CVHEC NEWS: Lumina Policy Retreat Presentation

CVHEC’s national role in transforming

transfer and college affordability, equity

Dr. Benjamín Durán, executive director of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC), presented the CVHEC Transfer Project at the Lumina Foundation State Policy Retreat 2022 last month in Indianapolis.

In his session, Dr. Durán convened with national higher education equity leaders to examine how they are transforming transfer and college affordability.

With the theme “Better Together: Increasing Participation, Success, and Employment Alignment,” the policy retreat provided an opportunity for state teams – composed of cross-sector leaders working across higher education, workforce/talent development, public policy, advocacy, employers, etc. – to come together for learning, reflection, and action planning.

Throughout the retreat held Sept. 28-30, participants collaborated with their state teams and with peers across the country and participated in sessions that uplift state case studies and national best practices.

Joining Dr. Durán as part of his break out session, “Transformational Transfer Initiatives,” were Ellen Green, legislative director for California Assemblymember Marc Berman; and Jessie Ryan, executive vice president of the Campaign for College Opportunity.

The session examined an overview of the strategic policy advocacy, development of a winning coalition, and shifting the narrative around student success that has been essential in these transformational student-centered transfer initiatives.

“California envisioned a higher education system accessible to all, with California community colleges acting as the lynchpin to higher education access through their role as open access institutions,” the session synopsis presented.

“That vision, catalyzed by the California Master Plan for Higher Education of 1960, was re-energized by historic transfer reform over ten years ago with the creation of the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT). Students earning ADTs graduate with fewer excess credits, and ADT earners who transfer to the California State University system complete their bachelor’s degrees more quickly.”

CVHEC NEWS: Elaine Cash Named CVHEC Grants & Program Coordinator

New position supports the growth and sustainability of CVHEC and its work

Educator Elaine C. Cash, retired superintendent of Riverdale Joint Unified School District and a K-12 liaison for the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium since 2017, has been named to a full-time position as CVHEC’s Grants & Programs coordinator.

In her new capacity effective October 1, Elaine is responsible for grant writing, management and reporting of grants and sponsored programs, announced Dr. Benjamín Durán, CHVEC executive director.

“This new position for CVHEC will help support the growth and sustainability of the consortium and our work,” Durán said.

Elaine first joined CVHEC in 2016 and, as a liaison, she served as a connection and resource to consortium K-12 partners for strategies such as the valley-wide adoption of the California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI), increasing FAFSA completion numbers in Fresno County and dual enrollment.

“Elaine provided understanding about the K-12 system that CVHEC, with our focus on higher education, was not articulate in,” said Ángel Ramírez, CVHEC Operations and Finance manager who supervises staff positions.

Elaine also is the executive director of her own education consultant company, ECC Education Group LLC and currently works as the facilitator for the FAFSA Completion Work Group with the Fresno Compact. She also serves on the Fresno State College Readiness Advisory Board and as a management trustee for California’s Valued Trust.

As a consultant, Elaine has worked with school districts throughout the Central Valley, largely focusing on student transition from high school to college.

She retired as Riverdale Joint Unified School District superintendent in 2010, capping, at the time, a 27-year career in education that included experience as a classroom teacher, elementary and high school principal and assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

During Elaine’s nine years as superintendent, all Riverdale schools earned the California Distinguished Schools recognition and Riverdale High School received the College Board National Inspiration Award.

Her article, “A Change in Beliefs Leads to A Change in Behavior and Student Achievement,” was published in the National Staff Development Council’s Journal of Staff Development in June 2010.

Elaine earned her BA at the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in Educational Leadership and Administration at Fresno State.

Zero-Textbook-Cost/OER Movement picks up steam with $115m state grant

West Hills College Lemoore Among the Statewide Leaders; CVHEC Establishes Regional ZTC Task Force

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) is creating a regional task force to support its member institutions interested in reducing the overall cost of education for students and decreasing the time it takes students to complete degree and certificate programs by using alternative instructional materials and methodologies, including open educational resources (OER).

