CVHEC Teacher Upskilling Program for Master’s Degrees Supports Dual Enrollment in South Valley via Kern K-16 Collaborative Grant

About 96 South Valley high school teachers will get the opportunity to earn a master’s degree that achieves state qualifications for teaching community college dual enrollment English and math courses on local high school campuses thanks to a partnership between the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative and the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC).

CVHEC’s Dual Enrollment Teacher Upskilling Pathway for English and Mathematics is part of an $18 million statewide competitive grant awarded to the Kern Collaborative this month to improve student progress from high school to postsecondary education and ultimately into the workforce.

The grant was announced June 9 by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools (KCSOS), the lead grant applicant that serves as the administrative agent for the Kern K-16 Collaborative. CVHEC, which is one of several partners in the Collaborative, is made up of 30 institutions of higher education in the valley’s nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern counties.  The presidents and chancellors of each member institution serve on the CVHEC Board of Directors.

South Valley CVHEC members include California State University, Bakersfield (President Lynnette Zelezny); Kern Community College District (Chancellor Sonya Christian); Bakersfield College (Interim President Zav Dadabhoy); Cerro Coso College (President Sean Hancock); Taft College (Interim President Brock McMurray); Porterville College (President Claudia Laurido-Habib); Fresno Pacific University (President André Stephens); and National University (Porterville Campus Center Director Natalia Gaeta).

CVHEC’s primary objective is improving persistence and increasing degree attainment rates, so dual enrollment is seen as an opportunity strategy that aligns with the work pursued by the consortium, said Dr. Benjamin T. Duran, CVHEC executive director.

“Dual enrollment continues to increase in the region but one of the deterrents of dual enrollment opportunities is the lack of high school teachers who have a master’s degree in English and Math,” Duran said. “Schools in the Kern K-16 Collaborative service area deserve to have the capacity to partner with their local community colleges so their students can use dual enrollment classes as one strategy for completion of their degrees in a timely manner.”

CVHEC’s Teacher Upskilling component, which the consortium first implemented in Fresno County last year with similar state funding through the Fresno/Madera K-16 Collaborative, is funded for Kern at $1.7 million to produce, over three years, up to 100 qualified dual enrollment teachers to teach English and Math.

Program funding would help reduce the cost of tuition for those teachers who want to pursue a master’s degree in English and Math, as well as pair them with a community college mentor to support them along the way and help them navigate the process to becoming an adjunct community college faculty member. (Masters candidates will be encouraged to contribute to the cost of their tuition in such a way as to show commitment to the programs without putting undue financial strain on themselves or their families).

This would represent a substantial increase in the number of high school teachers “able and willing” to teach those dual enrollment courses on their respective campuses which is the primary outcome of this project, Duran said.

The Teacher Upskilling component in Kern will begin with two cohorts of 20 to 25 teachers each in the fall 2023. Fresno Pacific University will offer a Master’s degree in Mathematics education while National University offers a Master’s degree program in English.

This new pool of qualified dual enrollment teachers would also result in alleviating capacity at the community college and/or CSU or UC schools, Duran added, while enabling high school English and Math teachers — with increased educational advancement in their disciplines — to increase their knowledge, skills and overall capacity for the benefit of all of their students.

Duran said dual enrollment enables all high school students, especially disproportionately impacted students, the opportunity to successfully complete transferable college English and Math courses in high school, thus accelerating their timeline to college completion and their overall success in college.

He also noted that “dual enrollment means free college courses while in high school that frees up needed financial aid for degree completion especially for students facing the burden of food and housing insecurity.”

Duran said dual enrollment also addresses a significant equity gap in student achievement. Through recent legislation (AB 288 and SB 30) more students are able to access the advantages it offers as demonstrated by the increase of 50 percent of participating students from 2016 to 2019 over the preceding years of 2009 and 2015 (pre-AB 288).

“At its core, dual enrollment is an equity strategy,” Duran said. “Through dual enrollment, high school students will be prepared for, have access to and have a pathway for career technical education or preparation for transfer. An increase in teachers qualified to teach dual enrollment will amplify the opportunities for more students.”

Central Valley regional data shows that as high as seven out of ten students enrolling in community college are the first generation in their families to do so. Student performance measures further demonstrate that over half of all incoming community college freshman do not place into transfer level college Math or English without support.

“This deficiency often becomes the main barrier for students to progress in their college program leading to high rates of incompletion among disproportionately impacted underserved students,’ Duran noted. “This single factor spawns a significant equity gap in student achievement.”

