community leaders signaled that we are back, post-covid, speaking in a single voice on higher ed policy issues that affect our region with the goal of increasing Central Valley degree and certificate attainment rates,” said Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director.

“These three events provided us the opportunity to fulfill CVHEC’s role as a unified voice for higher education issues in the Central Valley on a broader state and national scale.”

Dr. Durán led a CVHEC contingency of Ángel Ramírez, finance and operation manager, and Elaine Cash,  grants and programs coordinator, beginning with the Talent Hubs convening presented by CivicLab with sponsor Lumina Foundation.

At Talent Hub, presented by the CivicLab, the CVHEC reps joined colleagues from throughout the nation in revisiting how partnerships between industry and education, working off the same playbook, are vital to cross-collaboration success for both landscapes.

Fresno was first designated as a Talent Hub by Lumina in 2017 with CVHEC selected as a representative because of the consortium’s work to dramatically impact valley degree attainment, retention and persistence rates specifically among Hispanic, African American and low-income populations by utilizing remediation reform with co-requisite models for both English and math to increase college-level course completion.

Dr.  Durán said key themes of the CivicLab convening reinforced the need for and value of cross sector collaboration for career pathways by the members of the Talent Hub nationwide.

“Nobody knows the future, but if industry and education work off the same playbook we will be in a better position,” Dr. Durán said, echoing messages from the opening session. “That’s why partnerships between the two are so important.”

Since the initial Lumina funding, CVHEC has utilized annual grant renewals to achieve its goals in the areas of Dual Enrollment, Transfers, Math Pathways and Open Educational Resources underscored by its annual Central Valley Higher Education Summit.

At the Complete College America conference, participants explored “a clear-eyed vision for leading systems change” in higher education throughout the nation under Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 quote, “The fierce urgency of now!”

Specifically, Dr. Duran presented on a CCA breakout session, “Central Valley Community Colleges and UC Merced – Igniting Intersegmental Miracle to Increase Transfers,” with Stan Carrizosa, president-emeritus of College of the Sequoias who is now CVHEC’s regional coordinator and Central Valley Transfer Project lead, and Jennifer Johnson, chief partnership officer for the
Foundation for California Community Colleges.

They discussed the CVTP and how it has been adopted by the California Community Colleges as a demonstration project for the consortium’s nine-county region with the goal to expand systemwide as announced by CCC Chancellor Sonya Christian at the CVHEC Summit held Oct. 20.

Also attending the CCA conference were two CVHEC board members, Dr. Lena Tran, president of Columbia College, who presented on the “Golden State Aspirations – Charting a Path to Equitable College Completion in California,” and Dr. Claudia Habib, president of Porterville College.

At the CCLC conference last month, the CVHEC Transfer Project once again presented an update on the historic the  California Community Colleges demonstration project.

A special CVHEC guest panelist was student Araceli Tilley who testified how the project’s Program Pathway Mapper software is a major tool for self-starting students like herself even beyond first-time admission. Joining her and Carrizosa in CVHEC’s presentation at CLCC were Tom Burke, interim chancellor of the Kern Community College District, and Dr. James Zimmerman, special assistant to the executive vice chancellor and provost for Transfer Initiatives at UC Merced.

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (November 2023)

Chancellor Christian reflects her
commitment to California students

Greetings Colleagues and Friends of CVHEC,

Greetings and welcome to this beautiful fall weather as we prepare for the upcoming holiday season and the end of the fall semester.

We are delighted to report that we are coming off a very successful Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Summit 2023  held at the Fresno convention Center Oct. 20 when we were joined by over 150 of our friends and colleagues to showcase the work of consortium member colleges and universities over the last year.

The highlight of the summit was welcoming our new California Community Colleges Chancellor, Dr. Sonya Christian, home to the Central Valley to serve as our keynote speaker.

