Dual Enrollment Master Upskilling program: first cohort conferred degrees

The first cohort of 17 National University graduate students participating in the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Dual Enrollment Upskilling Teachers Master’s Program in English will complete degree requirements for an M.A. this month, marking a milestone for this innovative project that benefits thousands of the region’s dual enrollment students.

The Master’s Upskilling Program for area English high school teachers, which addresses equity and access issues, began in January funded by grants from the Fresno K-16 Collaborative in partnership with National University. A second cohort of 23 Fresno-area high school English teachers began their National English M.A. program in July 2021 and will be earning their master’s degree in June 2022.

The Fresno K-16 Collaborative was established in 2020 via funding by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and is supporting four dual enrollment-related educational pathways that help Fresno-area students move from high school to college and into the workforce.

CVHEC is coordinating two grants: one that is specifically for K-16 Collaborative partners in the Fresno area and a second one that allows for an expanded regional reach. In all, 67 high school English teachers from Fresno Madera, Merced and Kings Counties will benefit from the Dual Enrollment Upskilling Teachers Master’s Program for English.

Program support includes tuition supplements and in some cases book expenses. Participating postbaccalaureate students are paired with college English professors from CVHEC community colleges in a unique mentorship project.

In addition, CVHEC and Fresno Pacific University have also been funded by the K-16 Collaborative for a similar Dual Enrollment Upskilling Teacher’s Master’s Program in Mathematics. CVHEC has also provided community college math professor mentors for 16 of these graduate students.

“This is proving to be a win-win undertaking for all involved,” said John Spevak, former Merced College vice president who now serves as a regional lead for CVHEC.

“Not only are high school teachers gaining the opportunity to obtain a master’s, but high school districts will now have teachers who meet community college minimum qualifications to providing dual enrollment courses for their students,” Spevak said. “Our participating mentors also gain experience in working with the grad students and helping ensure incoming community college students are prepared and on the path to success.”

Eddie Cunha, director of the National University-Fresno Center, said a degree conferral ceremony will be held Dec. 19 for the current cohort.

 

Background: https://bit.ly/CVHEC-MastersUpskillingNL0121

Dual Enrollment Success Stories: Celeste Galvan of McFarland

Celeste Galván of McFarland and her family celebrated her two degrees earned by the age of 19 thanks to dual enrollment courses through Bakersfield College before Fresno State. Here they pose with her at her high school graduation in 2018. She is now enrolled in CSU Bakersfield’s teacher credential program. All three campuses are CVHEC members.

CVHEC Dual Enrollment Spotlight:

Celeste Galván of McFarland

 

BY TOM URIBES
CVHEC Communications/Media Coordinator

From one end of the valley to the other, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium continues to spotlight student dual enrollment success stories.

Like Nataly Frias featured in our first story in September, Celeste Galván of McFarland earned an associate degree at age 17 before she even graduated high school, marching alongside thousands of other Bakersfield College students at the commencement ceremony in Memorial Stadium in 2018.

Dual enrollment alumnus Celeste Galván graduated from Fresno State in December 2020.

Then just two years later, after transferring to Fresno State, she earned a bachelor of arts degree in Liberal Studies in May and now, at age 19, she is enrolled in the credential program at California State University, Bakersfield while serving an teacher internship at a nearby elementary school. All three institutions are CVHEC members.

In high school, Celeste participated in a Bakersfield College pilot program at the Wonderful College Prep Academy in nearby Delano that provided students with the opportunity to complete an associate of science in agriculture business from BC by the time they graduated from high school.

Before her senior year, Celeste’s family moved to Bakersfield and she chose to stay with her grandmother in McFarland to finish her BC degree work with the Wonderful Academy.

A typical day for Celeste would start at 4 a.m. to get ready for practice with the cross country team, where she took second place at the CIF Central Section Championships in Woodward Park in 2015. After classes, she would stay at the school library as late as 8 or 9 p.m. to finish her college and high school classwork since she didn’t have access to wifi at her grandmother’s house.

Celeste rode that Renegade/Bulldog/Roadrunner spirit through Bakersfield College, Fresno State and back to CSUB.