In a special video released recently at its second Dual Enrollment Convening March 17 in Fresno, “Blurring the Lines Between High School and College: Dual Enrollment in the Central Valley,” CVHEC highlighted five dual enrollments students and featured them in a panel at the convening as well as at its Summit May 6.

For Kern County, where educational attainment lags behind economic peers across the U.S. and within California (only 17.1 percent of Kern County residents hold a bachelor’s degree or above compared to 34.7 percent statewide), the Master’s Upskilling project will help the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative support students and parents.

Kern County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mary Barlow said “the economic success of individuals, families, businesses and entire geographical areas correlates closely with educational attainment and the density of talent in a region. Kern County will not be able to achieve inclusive growth or decrease the number of struggling families without improving educational attainment through early college, dual enrollment, accelerated programs, certification programs, apprenticeships and traditional higher education.”

MEDIA CONTACT: Tom Uribes (tom@uribes.com or 559.348.3278 – text)

About the Kern grant

The Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative grant will support efforts that will improve student progress from high school to postsecondary education and ultimately into the workforce. As a result, Kern County residents and industry partners will benefit from new opportunities for upward economic mobility across the region. The focus of grant funding will be on first-generation college students, those from low-income families, and students of color who statistics shows have a lower completion of A–G coursework necessary for admission to the CSU and UC.

The Kern County Superintendent of Schools (KCSOS) was the lead grant applicant and will serve as the administrative agent for the Kern K-16 Regional Education Collaborative, which was proactively formed six months ago in anticipation of the release of this grant opportunity. The Collaborative includes representation from all 46 Kern County school districts, Kern Community College District, West Kern Community College District, CSU Bakersfield, UC Merced, UCLA, and the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC), Kern Economic Development Corporation, County of Kern, Better Bakersfield and Boundless Kern (B3K), and Economic Development/Industry Partners.

See:

CVHEC IN THE NEWS: CVHEC’s Master’s Upskilling Program (The Fresno Bee Ed Lab)

BY ASHLEIGH PANOO
The Fresno Bee Ed Lab

(JUNE 12, 2022) — By this summer, over 100 high school teachers will be eligible to teach dual enrollment courses across California’s central San Jaoquin Valley, thanks to a two- year pilot program aimed at creating equity between rural and urban schools.

The Upskilling Teachers’ Master’s Program Pathway started in the Fresno area and is funded by a little over $1.5 million from the Fresno-Madera K-16 Collaborative, paying for high school teachers to earn their master’s degrees to teach college classes at their campuses.

Three cohorts have gone through the program, with the first beginning in January 2021 and the last finishing up this June. Fifty-six math and 61 English teachers will have earned their master’s degrees.

The teachers are spread out across the Valley, in Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Kings, Merced, and Kern counties. Fresno Unified sent the most teachers into the program with 71, Clovis sent 24, Central, four, and Sanger, eight.

Teachers chose from either a streamlined master’s in English from National University or in math from Fresno Pacific University.

The offerings of English and math for the pilot program were intentional, said John Spevak, a former Merced College vice president. He now serves as a regional lead for the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium. The goal is for the master’s program students to teach college-level math and English at their schools.

“Oftentimes, the biggest hurdle for (high school) students advancing is to have their college-level English and math courses completed,” he told the Education Lab.

That issue spurred legislation such as AB 705 and 1705, which have cut remedial courses at colleges by placing students straight into college-level math and English to speed up their time to get a degree.

Spevak said getting those out of the way could pave an easier way through college.

“Oftentimes, those are the two biggest stumbling blocks for a young person to succeed in college anyway,” he said.

 

WHAT IS DUAL ENROLLMENT?

When a high school student takes a dual enrollment course, they earn community college credit upon passing, the same as if they had taken the actual course in college. Some students have taken enough to earn an associate degree by the time they graduate high school.

The central San Joaquin Valley is one of the largest regions in the state with the fewest number of college graduates, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. On average, adults with higher levels of educational attainment have higher annual earnings than those who never graduated from high school or went to college.

According to a recent Public Policy Institute of California report, dual enrollment has been steadily increasing throughout the state. More than 112,000 high school students from the class of 2020 had taken at least one class. That’s an increase of 54% from the 2015-2016 year, the report found.

Several studies point to dual enrollment as beneficial for students, helping them maintain high GPAs and enter and stay in college. Researchers have found dual enrollment especially benefits students from low socio-economic households, although the benefits may be weaker for those from affluent backgrounds.

