Tag Archive for: Tom Burke

Kern Master’s Upskilling Program: 2nd cohort graduates – next cohort recruitment underway

Two cohorts from the Kern Master’s Upskilling Program (MA English) are eligible to participate and walk in the 2024 National University Commencement May 18 at Petco Park in San Diego. The program’s high school teacher participants are now qualified to teach English dual enrollment community college courses on their respective campuses. A third English cohort and the first Kern math cohort graduate in June.

Kern Master’s Upskilling Program

reaches another milestone

Second English cohort graduation – recruitment underway for a fall math cohort

The Kern Master’s Upskilling Program for high school teachers seeking a master’s degree in English or Math that qualifies them to teach dual enrollment courses at their respective campuses reached its second milestone last month when 11 participants completed post-baccalaureate requirements in English through National University.

Formally known as the Dual Enrollment Teacher Upskilling Pathway for English and Mathematics, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium initiative is in partnership with the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative that was funded as part of an $18 million statewide competitive grant in June 2022 to improve student progress from high school to postsecondary education and ultimately into the workforce.

The program also announced recruitment is underway for a third math cohort of 21 students to begin this fall for completion in spring 2026 though Fresno Pacific University in concert with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools (KCSOS), which serves as the administrative agent for the Kern K-16 Collaborative.

Informational meetings are set for March 21 and April 11 at 4:30 p.m.

A potential fourth English cohort pilot through CSU, Bakersfield with seven students is also in the works said Tom Burke, CVHEC’s Kern Masters Upskilling Program lead who reports that the program progress “has been very good” since it was funded two years ago.

“With the first two cohorts of English graduates to be joined by our first cohort of math graduates this summer, we are well on the way to significantly increasing the number of faculty in Kern County eligible to teach dual enrollment or community college courses in math and English,” Burke said.

The January graduation follows the first cohort of 11 English students who graduated in September for the innovative state-funded CVHEC initiative that helps reduce the cost of tuition for high school teachers to pursue a master’s degree, a state requirement to teach community college dual enrollment courses.

Each NU cohort group of students is eligible to participate and walk in the 2024 Commencement services set for Saturday, May 18, at Petco Park in San Diego, said Jessica Gladney, senior director for Partnership Development/ Workforce Education Solutions for National University,

The first Kern Master’s Upskilling Program cohort — MA, English with a specialization in Rhetoric — began in January 2023 with 13 out of 15 students completing their program in November 2023 (nine of the 13 will graduate with honors with a grade point average of 3.85 and above).

The two remaining students are currently in the process of completing their capstone, which is the culminating course of the master’s program, Gladney  said.

The second Kern Master’s Upskilling Program cohort of MA, English with a specialization in Rhetoric, began in March 2023, and 10 out of 15 students completed their program in January 2024. The remaining students are currently in the process of completing their capstone course, Gladney reports.

She said each NU cohort group of students is eligible to participate and walk in the 2024 Commencement services set for Saturday, May 18, at Petco Park in San Diego.

“We are proud of these candidates and we are excited to assist with building a qualified candidate pool of eligible dual-enrollment English teachers to meet the workforce demands in the Central Valley,” Gladney said.

CVHEC, made up of 28 institutions of higher education in the valley’s nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern counties, is one of several partners in the Kern Collaborative.

South Valley CVHEC members include California State University, Bakersfield; Kern Community College District; Bakersfield College; Cerro Coso College; Taft College; Porterville College; Fresno Pacific University; and National University.

The project also includes the CVHEC Mentor Program that pairs the master’s candidates 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.

Under coordinators Dr. Liz Rozell (math) and Dr. Vikash Lakhani (English), the program is still accepting community college professors to serve as mentors, Burke said.

For more details about the fall 2024 math cohort through Fresno Pacific, potential students can contact:

  • Manjula Joseph, program director – manjula.joseph@fresno.edu or 559.453.2096
  • Nathan Lyness, senior Outreach & Admissions representative – nathan.lyness@fresno.edu or 559.453.7183

See:

CVHEC IN THE NEWS: KBAK features Kern Master’s Upskill Program

 

CVHEC’s Kern Master’s Teacher Upskilling Pathway for English and Mathematics was featured on KBAK’s Eyewitness Mornings with host Tony Salazar interviewing project coordinator Tom Burke and Dr. Krista Herrera, director of the Kern K-16 Collaborative.