ROMEO AGBALOG — President of the KCCD Board of Trustees

Romeo Agbalog, president of the Kern Community College District Board of Trustees, wrote in a Bakersfied.com op-ed in January that the success of Celeste and other students prepared Bakersfield College to scale up its model by launching the Early College program in 2019, with the vision of providing a pathway for every high school student in   Kern County to earn between 12 and 60 units of college credit before graduation.

“Every incoming freshman at McFarland High School is enrolled in college-level courses alongside their regular classwork, developing the tools for college and career readiness. Today, over 23,000 students have completed a total of approximately 90,000 college credits at 36 high schools across the county” said Agbalog who also noted the program is successful in closing equity gaps.

“Early College has had a 93 percent student success rate across all high school campuses in the last academic year, consistently exceeding BC’s own institution-set standard for student success by 15 to 20 percent,” he wrote. “Most importantly, more than 85 percent of students from rural areas who were in an associate degree completion pathway went to college after high school.”

See Trustee President Agbalog’s column.

Background: 

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium has been playing an increasing role in furthering Dual Enrollment as an equity-driven strategy to reduce disparities in student persistence and completion rates, which is the essence of the CVHEC mission, including

the creation of a task force in 2019, the Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP).

With over 60 education leaders from the CVHEC region, CVHEC’s Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP) Task Force is identifying and establishing the best elements of a sustainable strategy for dual enrollment that is intentional and aligns with Guided Pathways.

Made up of representatives from Central Valley K-12 districts, colleges, and universities, the task force developed a collaborative regional accord on an equitable delivery of dual enrollment, culminating in a Central Valley Higher Education Consortium white paper in July 2020, “Dual Enrollment in the Central Valley.”

This consensus framework document is designed to assist the nine-county region in the advancement of dual enrollment by reviewing where it has been, identifying the bright spots, identifying challenges and working together to develop solutions.

CVHEC efforts focus on policy implementation and delivery of support to faculty and administrators working on these efforts. The work focuses on regional strategic scaling of Guided Pathways; math pathways; corequisite support (AB 705 and EO 110 implementation); California College Guidance Initiative; and dual enrollment as strategies for equity and degree attainment.

CVHEC will continue to highlight stories about dual enrollment students like Celeste and Nataly in its e-newsletter, and social media platforms. Also, a showcase video conveying the value of dual enrollment for all students through the stories of individual valley students is currently in production and due to be released later this fall semester.

 

For CVHEC media inquiries, contact Tom Uribes at cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu or text 559.348.3278.

 

 

Dual Enrollment Success Stories: Nataly Frias

Nataly Frias and family: parents Anthony and Sabrina, both CSU Stanislaus alumni, are counselors at Modesto Jr. College and Merced College respectively. Older brother Anthony Frias, II, (far left) also took dual enrollment courses and graduated from MC in the spring with Nataly. Younger brother Isaiah, a Turlock High junior, (far right) turned 16 this month and is also taking dual enrollment courses at Merced College.

Dual Enrollment: success stories underscore equity-driven strategy

Reducing disparities in student persistence and completion rates

BY TOM URIBES
CVHEC Communications/Media Coordinator

The Covid-19 pandemic of the past 18 months cast a shadow over joyous occasions like graduation events for Class of 2020 and 2021 high school and college students everywhere, but one narrative emerged repeatedly in the Central Valley that provided a spark of optimism for our region’s college attainment rates: dual enrollment success stories.

One of those stories is 18-year-old Nataly Frias, who, during her pandemic senior year at Turlock High School (2020-21), had taken enough Merced College courses online to earn two associate degrees in May, even before receiving her THS diploma in June.

Like other students around the country over the years, California students such as Nataly have taken college-level courses while still completing their high school degree thanks to various options such as concurrent or dual enrollment.

“Recent legislation has opened the gates for far more students to take advantage of dual enrollment,” said Saundra McGlothlin, CVHEC’s central regional coordinator and dual enrollment lead “The CVHEC region is committed to stay engaged in developing solutions to overcoming persistent barriers to equity.”

Born to teen parents who themselves worked hard and returned to college (Stanislaus State alums Anthony and Sabrina Frias who are now counselors at Modesto Jr. College and Merced College respectively), Nataly is now enrolled at Fresno State for a bachelor’s degree in Psychology but with her sights set on the Nursing Program.