Yet, there are racial and ethnic disparities, the PPIC report found. Although first- generation students tend to enroll in slightly more courses and earn more transferable units, Black and Latino students who take dual enrollment courses complete fewer transferable courses and have a lower GPA than white and Asian students.

Education leaders in the Valley realized that the most significant equity gap for dual enrollment lies between rural and urban schools, according to Ben Duran, executive director of Central Valley Higher Education Consortium.

“Dual enrollment is a way of creating equity, if you will, across the board,” Duran said.

“It allows a kid in a little tiny high school 30 miles from Fresno to be able to take the same courses as a kid from Bullard High School … because they can take it oftentimes on their own campuses.”

Schools understand there are benefits to offering college courses to their students, so there’s one problem the Master’s Upskilling Program seeks to solve: There aren’t enough qualified instructors to teach dual enrollment.

Rural schools especially often lack such opportunities.

Most working high school teachers don’t have a master’s degree, according to statistics from the California Department of Education. But rural school districts with large shares of English language learners and/or low-income students are the least likely to have teachers who have master’s degrees, at 32%. Urban districts are the most likely, at 48%.

To teach a college class, a person must have a master’s degree. That’s been the rule in California for more than 30 years.

It’s also tough to get college instructors out into rural areas, Spevak said. Instructors may not want to commute long distances or work on a high school schedule, according to the PPIC report.

“Principals and superintendents were telling us, ‘We’d love to do this, but we don’t have anybody on our staff with a master’s degree, and it’s hard for the college to send folks out here,’” Spevak said.

 

LIMITATIONS TO UPSKILLING PROGRAM

Most of the teachers have so far come from the largest urban schools. Many rural schools, such as Fowler, Washington Union, and Yosemite Unified, have only one teacher each in the program, although those schools do have smaller populations.

A larger limitation to the program’s goal is that no one can actually make the teachers teach dual enrollment when they’re done with the program. They can only hope they will, according to Spevak.

“There’s no way we could require that,” he said.

”There’s no guarantee that you will be hired because the college has to hire you as an adjunct instructor as well as you being a high school teacher. We didn’t want to tie the hands of the college or the high school teacher.”

Instead, they only ask graduates if they will consider teaching dual enrollment at their high school. Graduates will be paired with mentors who can lead them through the process of applying to teach through the State Center Community College District.

The first cohort wrapped up in December 2021, and none have begun teaching dual enrollment yet, according to Spevak, but as only one semester has passed, it’s likely too early for any of them to have started.

 

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY AND FPU

Spevak said National University and Fresno Pacific University were chosen because they offered the most direct path to graduation and could be accomplished within a year to a year and a half.

The program can be replicated in other places, but organizations should make sure the curriculum is a good fit for students’ goals, according to program director Christine Photinos, who taught several classes for the cohorts at National University.

“Many graduate English programs still focus primarily on literary studies, even though students who complete (this) program will in most cases be teaching primarily writing, or teaching across multiple English studies sub-fields, not just literature,” she said.

“If (students) are not seeing connections between their graduate studies and their primary professional commitments, persistence in the program is going to be a challenge.”

She said although the core requirements were the same as for the regular master’s program, some classes had to be streamlined for the cohort of students to stay together.

“For example, one of the literary studies requirements is a course on a single author,” she said. “Well… which author?”

“We ended up developing a course in which each student could choose their own author of focus—but within the context of a common content centered on the study of textual strategies.”

Getting teachers to commit to the big undertaking of earning a master’s degree while working is also an obstacle.

“These folks are teachers by day and students by night,” she told the Education Lab, and on top of it all, they have many other commitments, both professional and personal.”

 

K-16 COLLABORATIVE ON GOVERNOR’S RADAR

The funding for the program came from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office in 2020 and helped cover virtually all costs associated with earning a master’s degree, according to Fresno-Madera K-16 Collaborative director Kari Hammerstrom.

The grant funding has paid for whatever scholarships, discounts, or incentives don’t cover, leaving “little to no money out-of-pocket” for teachers to pay,” she said. Even books are sometimes covered.

Newsom’s office has been keeping regional collaboratives on the radar as the organizations aim to create partnerships between school districts and colleges to create pathways for students to earn degrees.

And Newsom just granted another $18.1 million to the Fresno-Madera and Tulare Kings Collaborative to use on projects such as expanding the master’s upskilling program.

“We have lots of positive feedback,” Hammerstrom said, “for an opportunity for a master’s program for teachers in ethnic studies, psychology, or some of the other A through G classes that could be taught in a dual enrollment capacity.”