One of the first goals of the task force will be to support members in applying for new state funding for the California Community Colleges to establish Zero-Textbook-Cost programs systemwide.

Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director, sent out a call to members in late August to recommend appointments to the Central Valley Zero-Textbook-Cost Task Force.

“This task force will bring attention to how districts can access the $115 million available to community colleges to implement the program and benefit their students,” Duran said. “We hope the task force will help create a collaborative environment to support each other in providing zero cost textbooks to our students.”

He anticipates the task force will be named in early October and set its first meeting shortly after to ensure members are aware of CCC’s ZTC webinars.

Duran is working with James Preston, president of West Hills College Lemoore and member of the CVHEC Board of Directors, who has been at the forefront of the ZTC Degrees Movement with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

“Zero-textbook-cost degrees” means community college associate degrees or career technical education certificates earned entirely by completing courses that eliminate conventional textbook costs by using alternative instructional materials and methodologies, including open educational resources (OER).

In a blog for this issue of the CVHEC e-newsletter, President Preston explains that Open Educational Resources are free, openly licensed and accessible materials that faculty can retain, revise, remix, reuse, revise and redistribute. OER materials come in many forms such as open textbooks, videos, articles and ancillary support materials.

“When creatively combined into a Canvas course shell, OER create what we now know as a Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) course,” he said. “Teamwork between discipline faculty, an area administrator, library or instructional design support and student services personnel, along with the financial support for people to collaborate, can quickly move things from a ZTC course to a ZTC degree.

“Add in a dose of creativity, strategy, policy, equity and guided pathways thinking and you are on your way to a full OERevolution,” the West Hills College Lemoore president writes.

This OERevolution started for West Hills College Lemoore in 2016 when the campus received a $100,000 grant from the Achieving the Dream (ATD) network to create a Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) degree for an Associate in Arts for Transfer (AA-T) in Elementary Education.

Other CVHEC members receiving the 2016 seed funding were Reedley College, Taft College and WHC- Coalinga. CVHEC four-year members also utilizing the Zero Textbook Cost Program are Fresno State (see video “Be A Hero: Adopt Open Educational Resource” and press release “Fresno State partners with OpenStax to increase use of free textbooks on campus”) and National University.

CVHEC audience members wishing to recommend task force participants may email Angel Ramirez, Operations & Finance Manager, at angelr@csufresno.edu.

 

Links

What the CV-HEC is Happening Blog by WHC-L President James Preston (September 2022 CVHEC Newsletter).

WHC-Lemoore OER – (https://www.westhillscollege.com/lemoore/oer/)

OER video – (https://youtu.be/qop5VhYv2nw)

California community colleges implement zero-textbook-cost (Inside Higher Ed – Sept. 19, 2019)  

CVHEC Mini-Grant Application 2022

Read more

CMSP-SJV: Pathway for Community College Students to the Medical Field 

California Medicine Scholars Program-SJV: a collab of UCSF Fresno and other CVHEC members

A valley wide collaborative by Central Valley Higher Education Consortium partners and Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) has led to a major accomplishment for the Central Valley with the launch this summer of the California Medicine Scholars Program (CMSP) and the designation of the University of California, San Francisco – Fresno as one of four Regional Hubs of Healthcare Opportunity (RHHOs) in the state.

Established under Senate Bill 40, CMSP is designed to pave the pathway to medical school for community college students, increase the numbers of underrepresented minority physicians and result in more physicians and allied health professionals settling in the region. The budget bill signed in June by Governor Newsom includes $9,975,000 to establish the regional pipeline system for community college students who want to go to medical school.

“We are delighted to announce the establishment of the California Medicine Scholars Program (SJV-CMSP) hub at UCSF-Fresno, one of four hubs in the state authorized by SB 40 and authored by our very own Sen. Hurtado,” said Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director.

