Giving children of farmworkers an education like that offered to children of doctors

Giving children of farmworkers an education like that offered to children of doctors

BY BENJAMIN DURAN

I grew up in a family of migrant farmworkers, working in the Central Valley fields with my parents and seven brothers and sisters. But since elementary school, I only ever wanted to be a teacher. My own teachers helped make this dream a reality. They believed in my potential and paved the way for me to become an educator and eventually Merced College president. They also inspired my lifelong mission to advance educational equity.

I’m heartened that a new report, Getting There, shows that changes underway in the Central Valley will help make sure children of doctors and children of farmworkers have the same shot at succeeding at a community college.

Getting There examines colleges’ progress in implementing Assembly Bill 705, a law that addresses the poor outcomes and inequities of traditional remediation. In the past, most California community college students were required to take remedial courses based on their performance on a standardized placement exam, and just 18 percent of students would complete a transferable, college-level math course in a year. Among students required to take remedial English or math, only 41 percent would transfer or complete a degree in six years, compared to 70 percent of students not required to take those classes.

AB 705 is overhauling these awful statistics because colleges must now employ multiple measures instead of a standardized exam, so as to place students into courses that give them the best chance of completing the gateway English and math courses required for a bachelor’s degree. The law is already doing more to close the achievement gap and bring equity to higher education than any public policy I’ve seen in decades, but to achieve its promise, colleges must implement AB 705 in the fullest possible spirit of the law.

That’s because students’ initial placement in English and math is the largest driver of racial achievement gaps in college completion. It is estimated to account for 50 to 60 percent of equity gaps in students’ completion of long-term goals like earning a degree, completing a certificate program, or transferring to a four-year university.

Among the three regions studied in Getting There, the Central Valley has the highest proportion of colleges deemed “strong implementers” of AB 705, meaning that remedial classes make up less than 10 percent of our introductory English and math offerings. Porterville College is offering 100% transfer-level classes in both English and math. At Reedley College, just 2 percent of introductory English and math offerings are below that level. West Hills, Lemoore and College of the Sequoias eliminated remedial English and are close to doing the same with math.

This is a big change from two years ago, when AB 705 was signed into law. In fall 2017, almost half of the region’s introductory English classes were remedial, with college composition comprising only 52 percent of introductory reading and writing courses. Fast forward to today, and that number has jumped to 93 percent.

These are incredible gains, but there’s more to do.

Central Valley colleges are still offering too many remedial courses, especially in math. Non-transferable courses make up 24 percent of introductory math across the region, and at a couple of colleges, they make up more than 40 percent of the schedule.

This matters — research shows ALL students are more likely to complete their coursework when they enroll directly into college-level courses than when they start in remediation. Plus, when colleges put their limited resources into maintaining so many remedial classes, there won’t be enough seats in transfer-level classes for the students who are legally entitled to take them.

Instead of continuing to hang onto ineffective remedial classes, Central Valley colleges need to continue their efforts to ensure that their course schedules meet the AB 705 standard of maximizing student completion. If we can’t identify any students who actually benefit from taking remedial classes, we shouldn’t be using our limited public dollars to offer them.

When we set high expectations for students, students will meet them. When we set low expectations, students will meet those, too. As a young boy, I was able to make my dreams come true because people believed in me enough to open the doors of opportunity. Let’s put our faith in our students’ capacity on full display — let’s go all-in on AB 705, and offer classes that give students the best chance of completing their degree and reaching their goals in a timely manner.

Dr. Benjamin Duran is the executive director of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, and president emeritus of Merced College.

 

Read Full Report Here | CAP Report v8

 

The original post can be found at https://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/article235281187.html

Getting There: Are California Community Colleges Maximizing Student Completion of Transfer-Level Math and English?

Getting There: Are California Community Colleges Maximizing Student Completion of Transfer-Level Math and English?

September 2019

A new law, Assembly Bill 705 (Irwin), is driving dramatic changes in how California Community Colleges place students into English and math courses. Beginning in fall 2019, AB 705 requires the colleges to use students’ high school grades as the primary means of placement; restricts colleges from denying students access to transferable, college-level courses; and gives students the right to begin in courses where they have the best chance of completing the English and math requirements for a bachelor’s degree.