See:

Fresno Bee EdLab story (June 12, 2022).

Fresno Bee video (June 12, 2022).

KGO Radio Podcast (June 15, 2022).

 

For CVHEC media inquiries: Tom Uribes – cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu (or text 559.348.3278).

BOARD NEWS: State Center Community College District Names New Fresno City College President

SCCCD MEDIA ADVISORY (May 3, 2022) — State Center Community College District (SCCCD) Board President, Nasreen Johnson, announced at its regular May 3, 2022 meeting, the appointment of Dr. Robert Pimentel to the position of Fresno City College (FCC) President. After conducting a national search, the Board voted to appoint Dr. Pimentel, effective July 1, 2022.

Dr. Robert Pimentel

“The Board of Trustees are grateful to the search committee whose commitment to the District’s values of academic excellence, diversity, equity and inclusion was evident throughout the process,” said Board President Johnson.

Dr. Pimentel is the vice president of educational services & institutional effectiveness at Fresno City College and will replace Dr. Marlon Hall who began serving as interim president on January 11, 2022, after President Dr. Carole Goldsmith was named State Center Community College District Chancellor.

Before joining FCC in 2018, Dr. Pimentel served at West Hills Community College District in key leadership positions for 11 years and as a classified staff member for nearly seven years. “I am honored to be selected to

lead California’s First Community College and one of the most equity minded institutions in the Central Valley. I am thrilled and energized to continue to serve the community of Fresno and work alongside faculty, staff, and administrators who are dedicated to the lives of our students,” stated Dr. Pimentel.

Dr. Pimentel’s contributions to FCC students and their communities include caring, consistent efforts in anti- racism, equity, and social justice, mentoring guided pathways initiatives with an equity framework, leadership in participatory governance redesign, institutional effectiveness through improved data collection and interpretation, prison and formerly incarcerated student education and expansion of workforce education and dual enrollment for our Valley high school students. As Vice President at FCC, Dr. Pimentel’s responsibilities included strategic enrollment management, Student Equity and Achievement (SEA) program, accreditation, grants development strategies and awards, institutional research and planning, career technical education, strategic planning, and budget management. Dr. Pimentel is an equity-minded leader in Fresno and surrounding rural communities of the Central Valley who is committed to finding permanent solutions that address the basic needs of community college students. He is committed to furthering student equity, diversity, and inclusion and building campus and community coalitions towards racial equity.

Dr. Pimentel is a product of the California Community College system and a first-generation college student, graduating from West Hills College Coalinga before transferring to California State University, Fresno, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in social work. He received a master’s degree in social work with an emphasis on mental health from California State University, Bakersfield, and a doctorate in educational leadership, higher education from California State University, Fresno.

SCCCD Chancellor Dr. Carole Goldsmith said, “Dr. Pimentel has a wealth of experience and I am looking forward to working with him in his new role. He has been highly successful as a vice president of Fresno City College and he enjoys tremendous support on the campus and in the District. He has been involved in a number of statewide initiatives and is known across the state for his work in Workforce Development, Enrollment Management, and Academic Research expertise. I am confident he will continue to accelerate the college’s mission to provide access to equity-centered, quality, innovative educational programs, and services.

“As part of our process, we heard from all college constituency groups and the community. I believe Dr. Pimentel’s experience in collaborative academic research will position us for a promising future. He has demonstrated his commitment to a culture of anti-racism, where respect and inquiry are valued, and has worked to foster student success as well as improve the economic, social, and cultural development of our students. We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to put forward a candidate with his expertise and knowledge of Fresno City College.”

Fresno City College enrolls approximately 24,000 students and offers curriculum for students seeking transfer to a four-year college or university, career preparation, or basic skills education. Fresno City College is a college of State Center Community College District.

CONTACT: Lucy Ruiz – Executive Director, SCCCD Public & Legislative Relations (559-243-7104)

MEMBER NEWS: Money’s Top 50 includes CVHEC Members Stanislaus State and Fresno State  

(May 25, 2022) — Two Central Valley Higher Education Consortium members were ranked in the Top 50 of Money’s 2022 Best Colleges list, the national magazine announced this month with Stanislaus State ranking No.10 and Fresno State ranking No. 17 for “Best College in the West.”

They were among 11 California State University campuses in the top 50 of the main list.

Stanislaus State is also ranked No. 19 in the nation on Money’s 2022 list of “Best Colleges in America, Ranked by Value” while Fresno State is ranked No. 29 in the magazine’s new 2022 Best Colleges list.  Fresno State also ranked No. 25 for Best Public Colleges .