“Establishing a hub in the Central Valley helps build a culture that promotes equity of opportunity in medicine and pre-medicine among eligible, local community college students,” Duran said.

CVHEC plays key role

Sen. Hurtado, who introduced the legislation last year in response to a provider shortage in the Central Valley, said a key factor in the Valley being the only region initially guaranteed a hub in the final legislation was Duran’s  collaboration and advocacy on behalf of CVHEC partners in the early planning meetings.

“The Central Valley is experiencing a healthcare provider shortage,” Sen. Hurtado said. “Patients face longer than average wait times to see a physician and have to drive long distances to access the nearest hospital. Thanks to the hard work of Dr. Duran and the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium on the passage of the California Medicine Scholars Program, many students in the Valley will be given the opportunity to live their dream and attend medical school.”

CVHEC rallied leaders of the Consortium that is made up of 30 institutions of higher education in the nine-county region from Stockton to Bakersfield to support UCSF-Fresno as one of the state’s four hubs authorized by the legislation for the program. UCSF-Fresno, a regional campus of the UCSF School of Medicine, joined the Consortium as its most recent member in May.

Duran credited Dr. Kenny Bahn, assistant dean for Undergraduate Medical Education at UCSF Fresno, who headed the Central Valley team that developed the application for funding in collaboration with CVHEC partners — California Health Sciences University, Fresno State and regional community colleges — that will feed the medical pathways in the valley.

He also praised the CVHEC community college leaders who responded to his invitation in January to support Sen. Hurtado’s bill.

“These collaborative efforts will hopefully lead to more physicians and allied health professionals settling in the region,” Duran said.

Statewide, the CMSP will be housed at the Foundation for California Community Colleges. In addition to UCSF-Fresno serving as the lead agency for the San Joaquin Valley Regional Hub of Healthcare Opportunity (SJV-RHHO), the state’s three other regional hubs of will be based at the UC Davis School of Medicine, UC Riverside School of Medicine and UC San Diego School of Medicine

The four hubs will bridge gaps between community colleges, four-year universities, medical schools and community-based health clinics and organizations to provide greater pre-medical opportunities for students and help diversify California’s primary care physician workforce, UCSF-Fresno said in its announcement of the hubs and funding June 28.

Addressing physician shortage

All hubs reside in regions underserved in health care and are currently experiencing a physician shortage. Each grantee will receive $1.6 million for the first three years ($540,000 annually) with additional funding ($250,000) available in the fourth year for sustainability. Funding supports the creation of the RHHOs and provides a strategy to increase the number of underrepresented minority physicians and ultimately reduce disparities in health and health outcomes across the state.

The SJV-RHHO launched July 1, creating the first pre-medical diversity pathway from community college to primary care physician program in the San Joaquin Valley under the name California Medicine Scholars Program (SJV-CMSP).

Dr. Banh said the vision of the SJV-CMSP is to increase the numbers of underrepresented minority physicians through a collaborative partnership effort.

“This program fulfills a need in the pathway to practicing physician at the community college level,” Dr. Banh said. “The mission specifically is to increase the number of regional community college students who transfer to and are accepted into medical schools from California State University, Fresno.”

The SJV-CMSP Network

In addition to UCSF Fresno, CHSU, Fresno State and CVHEC, the SJV-CMSP partners include: the State Center Community College District (Fresno City College, Clovis Community College, Madera/Oakhurst Community College, Reedley Community College); College of the Sequoias (Hanford, Tulare and Visalia campuses); the Merced Community College District (Merced and Los Banos campuses); the West Hills Community College District (Coalinga, Firebaugh and Lemoore campuses); the Yosemite Community College District (Columbia College and Modesto Junior College); the California Area Health Education Center Program; the Central Valley Health Network; and the Valley Health Team Family Residency Medicine Program.

“Developing a high-quality undergraduate medical education program and the foundation for a future medical school requires that enough qualified students from the region are available to be recruited to the program,” said Michael W. Peterson, MD, associate dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and Research at UCSF Fresno.