This report—a collaboration of the Campaign for College Opportunity and the California Acceleration Project—analyzes early AB 705 implementation efforts at 47 community colleges in the Central Valley, the Inland Empire, and greater Los Angeles. We examine fall course schedules and websites to identify bright spots and problems in implementation, with particular focus on the extent to which college course offerings are aligned with the AB 705 standard of “maximizing” student completion of transfer-level math and English courses.

Read Full Report Here | CAP Report v8

 

The original post can be found at https://accelerationproject.org/Publications/ctl/ArticleView/mid/654/articleId/76/Getting-There-Are-California-Community-Colleges-Maximizing-Student-Completion-of-Transfer-Level-Math-and-English

 

2020 Project: UC Merced celebrates opening of two new campus research buildings

2020 Project: UC Merced celebrates opening of two new campus research buildings

 

UC Merced celebrated the completion of the second phase of the university’s $1.33 billion 2020 project on Wednesday night.

The second phase included two laboratories, a loading dock and a recreation field.

The project also included a research modular server near the Central Plant that will enable electronic storage of research, according to UC Merced’s website.

People were able to tour the new Arts and Computational Sciences, which includes a lecture hall that can seat 290 students and contains a 15-by-50 feet projection screen. The new building also houses a new dance studio.

Tours were also available of the new Sustainability Research and Engineering Building, which contains 31 dry labs, 25 wet labs, an academic machine shop, a maker space, and chemical stockroom.

The new structures will be available when classes start on Aug. 28.

“We’re well on our way to constructing in four years what it took other campuses a generation to build,” said outgoing UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland. “It’s always been in UC Merced’s DNA, but once again we’ve shown that UC Merced is a model of innovation.”

The first phase of the 2020 project, which included a dining hall and two student housing buildings was completed last year.

Among the speakers on hand to celebrate UC Merced’s latest additions were Merced Mayor Mike Murphy and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Merced.

“The 2020 project accelerated the growth and opportunity for higher education and research in Merced, the Central Valley and the state of California,” Murphy said. “Merced is a city on the rise, Merced County is a county on the rise, and the Central Valley is a region on the rise in large part because of the strength, presence and the growth of UC Merced.

“This is Chancellor Leland’s vision to bring a modern educational experience to life for a new era of students.”

Costa also thanked Leland’s leadership for the past eight years.

“We are so, so proud of this institution of learning,” Costa said. “One can only imagine the lasting impacts it will have, not just to our Valley, to our state, but to the nation and the world. For this is where leaders come to be educated that will later on go and make their mark.”

Leland said all the construction has been completed on time and on budget.

The third phase of construction has already started. It’s expected to include more laboratories, housing, an expansion of the Early Childhood Education Center, a conference center, a competitive swimming pool, a wellness center, recreational fields and a space for enrollment and academic leadership.

The third phase is expected to be completed by Fall 2020.

“The focus will necessarily shift from the buildings we have now constructed to the research and learning that will happen in these buildings,” Leland said. “Thereby further enhancing our academic and research stature, increasing our graduation rates, and providing even more access and opportunity to California’s emerging citizenry, many of whom are low income, underrepresented and first-generation students.”

“UC Merced keeps growing and keeps getting better,” Murphy added. “This is a milestone for the university and the city of Merced. We can thank the leadership of Dorothy Leland for that.”

 

Original post can be found at https://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/article234024432.html

Porterville College president happy to be back in Central Valley where she achieved her American dream

Porterville College president happy to be back in Central Valley where she achieved her American dream

Being a college president was never a position Claudia Habib thought she would fill. Her career, much like her life, has been an evolution with no specific end position or goal in mind.

She came to the United States from Colombia with no English under her belt, and to make ends meet, she cleaned homes and offices.

Three decades later, she is Porterville College’s newest president.

“I’m in a place 30 years ago I never dreamed of,” she said.

When she first arrived to the United States, she landed in the Central Valley. Through community college, she learned how to speak English, and she earned a bachelor’s degree in interior design from Fresno State.

One of the best parts of her newest position, which she officially assumed on Monday, has been being back in the area where it all started.

“Being an immigrant who landed here where I achieved my American dream, I’m grateful for that, to be able to serve this community,” she said.

She was a designer for eight years, but decided to switch to education. She taught for 12 years and saw, through interactions with students, how her own story helped her better understand what many were going through.

“You go through that and think it’s your life and luck, but 10 years later, seeing students having similar challenges and how I could help them, that’s what led me to look at an administrative position,” she said. “It’s been an evolution.”