The program is currently recruiting South Valley math and English teachers for the cohorts to be presented next spring.

See: KBAK interview  (Oct. 19, 2022).

 

CVHEC NEWS: ACBO Honors KCCD Chancellor-Emeritus Burke with Excellence Award

Thomas J. Burke

Tom Burke, chancellor-emeritus of Kern Community College District, was honored by the Association of Chief Business Officials/California Community Colleges with its ACBO Achievement of Excellence Award last month.

Burke, who now serves as coordinator of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Transfer Project  and this month was named to lead the Consortium’s Kern Master’s Teacher Up-skilling Pathway for English and Mathematics, was presented the prestigious award during ABCO’s annual conference (Oct. 24-26) in Indian Wells, CA.

Formerly the Walter Star Robie, the award is presented to professionals in California community college business administration who have demonstrated outstanding achievements and exemplary service as chief business officials in their respective districts and the state of California.

Burke served the California Community College system for 24 years including 15 as KCCD chief financial officer before being named the district’s chancellor in 2016. He retired in July, 2021 and in December, Burke was conferred chancellor emeritus by the KCCD Board of Trustees.

CV-HEC BLOG: UC Enrollment Push Supported by CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project and New Mapper Software

(This issue’s “What The CV-HEC Is Happening” Blog features guest contributor Dr. James Zimmerman, senior associate vice provost and dean for Undergraduate Education at the University of California-Merced where he is also director of the Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning and a physics professor. He serves on the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project committee and here he blog-connects its work the past year to a recent article on UC enrollment expansion).

The California UC Board of Regents has declared its intent to expand enrollment by adding 20,000 new seats in the next few years as outlined in a UCLA Daily Bruin article published May 12 that also presents the relevant challenges associated with this goal.

This illuminating journalistic endeavor by higher education reporters Megan Tagami and Lisa Huiqin is timely for students in the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium’s nine-county region as member institutions UC Merced, Merced College and Bakersfield College have used the last two years to lay groundwork for a CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project that is designed to bring the college transfer experience into intersegmental alignment.

With this dedicated leadership and collaboration by consortium members and professionals, the Transfer Project is now being undertaken by other members of CVHEC’s 30 institutions of higher education for valley-wide implementation in 2023. And it comes complete with a free and public-facing software strategy students can use to master the curricular pathway to a four-year degree.

Setting the Stage

The Daily Bruin article illustrates that following an extensive decades-long push in California high schools to promote college-readiness and increase the number of UC-eligible students graduating each year, we are experiencing an increased demand for access to our UC campuses throughout the state.

Even more impressive, is the number of students eligible for transfer to UC from our California Community Colleges. Not only are more transfer-eligible students coming from community colleges, but these transfers also succeed in completing their UC degrees at higher rates than all other UC students.

In particular, Tagami and Huiqin cite the targeted efforts of UC Merced to increase the number of community college students from the Central Valley that successfully transfer to UC Merced.  This effort emerged in 2018 as UC Merced committed anew to recruiting/retaining local community college transfers. UC Merced officials met with a focus group of Central Valley community college chancellors/presidents in the CVHEC region to clarify and address the challenges.

Forthright TAG/ADT conversations

During this meeting, the group discussed the Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) project agreed to by some UC campuses as a transfer pathway for community college students to be accepted to the UC. This discussion quickly evolved into a compare and contrast of the UC-based TAG agreements and the California State University systemwide transfer pathways project called the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT).

Completion of ADT’s as an effective pathway for transfer to the CSU far outpaced the number of successful transfers to UC through the TAG agreements. This is credited in large part to the consistency of the CSU’s commitment/acceptance of the community college ADT’s, that when completed, fulfill the lower-division requirements for guaranteed transfer to CSU.