“Improving efficiencies and developing financial sustainability of pathway programs are essential to continue the tremendous momentum and success we have accomplished to date with programs like the Doctors Academy built by our very own Katherine A. Flores, MD, and to expand to serve community college students with the SJV-CMSP,” Dr. Peterson added.

To better coordinate and increase the success of existing pathway programs, SJV-CMSP and future programs, Associate Dean Peterson and Assistant Dean Banh also announced that UCSF Fresno created an Office of Health Career Pathways within the Department of Undergraduate Medical Education.

Named as the office’s inaugural director was Emy Lopez Phillips, EdD, who is an alumna of three CVHEC members: Fresno City College, California State University, Stanislaus and Fresno State.

See:

 

Dr. Herrera to Head Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative

Dr. Krista Herrera was named executive director of the newly formed Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative, a partnership between Kern County Superintendent Of Schools, institutes of higher education including the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and business partners to significantly expand Kern County’s workforce development efforts.

Dr. Krista Herrera
Kern K-16 Regional Collaborative

Dr. Herrera, who was also appointed administrator of Instructional Services by KSOS Superintendent Mary C. Barlow, will provide leadership for the implementation of over $18 million in state funds awarded to Kern.

The grant is aimed at improving student progress from high school to postsecondary education and ultimately into the Kern County workforce.

The Kern Collaborative will support numerous efforts that will streamline pathways in three occupational areas, including healthcare, education and engineering/computing. The initiative will focus on first-generation college students, those from low- income families and students of color to improve preparation for college and career access and success.

CVHEC is a partner in the collaborative with its $1.7 million project, the CVHEC/Kern Dual Enrollment Teacher Up-skilling Program for English and Mathematics, to provide master’s degrees for up to 96 South Valley high school teachers that achieves state qualifications for teaching community college dual enrollment English and math courses on a high school campus.

In addition to the Kern Collaborative, Dr. Herrera will provide oversight for several instructional programs within KCSOS, including the development of the statewide High Quality Online Instructional Materials initiative and the district’s equity work, including the annual Equity Symposium.

“We look forward to the success of this initiative under Krista’s capable leadership,” said Lisa Gilbert, deputy superintendent of KSOS Instructional Services.

Dr. Herrera brings nearly 15 years of experience working in education including the past four years serving as administrator of Professional Learning & Student Support for KCSOS. She earned degrees at San Diego State University, Point Loma Nazarene University and the University of LaVerne. Among her professional affiliations is serving as facilitator and coach for the California Coalition Dedicated to Dual Enrollment (CCEMC).

SEE:

CVHEC Master’s Upskilling Program press release

CVHEC MEMBER NEWS

JUNE 2022

President James Preston of CVHEC-member West Hills Community College-Lemoore accepts The Fresno Bee “Best of Central California” Award for Best College/University.

West Hills College-Lemoore Named
‘Best College/University’ (MORE)

Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative
receives $18 million state grant (MORE) Fresno/Madera K-16 grant (MORE)

CSSA honors Fresno State president with President of the Year Award (MORE)

Joseph and Yvette Jones built relationships for Fresno Pacific University (MORE)

(CVHEC members are encouraged to submit campus stories: centralvalleyhec@gmail.com). 

CVHEC IN THE NEWS: KGO features Dual Enrollment Master’s Upskilling Program

Read more

New Remedial-Education Reform Bill: Central Valley colleges help lead the way

Dr. Benjamin Duran, CVHEC executive director and Merced College president-emeritus with CVHEC Board members James Preston, president of West Hills Community College-Lemoore, and Dr. Carla Tweed, president of West Hills Community College-Coalinga.

New state legislation to advance remedial education reforms in the California Community Colleges system will remove what Dr. Benjamin Duran, Central Valley Higher Education Consortium executive director, calls “unintentional stumbling blocks for the neediest students.”