She later earned a master’s degree in instructional technology from National University and an Ed.D. in education and leadership from Fresno State.

She has served as interim dean of instruction of fine, performing and communication arts at Fresno City College, as well as interim dean of instruction of agriculture/natural resources, manufacturing and business and vice president of student services at Reedley College.

Most recently, she was the vice president of Madera and Oakhurst Community College Centers in Madera. With each administrative role she has taken on, she said she learned how to make a difference in students’ lives even though she was not in the classroom.

In her newest role, her main priority is to listen, learn about the campus as much as she can and preserve its longstanding legacy. She also understands budget constraints may lead to some changes.

“We’re always looking at ways to better our students, and we’ll tackle that with our talented faculty and staff. My job is to support those efforts and advocate for those students,” she said. “Navigating the budget constraints is something we do together as a district and that we don’t sacrifice the services we provide to students. I’m here not to change for change sake, but observing and learning the culture.”

She is looking forward to seeing the completion of several Measure J construction projects taking place on campus and higher enrollment numbers in coming years. This past school year saw its largest graduating class yet with 1,001 degrees handed out. In 2018, there were 725.

Working with the other Kern Community College District campus presidents — Bakersfield College’s Sonya Christian and Cerro Coso Community College’s Jill Board — also is a perk. “They’re doing great things,” she said.

Though she herself never thought she would be a president, her colleagues say otherwise.

“She’s very hardworking, she’s very dedicated to the community and students. Many times it would be 8:30 or 9 p.m. and she was just leaving to go home,” said Monica Armenta, Habib’s executive assistant at Madera. “When we were together at Fresno, I told her that she would probably be president at Fresno City.”

“When I found out she was going to interview, I knew for sure they were taking her away from us. We lost her,” she added.

But perhaps her biggest advantage is that she recognizes what programs and resources students need.

“Sometimes we forget that for immigrants, they’re leaving behind their country, family, friends and part of their heart. It’s a difficult decision,” she said. “I am respectful of the practices that need to take place, but we need to approach our work with passion and humanity.”

Habib succeeds former President Rosa Flores Carlson, who retired in spring 2018, and interim President Bill Henry, who retired in June.

 

Original Post can be found at :https://www.bakersfield.com/news/porterville-college-president-happy-to-be-back-in-central-valley/article_a0f20810-a271-11e9-9b64-8b10b414af07.html

Preparing the Way for a Central Valley Renaissance

JUNE 04, 2019 BY STUART VAN HORN, ED.D.

Preparing the Way for a Central Valley Renaissance

Recently, Governor Newsom announced his new “Regions Rise Together” initiative. Launched in partnership with California Forward and the California Economic Summit, this initiative is in recognition of the fact that the substantial economic and job growth that the state has experienced since 2010 has been concentrated in the state’s coastal areas and has largely passed over the state’s inland regions.

In fact, by the Governor’s own calculations, residents of California’s inland regions have seen their per capita income drop dramatically while 70% of job growth in the state during this same period has occurred in the state’s coastal regions. With the Regions Rise Together initiative, Governor Newsom intends on turning his “California for All” slogan into a strategy to design a comprehensive economic plan that will ensure sustainable and inclusive growth across the state and benefit all parts of California.

The announcement of the Governor’s new initiative is welcome news for those of us who live and work in the Central Valley. West Hills Community College District covers nearly 3,400 square miles of Central California, primarily in the western portions of Fresno and Kings Counties. The District serves over 8,000 students with two accredited colleges: West Hills College Coalinga and West Hills College Lemoore. In addition to its main campus location in Coalinga, West Hills College Coalinga also operates the North District Center in Firebaugh, and the Farm of the Future located at the north end of Coalinga. We are very proud of our students and our graduates and we have an 87-year history of serving students in efficient, innovative practices such as Prior Learning Assessment that promote student success and completion.

We also know well that our students face more social, economic, and structural obstacles to student success. Many of the students that we serve are first generation college students that must balance work and family obligations with their educational goals. They are hindered by the region’s higher unemployment rates, fewer jobs, and one of the highest poverty rates in the country. While Fresno County is California’s single most productive agricultural region and one of the most productive in the world (providing more than half of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States), Census data show that it is also the poorest metro area in the state and the second most impoverished region in the nation.