 As expected, her presentation was inspiring and reflected her commitment to students in the state.  Dr.  Christian took this opportunity at the summit to announce and launch the CCCCO Central Valley Transfer Pathways Demonstration Project that will build upon the progress of our own Transfer Project partnership between the community colleges, the CSUs and UC Merced here in the valley.   The CCCCO project is unique in California in that it includes the three segments of public colleges and universities and will eventually include the independent universities as well.

In this issue’s “What the CV-HEC is happening” blog, you will read an update about CVHEC’s innovative approach to delivering college dual enrollment math courses for high school students throughout the region via our Math Bridge project in partnership with CVHEC partner, College Bridge.  The project, designed to get high school students through their first gateway college math course, will serve as a springboard for completing their degrees.

Also please plan on attending the virtual zoom San Joaquin Valley Affordable Internet Adoption Summit on Thursday, Nov. 9, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The deadline to register is Nov. 7 at: https://bit.ly/SJVSummitRSVP. Bringing affordable broadband internet services to the most vulnerable populations in the Central Valley is an important part of the work CVHEC does in the valley.

Finally, enjoy our summit photo galleries where we share images and comments about the recent CVHEC summit as well as the board meeting and reception they day before.  I am sure you will see many familiar faces.

Have a great November and a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends!

CVHEC Summit 2023 wrap: a myriad of takeaways for participants

Porterville College President Claudia Habib (third  from left) introduced CVHEC Summit student panelists Hailee Guerra,  Araceli Tilley, Jesús López Nuñez, Alondra Veloz and moderator Dr. Carole Goldsmith, chancellor of the State Center Community College District.  

Student panelist ‘earns’ a trip to CCLC to share
her transfer experiences statewide

 

BY TOM URIBES
CVHEC Communications/Media Coordinator 

 

See CVHEC Summit Media Coverage:  KVPR Radio and GV Wire. (MORE)

 

For Araceli Tilley, an alumna of Merced College, the Program Pathway Mapper used by the CVHEC Transfer Project proved to be not only useful for her transfer to UC Merced in fall 2022, it provided her an easy way to map her college courses for her final two years of college at UC Merced that is leading up to graduation in May 2024 with a degree in psychology.

Araceli shared her experiences on the student panel at the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Summit 2023 held in Fresno Oct. 20 where the breadth and depth of CVHEC activities such as the Transfer Project were showcased.  The summit is sponsored by College Futures Foundation.

She was joined by four other students who shared their experiences in activities CVHEC has sponsored and how much their success could be attributed to those initiatives: Hailee Guerra,  Araceli Tilley, Jesús López Nuñez and Alondra Veloz.

Araceli Tilley

“The mapper provided a straight path that really helped me out, especially because counseling and advising is super impacted at many colleges and you don’t always get to meet in-person with advisors so it was nice that I was able to self-direct using it,” Araceli said.

“And since I worked at Merced College as an outreach ambassador, I was able to help other students showing them how it works. It’s a very useful tool, especially for students who are self-directed.”

From a major announcement to kick off the day to the student testimonials, the CVHEC Summit Oct. 20 at the Fresno Convention Center accomplished its goal of convening educators and community leaders to continue developing a unified voice for higher ed issues.

“The student panel was a glimpse into the reason why educators dedicate themselves to this profession,” said Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director.

Araceli’s assessment of Program Mapper and how it helped her plan courses throughout college earned her an invitation by Stan Carrizosa, CVHEC regional coordinator who is the lead for the consortium’s Transfer Project, to participate in the presentation his team will make to the Community College League of California Annual Convention Nov. 16 in Indian Wells.

“I’m very excited about going to the Indian Wells conference,” Araceli said. “I didn’t expect to get asked to go to another conference but it’s a great opportunity to voice my experiences as a transfer student and how the Mapper tool helped me.”

But a key highlight of the summit came early in the day as Dr. Sonya Christian, chancellor of the California Community Colleges,  returned “home” to deliver the summit keynote.

In presenting on the CCC Vision 2023 strategy plan, she announced the new Central Valley Transfer Pathways Demonstration Project, evolving from CVHEC’s own Transfer Project, to help community college students streamline the transfer process to four-year. (See  story).