Stanislaus also received points for its focus on teaching underrepresented populations and empowering the upward mobility of its students, who usually earn starting salaries that average nearly $54,000 a year after graduation.

This year, for the first time, Money separated its annual rankings into two lists: a main ranking of 623 colleges nationwide and a secondary ranking of the nation’s 48 most selective schools. Designed to help families look at the costs and payoffs of any university they consider, Money’s Best Colleges list highlights colleges that have a record of helping students graduate and launching them into jobs with above-average wages. One of Money’s main messages this year is that a college doesn’t need to be super selective to be a good investment.

The colleges and universities were ranked on 24 factors in quality, affordability and outcomes. Money made several changes to its rankings calculations this year, including removing Payscale earnings data and calculating earnings weighted by majors differently, which makes it difficult to compare a college’s performance this year with previous years.

 See:

 • FresnoStateNews.com press release: Fresno State makes the top 50 of Money’s 2022 Best Colleges list
• Stanislaus State press release: Stan State Ranks No. 19 in the Nation on MONEY Magazine’s Best Colleges List

 

CVHEC joins valley’s broadband development movement – SJVRB seeks response to RFQPP

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium has joined the movement for high-speed broadband ubiquitous deployment and universal adoption for the Valley’s eight-county region led by the San Joaquin Valley Regional Broadband Consortium which is now seeking additional partners through a Request for Qualifications for Prospective Partners (RFQPP) and a call for Expression of Interest (EOI).

SJVRBC ‘s mission is to deliver high-speed, affordable broadband (including both wireline and wireless networks), devices and digital literacy to Valley rural and urban residents, giving them greater access to commerce, healthcare, education and other municipal, state and federal services.

It is under the leadership of the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, and the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF), on a new joint effort — collectively called #SanJoaquinValleyNetwork — to seek State and federal funding for broadband infrastructure projects throughout the San Joaquin Valley.

Representing CVHEC on the SJVRBC are Dr. Benjamin Duran, executive director, and Angel Ramirez, operations manager.

Duran said that the broadband consortium work echoes the message conveyed in CVHEC’s video released a year ago,  “Pursuing the Last Mile: Broadband in the Central Valley.”

“This is a very important effort that aligns with CVHEC’s commitment to expanding broadband access as discussed at our recent Higher Education Policy and Legislative Summit,” said Duran. “The #SanJoaquinValleyNetwork is seeking public funding to deploy infrastructure and provide high-quality, affordable broadband service and digital literacy to educational institutions, students, residents, businesses, public agencies and tribes in the region.”

Approximately $70 billion in public funds will be available to accelerate broadband deployment and adoption through California’s Broadband Budget Bill (SB 156) and the Federal Infrastructure Bill (Broadband) so SJVRBC anticipates several competitive funding opportunities over the next three years to help build out broadband infrastructure and support adoption in the eight-county region.

The San Joaquin Valley Network Request For Qualifications for Prospective Partnerships (RFQPP), and information about submitting the Expression Of Interest by June 6 may be downloaded at: https://sanjoaquinvalleynetwork.org.

“Submitting an EOI is a strategic way to partner with like institutions, community-based organizations, tribal communities and broadband providers to this crucial technology to the most unserved and underserved in our communities,” said Dr. Frank Gornick, CETF SJVRBC Partnership project manager (and West Hills Community College president-emeritus who also served on the CVHEC Board of Directors during his WHCC presidency).

Some funding is likely to be available in Fiscal Year 2022 and the Request For Qualifications for Prospective Partnerships is the primary vehicle for the SJVRBC to engage with prospective partners — public, private, or non-profit entities willing to partner or collaborate — in pursuit of public financing in the future to improve broadband access to underserved and unserved households in the San Joaquin Valley consistent with the Map of Needs and Opportunities released recently by the California Department of Technology as part of its recommended design for the $3.25 billion statewide broadband network Gov. Gavin Newsom approved last summer.

That proposal, drafted by GoldenStateNet, the organization tasked with administering the network, outlines 8,700 new miles of “middle-mile” fiber optic cable to connect regions with poor internet access. It provides guidance on how to optimize routes of new fiber builds and recommends “joint build partnerships” to reduce costs.