This data also show that Valley areas (Fresno, Modesto and Bakersfield-Delano) are among the top five U.S. regions with the highest percentage of residents living below the poverty line (one of every four). In Fresno County, median income fell from $46,479 to $42,807 during the last Census period while unemployment rose to 16 percent. In addition, food stamp use climbed to nearly 18 percent.

Beyond these economic statistics, our students also suffer from the lack of broadband internet in much of rural Fresno County. This broadband inequity makes distance education impossible, severely limits tele-health and tele-medicine opportunities, and significantly hinders educational attainment and economic growth in the region. The inequity of broadband access is a key reason why poor communities stay poor, chronic illness manifests, and social mobility is stunted. This fact is borne out by statistics. Our district has 12% of the state’s population but only 6% of the state’s bachelor’s degree holders. In addition, only 11% of the population ages 25 and above possess an associate’s degree or higher. This compares to 41% statewide.

West Hills is not intimated by these statistics. We are working every day to close these achievement gaps and increase educational attainment in our region. We offer Career Technical Educational programs that build a skilled workforce for our regional employers. We assist our students financially through our President’s Scholars program and by offering free Open Educational Resources (OER) textbooks. And we are helping eliminate the broadband inequity and ensure that reliable, high-speed broadband service is available in our region by ensuring that broadband infrastructure is built throughout the West Side and by raising funds to augment the monthly internet subscription fees of our student-led households.

The Governor’s initiative promises to build on existing locally driven initiatives in our state’s diverse regions while also leveraging the investments and policy priorities of the state. West Hills looks forward to representing our students’ and our communities’ needs in this conversation and working toward a future in which educational attainment soars, infrastructure supports growth, skills gaps are eliminated, and the quality of life increases for all residents in Fresno County.

Stuart Van Horn is chancellor of the West Hills Community College District.

 

Original post can be found at https://caeconomy.org/reporting/entry/preparing-the-way-for-a-central-valley-renaissance

COMMUNITY VOICES: BC, CSUB positioning Kern County students for decades to come

July 5, 2017

California needs 1.1 million more workers with bachelor’s degrees by 2030 to keep up with economic demand, PPIC research has found. Three regions will play an especially critical role in addressing this challenge: Los Angeles County, the Inland Empire, and the San Joaquin Valley.

Improving college enrollment and graduation rates in these regions could help close more than half of this projected statewide skills gap, according to a new PPIC report, Meeting California’s Need for College Graduates: A Regional Perspective. It analyzes the challenges ahead and recommends ways to meet them. At a Sacramento event, report coauthor Kevin Cook summarized the findings and a panel of experts described promising initiatives already underway in these regions. Report coauthor Hans Johnson, director of the PPIC Higher Education Center, moderated the panel discussion.

Panelist Benjamin Duran, executive director of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, said his group has created a partnership of public and private colleges and universities, as well as community college districts, from Kern through San Joaquin Counties. One of the consortium’s projects involves improving remedial education, which has traditionally consisted of non-transferable classes that delay—and all too often end—students’ college careers. Under the newer approach championed by the consortium, students deemed underprepared for college work are able to enroll in college-level courses right away but also get supplementary support.

The Central Valley consortium is also working to encourage more students—particularly those in the community colleges—to take 15 units per semester or 30 per year so that more of them graduate on time. “When you’re able to go to school full time, the research is showing that you’re far less likely to drop out—you’re going to finish quicker,” Duran said.

Alma Salazar, senior vice president of the Center for Education Excellence and Talent Development at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said, “We do what all great organizations do—we take someone else’s idea and try to make it better.” The result, she said, is the L.A. Compact, modeled after an effort in Boston. It is a collaboration among area organizations, educational institutions, unions, and local government leaders. The focus is on three goals:

  • All students graduate from high school;
  • All students have access to and are prepared for success in college; and
  • All students have access to pathways to sustainable jobs and careers.

Ken O’Donnell, associate vice president of the Student Success Program Integration and Assessment at California State University, Dominguez Hills, talked about his campus’s success in improving its six-year graduation rate from about 30% to 42% in a few years. O’Donnell echoed the PPIC report, which finds that improving success rates for those already in college will have the greatest impact on the statewide skills gap. “You’ve already improved capacity without adding a single additional seat,” he said.