“As expected, Chancellor Christian’s presentation was inspiring and reflected her commitment to students in the state,” Duran said.

PHOTO GALLERIES for the CVHEC Board of Trustees and Summit Reception (Oct. 19) and
the Central Valley Higher Education Summit (Oct.20)
at the Fresno Convention Center:

What the CV-HEC Is Happening Blog: Math Bridge Update

This month’s “What The CV-HEC Is Happening” guest blog is an update of the Math Bridge program presented by Owynn Lancaster, vice president for Academic Strategy with College Bridge, a California non-profit based in Los Angeles County dedicated to forging a path towards both college access and success for underrepresented students.  College Bridge is a partner with the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium in the innovative program designed to improve math outcomes for struggling 11th and 12th graders and streamline Math pathways into college. Funded by a five-year $4 million grant through the US Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program in January,  this ambitious endeavor was kicked off in May with a convening of more than 150 valley K-16 educators in Fresno to begin the onboarding process for this historic intersegmental collaboration between CVHEC member community colleges and high schools in their respective service areas. That initiative was followed in April with a $1.1 million state grant to CVHEC/College Bridge partnership through the Central San Joaquin Valley K-16 Partnership creating the Dual Enrollment (DE) Math Bridge that will provide equitable access to transfer-level math courses with embedded support for high school students who are disproportionately impacted, and/or are not traditionally college-bound.  This fall, the College Bridge and CVHEC Math Bridge teams have been visiting campuses to continue the onboard process in preparation for the program’s launch next fall.  

 

Expanding the Reach of the

Central Valley Math Bridge

 

BY OWYNN LANCASTER
College Bridge

 

After our successful College Orientation meetings in September, the College Bridge team has been darting up and down the San Joaquin Valley, meeting with interested feeder highs schools to onboard and launch them for the coming academic year’s CV Math Bridge Project.

Inspiring our efforts, two amazing CVHEC member colleges have “jumped to lead the pack” as Dr. Lynn Cevallos, our College Bridge president, often says. The first of those with an impressing showing come from Merced College where their team has helped us garner interest from seven possible high schools! Showing the region’s commitment to opening options for their students in math and the impressive connecting power of the college’s administration.

In equally exciting efforts, San Joaquin Delta College helped to secure two committed high school partners from Stockton Unified, with interest from others in their region. Those two Stockton schools, Amos Alonzo Stagg High School and Captain Charles M. Weber of Applied Science and Technology have been two of the smoothest schools to onboard so far! More importantly addition of these schools and the partnership with Delta College now helps us open the CV Math Bridge Project across the breadth of the Valley.

With schools as far north as Stagg High School and as far south as Taft Union High School the reach of this project is now slightly smaller than the state of South Carolina! This means several more flights and drives are still ahead for our College Bridge team to continue to onboard and launch these high school partners, but in the end, we are excited by this transformative work.

The CV Math Bridge’s first cohort of schools will be starting in the coming academic year, 2024-2025, and there’s still room for more in the second cohort starting in academic year, 2025-2026. We invite high schools interested in participating to reach out and contact me at Owynn.Lancaster@college-bridge.org.

 

Also see: https://bit.ly/CVHECblog1223-GiftOfMath 

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (October 2023)

CVHEC Summit panelists bring dynamic convos to the table

Greetings Colleagues and Friends of CVHEC,

We are delighted to welcome you to the October edition of our CVHEC e-newsletter as we enjoy fall in the valley, which is always a special time of the year.

With our 2023 CVHEC Annual Summit, “Student Success through Equity and Inclusion — Thriving in the Central Valley” just around the corner (Friday, October 20), we present our lineup of distinguished panelists and the official agenda.  We are especially excited to welcome back to the Central Valley our own Dr. Sonya Christian, newly appointed Chancellor of the California Community Colleges as well as the many CVHEC board members who will introduce and serve on the four dynamic panels we are presenting this year.  Dr.  Christian, the former chancellor of the Kern Community College District and former CVHEC board member, will serve as our special guest and deliver the keynote address.