“Just do it,” Nataly said in a media account about her success and the challenge of dual enrollment courses. “It’s a lot of hard work but you’ll feel so accomplished.”

The pandemic actually had a silver-lining in that she had more time during the quarantine to focus on schoolwork.

“I probably wouldn’t have graduated as early without the pandemic because it really helped give me so much time where I was only focused on my online courses,” said Nataly who said she comes from a “dual enrollment family.”

Her older brother Anthony also took dual enrollment courses when he attended Turlock High and graduated from Merced College with Nataly last spring but is now enrolled at Modesto Jr. College where he plays football. And younger brother Isaiah, a Turlock High junior, is currently  taking dual enrollment courses thorough Merced College.

McGlothlin, who retired in 2017 as the vice president of Student Services for West Hills Community College – Coalinga, noted that not all students follow Nataly’s accelerated path of earning an associate degree while in high school. Many take just a few dual enrollment courses that help them get some college credit under their belt while providing a glimpse of the higher education academic curriculum.

“Most of dual enrollment students complete 12-24 units,” said McGlothlin. “This means — in addition to meeting graduation requirements — less money spent when working towards a degree in college, usually a semester or two free.”

See Nataly’s story in local news media accounts:

https://www.turlockjournal.com/news/education/turlock-high-senior-uses-pandemic-downtime-earn-college-degree/

https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2021/05/21/turlock-teen-graduates-high-school-college/

 

Background: 

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium has been playing an increasing role in furthering Dual Enrollment as an equity-driven strategy to reduce disparities in student persistence and completion rates, which is the essence of the CVHEC mission, including

the creation of a task force in 2019, the Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP).

With over 60 education leaders from the CVHEC region, CVHEC’s Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP) Task Force is identifying and establishing the best elements of a sustainable strategy for dual enrollment that is intentional and aligns with Guided Pathways.

Made up of representatives from Central Valley K-12 districts, colleges, and universities, the task force developed a collaborative regional accord on an equitable delivery of dual enrollment, culminating in a Central Valley Higher Education Consortium white paper in July 2020, “Dual Enrollment in the Central Valley.”

This consensus framework document is designed to assist the nine-county region in the advancement of dual enrollment by reviewing where it has been, identifying the bright spots, identifying challenges and working together to develop solutions.

CVHEC efforts focus on policy implementation and delivery of support to faculty and administrators working on these efforts. The work focuses on regional strategic scaling of Guided Pathways; math pathways; corequisite support (AB 705 and EO 110 implementation); California College Guidance Initiative; and dual enrollment as strategies for equity and degree attainment.

CVHEC will continue to highlight success stories like Nataly’s in its e-newsletter, and social media platforms. Also, a showcase video conveying the value of dual enrollment for all students through the stories of individual valley students is currently in production and due to be released later this fall semester.

 

 

CVHEC White Paper Released: ‘Dual Enrollment in the Central Valley: Working Toward a Unified Approach for Equity and Prosperity’

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium announces two significant developments in our ongoing dual enrollment strategies:

  • An award of a $25,000 donation from AT&T in June 2020 to benefit CVHEC’s dual enrollment efforts. These funds will support the work identified in the report.

In Spring 2019, Central Valley community college leaders approached CVHEC to provide convening assistance surrounding dual enrollment, a strategy that allows secondary school students to earn college credits before their high school graduation.

As a result of the discussions in these early gatherings, a dual enrollment task force was formed. Participating leaders appropriately named their effort the Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP).

The task force has endeavored purposefully and strategically in addressing the complexity of dual enrollment to spotlight both challenges and best practices for colleges and high schools in the nine-county CVHEC region.

The 16-page CVDEEP report, compiled by CVHEC Strategies Lead Virginia Madrid Salazar, J.D., highlights this work and provides a blueprint to strengthen dual enrollment delivery in the Central Valley.

“CVHEC’s dual enrollment efforts will be bolstered by the generous AT&T donation received this month,” said Dr. Ben Duran, CVHEC Executive Director. “We appreciate this partnership which is AT&T’s way of acknowledging and encouraging CVHEC’s hard work to help more Central Valley students attain a higher education.”

See the report here. 

See the 2020 CVDEEP Convening.