Original post can be found at:

https://www.ppic.org/blog/regional-action-boost-college-success/

COMMUNITY VOICES: BC, CSUB positioning Kern County students for decades to come

Sonya Christian and Lynnette Zelezny

January 20, 2019

Bakersfield is home to two major institutions of higher education — Bakersfield College and Cal State Bakersfield. Each has a rich history and tradition of serving students and meeting the needs of the Bakersfield community. Since opening its doors to 13 students in 1913, BC has grown to serve more than 33,000 students annually. And since its founding in 1965, CSUB has grown to serve more than 10,000 students annually, with more than 70 percent of its 50,000 graduates remaining and working in the Central Valley. Though each institution has a different focus, both share a common goal: to position Kern County students for success that will advance the economic vitality and the health of our community.

The challenge is clear, however. According to data reported by the California Department of Education, Kern County’s educational attainment rates are below state averages, with adults over 25 years of age earning bachelor’s degrees at half the rate statewide, and in some surrounding rural communities, rates drop to below 2 percent.

And yet, as presidents of your community college and state university in Bakersfield, we believe that we are living in the best of times for higher education serving the Bakersfield community.

We have statewide support

At the state level, each of our systems are seeing major reforms designed to advance timely completion. The CSU’s ambitious Graduation Initiative 2025 aims to increase graduation rates, while the community college system is implementing a new funding formula that incentivizes completion, particularly of the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT). Senate Bill 1440 legislation guarantees students who complete an ADT at BC can transfer with 60 credits to a CSU with junior-level status. These reforms have positioned each college to maximize the dollars that flow to our community from Sacramento.

We have an award-winning collaborative model

After launching the Kern Promise and later the Finish in 4 project with fully-mapped four-year transfer programs from BC to CSUB, both have received statewide accolades and secured additional funding to strengthen our partnership. In December 2017, CSUB earned recognition as a transfer champion because of the increase of the ADT degree holders it was enrolling and graduating, most of whom are BC ADTs. In September 2018, Bakersfield College earned the California Community College Chancellor’s Student Success award for our work with CSUB on transfer pathways. As a result of that collaboration, CSUB also has received national recognition for the social mobility of its graduates and its quality education at an affordable price.

We have local support

Just last year we received an outpouring of support from business and industry leaders, community leaders and political leaders for the co-location of a BC facility on the CSUB campus. These letters were publicly presented to the Kern Community College Board of Trustees at its December 2018 meeting.

Now is the right time to implement our bold vision for a BC-CSUB co-location.

A co-location model is a smart move for our students and our community. By creating the conditions for BC students to enroll in BC courses on the CSUB campus, we will streamline transfer pathways and create efficiencies that result in savings for the student and the taxpayer. Imagine 1,000 students per term each take one less three-unit course to earn their degree due to lower waitlists, less wandering through non-degree-applicable courses and a clearer focus on their end goals. That savings equates to $370 per student, or $370,000 per term for those 1,000 students. Over a 20-year period, that’s a savings of $14.8 million.

A co-location model is a model of opportunity for leadership among faculty, staff and students to become a model of quality education for the state and for the nation. This will be a model through which students learn the 21st century skills of creativity, innovation and problem-solving that will serve them well in our quickly-evolving, automated work. These tangible skills will serve them well as we diversify the industry base we attract to our region.

This partnership is essential to make the San Joaquin Valley an economically booming, vibrant community. By expanding educational opportunities and focusing on completion of the baccalaureate, we will bring communities out of poverty to engage in active citizenship and lead healthy, productive lives.

It is a great time to be in Bakersfield.

Sonya Christian, Ph.D., is starting her sixth year as Bakersfield College’s 10th president. Lynnette Zelezny, Ph.D., in July 2018 began her tenure as Cal State Bakersfield’s fifth president. Christian can be reached at president@bakersfieldcollege.edu, and Zelezny can be reached at 661-654-2241.

Original post can be found at:

https://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/community-voices-bc-csub-positioning-kern-county-students-for-decades/article_a5d16c62-185c-11e9-842b-331edcf7537d.html

UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland grows her young campus

UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland presides over the University of California’s newest, smallest and most diverse campus. More than half of her 8,000 students are low-income and underrepresented minorities; nearly three-fourths are the first in their families to attend college. This year, in U.S. News and World Report’s rankings of public universities, those students helped the campus climb 18 spots, to No. 2, for surpassing expected graduation rates.

Leland recently spoke with The Times about her changing campus.

Your rankings climbed so much. How did you do it?