Duran said the passage of new legislation — Assembly Bill 1705 which builds off AB 705  passed in 2017,  will strengthen the implementation of co-requisite support courses for essential gateway courses on California’s community college campuses.

“We look for a complete transition away from remedial developmental education courses that often stood as unintentional stumbling blocks for the neediest students,” Duran said.  “We are proud that Central Valley community colleges have been leaders in reversing the impact of decades of remedial education on college completion rates.”

 

See related stories

How Community Colleges Are Changing Remedial Education (Community College Review – May 31, 2022)

Remedial Education Leaves Many Colleges in a Quandary (Community College Review – May 4, 2022)

 Inside Higher Ed story (May 27, 2022):

California Assembly Passes Remedial-Education Reform Bill

By  Sara Weissman

(May 27, 2022) — The California Assembly unanimously passed new legislation May 25 to advance reforms to remedial education in the California Community Colleges system.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 1705, builds off a law passed in 2017, which prevented community colleges from requiring remedial English or math courses without first considering students’ high school GPA and coursework and determining they are “highly unlikely to succeed” in classes that earn transferable college credits.

Colleges have lagged in implementing the prior law, Assembly Bill 705, so the new bill stresses that colleges must enroll students in the math and English classes where they have the highest chances of completing transfer requirements. It also prohibits colleges from requiring students to repeat math and English classes passed in high school, among other measures to enroll more students in credit-bearing coursework.

“Remedial classes cost students time and money and don’t move them closer to their goals,” Jasmine Prasad, vice president of legislative affairs for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, said in a press release. “AB 1705 will help more students achieve their educational and career goals without being delayed or derailed by remedial courses.”

The bill, which now heads to the State Senate, has the support of Prasad’s organization as well as the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center, among other organizations.

“AB 1705 is an opportunity to address placement practices that have historically excluded thousands of students of color,” Adrián Trinidad, assistant director for community college partnerships at the USC Race and Equity Center, said in the press release. “To make our community colleges racially just, we need to upend a status quo that frames students of color as deficient and incapable of success.”

Two More Dual Enrollment Master Upskilling Cohorts Conferred 

 

 

Area high school English teachers in the National University English master’s cohort pose with Fresno City College Interim President Marlon Hall at a celebration held by the Fresno K-16 Collaborative in March.

Two more cohorts of National University graduate students participating in the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Dual Enrollment Upskilling Teachers Master’s Program in English completed M.A. degree requirements last month and were conferred master’s degrees June 19.

The Master’s Upskilling Program for area English high school teachers, which addresses equity and access issues, is an innovative CVHEC project that could benefit thousands of the region’s dual enrollment students by providing more high school teachers with a post-baccalaureate degree to teach college classes.

It launched in 2021 funded by grants from the Fresno K-16 Collaborative in partnership with National University. In the first of three cohorts last year, 17 Fresno-area high school English teachers earned their National University M.A. degrees in December.

For the current second and third cohorts, 36 candidates who completed the degree requirements on May 28 were conferred master’s degree this month but commencement ceremonies are set for sometime in September 2022 and May 2023, said Eddie Cunha, director of the National University-Fresno Center. Dates will be announced later, he added.

CVHEC and the Fresno K-16 collaborative have also been funded a similar Dual Enrollment Upskilling Teacher’s Master’s Program in Mathematics in partnership with CVHEC member-institution Fresno Pacific University.

And, CVHEC is working to expand the Master’s Upskilling Program throughout its nine-county region beginning with the South Valley where a $18 million statewide competitive grant awarded to the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative to improve student progress from high school to postsecondary education includes $1,830,500 for CVHEC’s “Dual Enrollment Teach Up-skilling Pathway – MA degrees for English and Math High School Teachers” Program. Like the Fresno program, the Kern upskilling project will produce, over three years, up to 100 qualified dual enrollment teachers to teach English and Math.

 

See:

Contact Us

  • cvhecinfo@mail.fresnostate.edu

  • 559.278.0576

Join Our Newsletter