CVHEC Hosts Dual Enrollment Convening for Educators in Nine County Region

CVHEC Hosts Dual Enrollment Convening for Educators in Nine County Region

(March 5, 2020) — More than 150 secondary and postsecondary educators gathered today when they convened for the Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP) Convening at the DoubleTree Inn in downtown Fresno to address challenges and barriers to dual enrollment success.

Presented by the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, the convening was the latest of several gatherings held since a CVHEC task force — made up of community college and K-12 educational leaders — was created in July 2019 at the request of community college administrators so Central Valley colleges and K-12 partner districts could purposefully and strategically engage on a regional basis to deliver dual enrollment in a more equitable way.

Through dual enrollment, high school students earn college credits while earning their high school diploma.  In the nine-county region served by the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, an intersegmental higher education organization of 27 accredited public and independent community college and university partners from San Joaquin to Kern counties, over 15,000 Central Valley high school students participated in a dual enrollment program in 2019.

“CVHEC believes the dual enrollment opportunity significantly increases high school students’ chances of earning credentials, associate degrees and bachelor’s degrees as expeditiously as possible, providing a timely gateway to meaningful careers with sufficient earnings to support a quality of life for themselves and their families,” said Dr. Benjamin Durán, CVHEC executive director.

Last year, CVHEC convened a task force of about 60 front line educators who deliver dual enrollment services valley-wide to join forces beginning with an inaugural meeting July 22 where they established a regional consensus that provided the direction for the March 5 conference.

At that March convening, the attendees representing 52 school districts, 12 community colleges and two educations organizations/agencies spent the day in two panels and three breakout sessions discussing their experiences and ways to navigate forward.

The two opening sessions covered “Dual Enrollment, A Partnership Perspective – What We Wish We knew When We Started” and “Successes and Challenges with Dual Enrollment – A student Perspective.”

The latter panel featured six dual enrollment students from Central Valley high schools: Brianna Hernandez of Selma; Emely Rivera of Roosevelt; Bernice Lozada and Nandini Karyampudi of Mountain House; and Nerin Delgado and Raul Espinoza of McFarland who indicated one of the positive experiences for them was being introduced to a syllabus and its importance to academic success.

“I’m so grateful I got that experience (with a syllabus) before I start college, that was super positive,” said Nerin, a senior who started dual enrollment in her freshman year. “I can go into a college class and now I can understand how responsible you actually have to be to keep up with your schoolwork, and your readings that you have to do before the actual lecture. It definitely keeps you accountable, it keeps you responsible.”

The breakout sessions covered the topics “Faculty Focus,” “Essential Elements of Student Services” and “Dual Enrollment Pathways: Partnerships for Pathway Development.”

Discussion entailed numerous issues ranging from “face-to-face golden moments” with students to faculty recruitment and support to the challenges of scheduling courses with high schools.

In the panel subtitled “What We Wish We Knew When We Started,” Dale Van Dam, Vice President of Instruction at Reedley College, noted that when dual enrollment began at his campus five years ago, the rush to get started did not allow for basic “foundation-building” with high school partners, or dialogues about how best to bridge the two bureaucracies to structure programs for the benefit of students and think through best practices.

Noting that the program has grown to 19 high school partners with 5,500-plus students and over 200 sections, Van Dam said, “We’ve realized you have to be very intentional about communication. It has to be at regular intervals, it can’t be by-the-by, it can’t be when you’re in a crisis. There needs to be regular cards-on-the-table type meetings about what’s going right and what’s going wrong.”

Panel moderator John Spevak, a CVHEC Regional Coordinator, commended the educators for their efforts in developing dual enrollment programs, telling his audience, “I’m just impressed with the amount of work that we have to do to make this successful. It just doesn’t happen by itself. This is one of the most intensive activities I have ever seen take place between high schools and colleges.”

(UPDATE: See CVHEC report, “Dual Enrollment in the Central Valley, Working Toward a Unified Approach for Equity and Prosperity” and press release).

CVHEC media contact: Tom Uribes • tom@uribes.com • 559.348.3278

 

BACKGROUND

In 2016, a new dual enrollment option was introduced through Assembly Bill (AB) 288, amending Education Code (EC) 76004, and creating the College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP). This legislation enabled more high school students to take college courses taught by college professors on their high school campuses.  California AB 30, signed by Governor Newsom in October 2019, expands and protects dual enrollment through 2027.

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