I was thrilled. We’re only 13 years old. We’re building this plane as we’re flying it. People always say, `Well, their graduation rates are lower than the rest of the UCs,’ but most of our students are poor, they’re first generation, minority. If you look at how those students are predicted to do, we’re 16 points higher than predicted.

We’re just beginning to put into place practices that have been shown nationally to be successful for student retention and student graduation. In the last couple of years, we’ve had writing labs, we’ve had math tutoring labs. This year we’re creating STEM residential learning communities so students can come in as freshmen and really get a lot of extra support at living-learning communities. There are national studies that show that feelings of attachment to a campus are a retention boost. Many of our students just feel it’s a vibrant community. They feel comfortable. They feel as if their cultures are represented. I think that helps.

How did you score so well for teaching quality among public universities?

Research universities can have the reputation for not caring about undergraduate students — and in fact, historically for a long time they were a second thought. But we got to start over right from the beginning. We try to hire for people that really want to work with our students because of who they are. There’s no research university in the nation that, over time, has more capability to prove that you can be a high-powered research university and have strong commitments to diversity. So that’s pretty special.

UC has started studying the possibility of dropping the SAT and ACT requirements. Would you welcome this?

I would. The tests are biased against the kinds of students Merced is known for accepting. The trick will be [seeing] if there are other measures that faculty can use that are even more reliable in predicting success. And I think they’ll find them because there are other national models out there. Some very, very fine institutions have dropped mandatory SATs.

Your campus is expanding like crazy. What’s the latest?

If you were standing on campus now, you would see 13 buildings and assorted other things all going up at once. It’s like building a small city and it’s being done in four years. …We will have double-sized the campus frankly in a way that’s never been done before in public higher education.

How is UC Merced helping the Central Valley?

The Central Valley still has employment rates that are significantly lower than the state average. It still has a very small percentage of people who go on to postsecondary education and … inadequate access to healthcare. We’re trying to work on all fronts. Our students love going into schools and working with kids from similar backgrounds. We’re boosting the economy through [the expansion project] — it’s about a $1-billion impact over a four-year period. We opened two venture labs in Merced and Modesto that’s all about providing an environment of support to help students and faculty take innovative ideas to the next step of small business or the marketplace. We’re trying to stimulate new kinds of business through the research we’re doing. We’re doing a lot of research on Central Valley issues — water, climate issues, valley fever and a large public health program that’s growing exponentially.

What’s next for Merced?

We just need to keep on, keep on. We’re getting our buildings up. We need to hire faculty to continue our improvement in student success and student graduation. And then in a few years we need to take a deep breath and worry about how we’re going to grow for our next phase. Our students come because they see themselves as pioneers and as creators. They know they’re not going to the most famous UC, but they’re going to a new UC and they’re helping to build it.

 

Original Story By LA Times – https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-qa-uc-merced-chancellor-20181229-story.html 

Having a plan crucial to finishing college quickly

A national educational movement that started in 2009 is becoming more powerful and widespread each year, extending now from coast to coast. Complete College America is an initiative encouraging college students to earn their degrees as expeditiously and conscientiously as they can.

In the last decade, studies have shown students who create an aggressive educational plan and follow it are more likely to graduate than those who slowly and gradually move toward graduation. Perceptive educators have taken notice, and collectively have developed a movement that is becoming a wave.

I am fortunate to participate in this wave in several ways. I am part of a Central Valley consortium which is a strong proponent. I recently attended a national CCA conference in Chicago. And I have a granddaughter whose recent college graduation exemplifies this initiative.

Complete College America supports a number of approaches to help students advance toward their degrees in a timely way. It encourages college students, including those at community colleges, to take at least 15 units each semester. It creates new avenues for students to take university-level English and math in their first semesters, without going through remedial courses.

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC), with members from Stockton to Bakersfield and comprising some 20 community colleges and universities, shares best practices from CCA among members to help students complete their associate and bachelor degrees expeditiously.

One young woman, who attended college in the East and exemplified the theme of completing college promptly, is my granddaughter, Hanna Spevak. Last month I attended her graduation from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., well within four years – in fact, at the midpoint of her third year.

Hanna told me that while attending a public high school in Reno, she was encouraged by her parents to enroll in advanced placement (AP) courses. By scoring high enough on the AP exams, she had accumulated 42 college credits – including 11 in Spanish – before graduating from high school. She also took a summer class before her first fall semester.