If you have not registered for our no-cost summit yet, please take the time to do so. Join us as we showcase the great work being done by our colleges and universities in our nine-county region that continues to capture state and national attention.

You will hear about and discuss our innovative Math Bridge Project intervention for targeted high school students and our Central Valley Transfer Project, which is providing pathways to our partner universities from our local community colleges (for a preview, see colleague Stan Carrisoza’s Transfer Project update in this issue). The summit also will feature a panel of Central Valley students who have benefited directly from these initiatives.

As always, we also direct you to our “What in the CV HEC is Happening?” Blog that features guest contributors each month.  This month we are pleased to share the contribution from Sanger West High School (SWHS) English teacher Jade Martínez.

Mrs. Martinez is amongst the first of our Fresno/Madera K-16 Collaborative Master’s Upskilling grads from National University. This fall, she has taken her new degree into the classroom at SWHS and is delivering her first college English dual enrollment class to her students.  This, folks, is what it is all about.  Great job Jade!!

We hope to see you on Oct. 20, at the Fresno Convention Center for our CVHEC Summit.  Feel free to bring your colleagues and partners (registration).

CVHEC to lead California delegation at CCA Day on the Hill May 16- 17

Dr. Benjamin Duran, executive director of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, will join Complete College America for its CCA Day on the Hill in Washington, D.C.  May 16- 17 where “a network of higher education experts share strategies and lessons for the implementation of higher ed strategies at scale.”

Complete College America, a national non-profit organization founded in 2009 to raise postsecondary attainment in the United States, is a national alliance of state and higher education leaders .

Alliance partners collaborate to introduce bold initiatives that help states and institutions confront inequities, close institutional performance gaps and increase college completion rates, especially for marginalized and historically excluded students.

At the CCA Day on the Hill event, Alliance members directly engage in the federal legislative process with their federal representatives and share best practices in states and regions that can be translated into federal policy while advancing CCA’s legislative agenda at the federal level, said Charles Ansell, CCA vice president for Research.

“As Congress looks to reauthorize the Higher Education Act next year, CCA Alliance members who participate in this opportunity will bolster the organizations’ efforts to make a lasting federal policy impact to support students seeking to complete college,” Ansell said.

The event starts on Tuesday, May 16 when Alliance members will attend an in-person training for the Day on the Hill with CCA’s federal lobbyists, Arnold & Porter (A&P). A&P will set up all member meetings while in DC and will provide a schedule for their Hill visits, which will take place between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 17.

Dr. Duran is the Alliance lead for California’s central region, serving as the go-to resource as members work to advance student success.

Dr. Brandon Protas, assistant vice president for Alliance Engagement, said CCA recognizes CVHEC — made up of 28 institutions of higher education in the Central California’s nine-county region with the presidents and chancellors of each member institution serving on its board of directors — as the convener and facilitator of education, community and legislative representatives as well as technical support experts as needed by members in carrying out the CVHEC board’s key policy objective:  to increase the Central Valley’s degree attainment.

The consortium works with legislative leaders as an advocate of the higher education policy positions of its board, he noted, fortifying the Central Valley as an “educational powerhouse.”

“We are thrilled that Executive Director Durán is partnering with CCA leveraging his visionary leadership and commitment to equitable degree attainment to influence federal policy that ensures higher education accessibility for all,” Dr. Protas said.

“This strategic collaboration not only strengthens the Central Valley community but empowers its diverse student population to see policy work that helps them to achieve their fullest potential, thereby promoting the Central Valley as an educational powerhouse for generations to come.”

Duran said the CCA, which CVHEC joined in 2016, shares many of the consortium objectives.

“CCA is a valuable partner because it provides a network of higher education experts who share strategies and lessons for the implementation of higher ed strategies at scale,” Duran said.  “The CCA alliance advocated for work in corequisite support and math pathways projects, working with multiple states to create the conditions for change required to implement the strategies at scale.”

For more information, visit www.completecollege.org.

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