For SJVRB’s request, prospective partners may include, but are not limited to: Internet Service Providers (ISPs, including wireless ISPs or WISPs); K-12 school districts; higher education institutions (California Community Colleges, California State Universities, University of California); tribal governments; counties; cities; library districts; water districts; health care systems and facilities; land-use development corporations; community-based organizations (CBOs); and other entities that will adhere to applicable statutes which regulate California contractors.

In addition, SJVRBC will identify entities interested in co-sponsoring competitive grant applications to obtain public funding to deploy infrastructure and provide ubiquitous broadband service to the targeted populations in the San Joaquin Valley as identified on the Map of Needs and Opportunities.

All interested parties should submit the completed EOI in PDF by 5 p.m. PST June 6, 2022 via email to frankgornick@sanjoaquinvalleynetwork.org.

 

See San Joaquin Valley Regional Broadband Consortium – PRIMER

Recommended design for the $3.25 billion statewide broadband network.

CVHEC video:  “Pursuing the Last Mile: Broadband in the Central Valley.”[/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/uWIt8fWG1RE” align=”center” title=”Pursuing the Last Mile: Broadband in the Central Valley”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

BOARD NEWS: UCSF-Fresno becomes CVHEC’s 30th institution of higher education member

(UPDATE May 25, 2022) — The University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine Fresno regional campus  is the 30th institution of higher education to join the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium.

UCSF Fresno’s application for membership was formally accepted by the CVHEC Board of Directors at its quarterly meeting May 5 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Fresno as part of the annual CVHEC Higher Education Policy and Legislative Summit.

Dr. Michael W. Peterson

Michael W. Peterson, MD/MACP, associate dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and Research at the UCSF Fresno Campus, was seated on the consortium board which is made up of the presidents and chancellors of 30 colleges and universities in the nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern counties.

Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director, said the consortium is delighted to welcome Dr. Peterson onto the board representing UCSF Fresno as one of two medical schools holding membership.

“The success of the consortium the past two decades and its growth to 30 members demonstrate the capable leadership of the valley’s college and university chief executives working together as one voice for the benefit of all our residents seeking a higher education,” Duran said. “UCSF Fresno will strengthen that voice and service to our region.”

The non-profit CVHEC, which was incorporated in November 2002 with 23 member institutions under founding president, Dr. John Welty, now president-emeritus of Fresno State, observed its 20th anniversary at the summit to kick off a year-long observance of the milestone.

The consortium provides a unified voice to address the Central Valley’s higher education needs relevant to CVHEC’s mission: increase access, persistence and certificate and degree completions for residents of the region.

UCSF Fresno expressed their support of this concept in its letter of application co-signed by Dr. Peterson and Lori Weichenthal, MD, FACEP who is  UCSF Fresno associate dean of Graduate Medical Education and Clinical Affairs: “We hope to be included in the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium so that we may join you in speaking with one voice on increasing educational attainment and advocating for policy issues that affect our region.”

Established in 1975, UCSF Fresno is focused on improving health in California’s San Joaquin Valley and central California through excellence in teaching and patient care, innovative clinical research and community partnerships. Each year, UCSF Fresno trains more than 300 physicians and 300 rotating medical students, including those in the new UCSF San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education (SJV PRIME).

“Roughly 50% of the physicians trained at UCSF Fresno stay in the Valley to provide UCSF care,” Peterson said.

“As a regional campus of the consistently top-ranked UCSF School of Medicine, we look forward to partnering with consortium member institutions to increase awareness, preparedness and matriculation of students from the Valley into medical school and other health professional schools with the goal of seeing them graduate and ultimately, serve our region.”

Presently, UCSF Fresno partners with its sister campus UC Merced, also a consortium member, in the SJV PRIME and is gearing up for SJV PRIME+, a BS-to-MD program.

In addition, the medical school partners with CVHEC-member Fresno State on various programs, including research and pathway programs aimed at providing undergraduate students with experiences that foster interest and preparedness for careers in medicine.

UCSF Fresno also helps prepare middle, high school and college students for careers in health and medicine through a variety of pathway programs.

Peterson said pathways in the Valley from high schools, to community colleges, to four-year universities, to medical school, and through residency are desperately needed to help prepare, recruit, train, and retain future health care professionals from underrepresented racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds within the region.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion are at the very heart of UCSF,” Peterson wrote. “Equitable and inclusive environments are essential to effective learning, high-quality patient care and cutting-edge research.”

 

CVHEC BOARD ACTION – MAY 5, 2022

(May 5, 2022) — The University of California San Francisco – Fresno Campus became the 30th institution of higher education to join the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium today.