But then Hanna told me something I found even more crucial. “Once I got to college,” she said, “because I enjoy scheduling and organizing, I did a lot of planning – reading carefully the college catalog and each semester’s course schedule.”

Hanna made it a point to know exactly which courses were necessary in her major (sociology), her minor (Spanish) and her general education requirements. “I was constantly creating potential schedules for the upcoming semester,” she said, “so that when I met with my academic adviser, I knew exactly which classes I needed to take.”

Hanna credits her dad, Mike, an alumnus of Los Banos High and a graduate (in four years) of UC San Diego, for “constantly asking about my plans, schedules and classes. His persistence guided me to stay on track.”

She is also grateful to her mom, Karen, who supported her every step, including many trips from Reno to Rock Hill. Hanna said both parents encouraged her to fully enjoy her college experience.

Hanna’s story has some instructive points.

1) Success in college planning begins with planning in high school. Any student who can take AP or “dual enrollment” courses (in which they earn both high school and college credit) can get a big jump on college and a leg up on a timely graduation.

2) Students must take responsibility for their own education planning. That means knowing the college catalog and precisely which courses fulfill specific requirements in their majors.

3) College students need moral, academic and psychological support. Hanna was fortunate to have parents who had successfully navigated their way through college. Her academic advisers double-checked what she was doing and offered additional guidance.

Many high school and college students don’t have such advantages; others have different advantages. Complete College America offers proven ideas to help, encouraging colleges to work with parents of students and to provide mentors to students whenever possible.

I’m proud to be a part of the Complete College America movement.

 

John Spevak is a resident of Los Banos; he wrote this for the Los Banos Enterprise. Email john.spevak@gmail.com.

Original Post – https://www.losbanosenterprise.com/opinion/article223585590.html

What Is Central Valley Promise? 1,600 Students Find Out

When Matthew Rodrigues grows up, he wants to attend college to become a nurse or a doctor.

“I think going to college is very important in life,” said Rodrigues, a sixth-grade student at Jefferson Elementary School in Dinuba.

Friday morning, Rodrigues and 1,600 other sixth-graders got a taste of what it will take to achieve their career goals at Reedley College’s second annual Central Valley Promise event.

Tour of Reedley College Campus

To promote the mindset of going to college among students, teachers from Kings Canyon, Cutler-Orosi, and Dinuba Unified school districts took them on a tour of Reedley College.

Rodrigues said the tour was very helpful.

“Now I know what to expect when I go to college,” he said. “I know what I will have to do.”

Getting college on the brain is the main goal of the event, said Donna Berry, the president of Reedley College.

“We are really trying to create a college-going culture,” Berry said. “It really begins when you are in the sixth grade to start thinking about college.”

Getting students excited about college is critical as the state is projected to fall about 1.1 million college graduates short of economic demand if current trends persist, according to a report by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Vincent Vargas said he is definitely thinking about college. In fact, he already knows his major — zoology.

“I want to be a zoologist so I want to study something about animals,” Vargas said.

Lena Gutierrez said she wants to become a teacher.

“I decided to participate in the tour because I want to see how college is and what it looks like inside the classrooms,” Gutierrez said.

Getting Students Interested In College

Gutierrez’s teacher, Brad Johnson, said he hopes touring the Reedley campus will get his students interested in going to college.

“It is a great opportunity for our students to get exposure to higher education,” Johnson said. “I think the earlier they get exposure, the more attainable it is.”

Lisa Waide hopes the tour will give her students a better idea of the available educational opportunities.

“Some of our kids don’t have the means to go to college so I hope they come away with a hope that they can do something,” Waide said.

Central Valley Promise

The other goal of the event is to get students familiar with Central Valley Promise, a community effort to guarantee a path to college for students in the region.

The Central Valley is joining 150 cities across the country offering College Promise programs, which aim to increase college readiness, affordability, and success.

The CVP ensures students free tuition for their first semester of community college and priority registration, said Kurt Piland, the director of college relations and outreach at Reedley College.

Piland said CVP restricts its funding to colleges within the State Center Community College District.

To qualify, students must graduate from high school with at least a 2.7 GPA.

To stay in the program while in college, students must enroll in 15 units per semester and maintain a 2.5 GPA or above.

Piland said he has 100 students in the first cohort, and expects more in the years to come.

“The numbers are definitely growing,” Piland said. “As students know more about what Reedley College offers and the opportunities that they have, I am hoping that we will get a lot more enrollments.”

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