UCSF’s application for membership was formally accepted by the CVHEC Board of Directors at its quarterly meeting this afternoon at the DoubleTree Hotel in Fresno, the first in-person meeting of the board since the pandemic shutdown two years ago.

Michael W. Peterson, MD/MACP, associate dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and Research at the UCSF-Fresno Campus, was seated on the board which is made up of the presidents and chancellors of now 30 colleges and universities in the nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern counties.

Today’s board meeting precedes resumption of the annual CVHEC Higher Education Policy and Legislative Summit that will be held tomorrow (May 6) also at the DoubleTree from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. with the theme “Post Pandemic World: Recovering with Equity and Inclusion in the Central Valley.”

 

– See the CVHEC Summit Event Website for the agenda and breakdown of panels.

– Original summit press release: CVHEC Founder Welty Returns for Summit and 20th Anniversary

– For more summit details: CVHEC April e-Newsletter. 

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Tom Uribes 559.348.3278 (tom@uribes.com)

CCO Excellence in Placement Awards Honor CVHEC members

The Campaign for College Opportunity has honored seven Central Valley Higher Education Consortium member institutions with its 2022 Excellence in Placement Awards in several categories.

“These colleges have championed student success by implementing equitable course placement practices that give community college students the opportunity to take college-level courses with the support,” the CCO announced recently.

The Campaign for College Opportunity is focused on a single mission: working to ensure all Californians have an equal opportunity to attend and succeed in college in order to build a vibrant workforce, economy and democracy.

CVHEC member honorees in the Campaign for College Opportunity statewide awards are:

 

Campuswide Transfer-Level English Enrollment for successfully supporting 100 percent of their students to enroll directly into transfer level English coursework:

• Clovis Community College
• Columbia College
• West Hills-Coalinga College

 

• Campuswide Transfer-Level Math Enrollment for successfully supporting 100percent of their students to enroll directly into transfer level Math coursework.

• Porterville College

 

Equity Distinction: Latinx Transfer-Level English Enrollment for successfully supporting with distinction 100 percent of their Latinx students to enroll directly into transfer level English coursework.

• Clovis Community College
• West Hills-Coalinga Community College
• Columbia College

 

Equity Distinction: Black Transfer-Level English Enrollment for successfully supporting with distinction 100 percent of their Black students to enroll directly into transfer level English coursework.

• Clovis Community College
• College of the Sequoias
• Reedley College
• Bakersfield College
• Cerro Coso College

 

Equity Distinction: Latinx Transfer-Level Math Enrollment for supporting with distinction Latinx student enrollment in transfer-level math, ensuring 100 percent of their Latinx students enroll directly into transfer-level Math coursework.

• Porterville College

 

Equity Distinction: Latinx Transfer-Level Math Throughput for successfully supporting with distinction at least 60 percent of their Latinx students who enrolled in a transfer-level Math course to successfully complete it within 1 year of their initial enrollment.

• West Hills-Coalinga

 

Equity Distinction: Black Transfer-Level Math Enrollment for successfully supporting with distinction 100 percent of their Black students to enroll directly into transfer- level Math coursework.

• College of the Sequoias

 

Equity Distinction: Black Transfer-Level Math Throughput for successfully supporting with distinction at least 60 percent of their Black students who enrolled in a transfer-level Math course to successfully complete it within 1 year of their initial enrollment.

• College of the Sequoias
• Cerro Coso College

 

See the full list of  CCO honorees.

Summit News: Attendees Will Hear the Voice of Student Experiences

Top: Stephen Kodur, Nataly Frias and Veronica Mendez Garcia. Bottom: Alicia Bias, Brianna Zatarain and Isaac Bates.

CVHEC’s ‘Video Stars’ Make Appearance at Summit May 6

A special feature of the 2022 CVHEC Summit will be participation by five students who were featured in two Central Valley Higher Education Consortium videos in the past year.

The Student Experiences Panel will feature four students and one alumnus including Stephen Kodur, a Reedley College Class of 2021 graduate who served as president of the California Community College Student Senate last year and is now on CCCSS staff as a community organizer, and Veronica Mendez Garcia, current student body president of Fresno Pacific University.

Both were featured in CVHEC’s broadband access video released last year highlighting disparity issues that the pandemic exposed. They will discuss those experiences as well as their collegiate experience in general.

Three other student panelists were also featured in a CVHEC video on dual enrollment that was released last month:  Nataly Frias, a current Fresno State junior who earned two associate degrees at age 17 even before receiving her Turlock High School diploma last June; and two current high school students taking dual enrollment classes, Alicia Bias of Washington Union High School who is also enrolled in Fresno City College courses and Isaac Bates of Corcoran High School who is enrolled in College of Sequoias courses.

Also participating will be Brianna Zatarain who completed five dual enrollment courses through Bakersfield College while attending Robert F. Kennedy High School in Delano where she resides. She is now completing  requirements for a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies at California State University, Bakersfield where the degree will be conferred in May before beginning her credential program at University of La Verne (Bakersfield) in the fall. Brianna currently works as a teacher’s aide in a McFarland elementary school with her sights set on a career as an educator.

See:

CVHEC broadband video

CVHEC broadband video press release

ABC30-Fresno story on CVHEC broadband video

CVHEC Dual Enrollment Video

KSEE24 Central Valley Today on CVHEC Dual Enrollment Video

CVHEC Director’s Message — Summit ‘Post Pandemic World: Recovering with Equity and Inclusion’

Greetings and welcome to our April CVHEC e-newsletter,

This is a special issue in that we highlight your first live Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Higher Education Policy and Legislative Summit (May 5-6) in two years and inviting you to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the founding of the CVHEC.

This year’s summit with the theme, “The Post Pandemic World: Recovering with Equity and Inclusion in the Central Valley,” will focus on the good work the members of the consortium have been doing on their campus in spite of the limitations imposed on us all by the pandemic.

As the theme indicates, the conditions brought on by the shutdown of campuses due to the COVID19 virus highlighted some inequalities on our campuses that demanded attention.  In the post pandemic world, our college and university campuses will be much more attentive and responsive to creating environments that take into account, equity, inclusion, diversity and social justice.  If you will be joining us, we know you will find value in the panels on the program.

We also invite you to join us as we celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the founding of CVHEC in 2022.  A special bonus for the day is the attendance of Dr. John Welty, President-Emeritus of California State University, Fresno and the founder of the Consortium.  He will be joined by a couple of other founding members to discuss the origins and the issues that led to the establishment of CVHEC.

We hope you enjoy this issue of our newsletter and we look forward to seeing those of you who are able to join us May 5-6 at the summit (do come in for our Cinco de Mayo Reception at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday).

See: summit story and Dr. Welty.

New FCC Science Building Groundbreaking

Apr 13, 2022 — The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Science Building at Fresno City College was held  April 21  at the site near Weldon and Blackstone avenues. The new structure will serve as the new “front door” to the campus.

Construction on the $87 million project is underway and should be completed mid-2024 with occupancy expected in the fall.  The new Science Building replaces the old one built on the FCC campus in 1973.  Funding consists of $79 million from the 2016 Measure C facilities bond, $5 million from Fresno Unified School District, and $3 million from the FCC budget.

The 87,000 square foot building is three levels featuring modern labs across the science disciplines that include biology, chemistry, engineering, geology, math, and physics.  Tutoring spaces and flexible study areas will be available for students.

“The new Science Building will be a signature building for California’s first college and features a strong architectural link to the college’s historical past while offering students a bright future.  Professionals in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields are undeniably in high demand. This new building has been thoughtfully designed to serve the educational needs of our students who are seeking education in STEM fields,” said Dr. Carole Goldsmith, chancellor of the State Center Community College District.

In addition to the Math, Science and Engineering Division it will also be home to Design Science Middle College High School, continuing a great partnership with Fresno Unified School District. Design Science Middle College High School offers a dual enrollment program that gives students the possibility to earn a high school diploma and an associate degree at the same time.

“Congratulations to Fresno City College on the construction of your new science building. We are grateful for our dual enrollment partnership with you and we know that our Design Science High School students will thrive here. Thank you for your commitment in helping our students achieve their greatest potential,” said Bob Nelson, Fresno Unified School District Superintendent.

The new Science Building, designed by Lionakis Architects and being built by Harris Construction, is one of five building projects by Fresno City College. Other construction projects are a new parking structure across the street from the Science Building, a new Child Development Center adjacent to the building and off campus sites, the West Fresno Center on Church Avenue and the First Responders Center at North and Willow avenues.

“The Fresno City College groundbreaking is another demonstration of our commitment to the voters of Measure C.  This new college facility will reshape the future of many generations to come,” added Dr. Goldsmith.

Those who wish to attend the Ground Breaking Ceremony in-person are asked to RSVP on Eventbrite

See the FCC press release.

Contact Us

  • cvhecinfo@mail.fresnostate.edu

  • 559.278.0576

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