Simply put, if a student successfully completes the ADT pathway in a particular discipline/major, they have fulfilled the lower-division requirements and are accepted as a transfer (third-year) student in good-standing to the CSU.

Walking the  talk

Fast forward to today … with its Transfer Project, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and UC Merced have been engaged in a collaborative, intersegmental process to review and assess the community college ADT’s with the intent to accept the completion of selected ADT’s in various disciplines as fulfilling the lower-division requirements for successful transfer to UC Merced.

This process brings together community college and UC Merced faculty in common discipline/majors to review/approve existing or slightly modified ADT’s for successful transfer to UC Merced. To date, seven of the CVHEC community college members are now engaged in the approval process with five more in line to begin the approval process in fall 2022 for implementation in 2023.

The culminating feature in the project’s process is the implementation of a public-facing, internet-based software application called Program Pathways Mapper with two key outcomes for transfer student success:

  • This software merges an updated/accurate list of community college courses in approved ADT/curricular pathway with the corresponding upper-division coursework at UC Merced to show a complete four-year pathway to degree completion.
  • The Program Pathways Mapper software makes all of this information available through public internet access to all students, parents and community college and high school faculty and counselors without a need for a institutional login

As a higher education professional for more than 25 years, I am extremely satisfied with the continuing collaboration that my colleagues from CVHEC have provided to this groundbreaking initiative: Tom Burke, Transfer Project coordinator for the consortium, and Stan Carrizosa — both are former chief executives at Central Valley community colleges who now serve as regional coordinators for CVHEC under the leadership of its executive director, Dr. Benjamin Duran (also a community college president-emeritus).

UC Merced/CVHEC Transfer Initiative + Program Pathways Mapper = student friendly/student empowerment/student success

As the UC system explores ways to accomplish its newly minted goal to increase enrollment, it would be well-served to study the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project.

This is a process-based project that requires little to no additional funding other than the time for faculty and staff to collaborate. And its Program Mapper is an inexpensive software solution.

The result, so far, is that high school and community college students can now open the Program Mapper on their smart phone and easily find their major of interest at their community college and an accurate/up-to-date list of all the courses necessary both lower division and upper division, to successfully transfer and graduate from UC Merced in those majors.

Bottom line translation: student-friendly outcomes and increased UC enrollment!

 

 

See previous CVHEC newsletter articles:

https://bit.ly/TransferProject-CVHEC0921

https://bit.ly/MapperTransferLaunch-CVHEC1021

https://bit.ly/BlogCVHEC1221-TransferBurke

 

 

 

 

Charting Better Maps to Degrees

Historic UC Merced transfer initiative with Bakersfield, Merced Colleges launches Nov. 4

A hybrid convening at the University of California, Merced Nov. 4, “Charting Better Maps to Degrees,” will launch the historic UC Merced Transfer Pathways initiative between three Central Valley Higher Education Consortium member campuses and demonstrate how the new Program Pathways Mapper can revolutionize positive outcomes across enrollment, completions and equity for students.

UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz will be joined by Bakersfield President Sonya Christian, Merced College President Chris Vitelli and CVHEC Executive Director Benjamin T. Duran. Also speaking will be Dr. Craig Hayward, dean of Institutional Effectiveness at Bakersfield College and  Wayne Skipper, president of Concentric Sky.

The pilot transfer project and the hybrid in-person/virtual event are the result of a $500,000 grant from the California Educational Learning Lab to Bakersfield College, Merced College, and UC Merced for the development of 2+2 transfer maps that streamline and guide the transfer of community college students to the University of California system.

During the event, which will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the UC Merced Conference Center, the grant team will unveil the UC prototype of the Program Pathways Mapper that will make online, interactive transfer maps freely available for current and prospective students.

The convening also will be digitally mediated allowing both virtual and in-person attendees to interact and participate together while providing a higher education bridge across the valley floor.

“UC Merced was created in the Valley to help serve the Valley and we are dedicated to fulfilling that mission,” said Chancellor Muñoz, who will welcome the participants at 9 a.m. followed by the community college presidents and Duran. “This project to simplify transfer pathways means that more young people from our region will recognize a UC education as an achievable goal, and will help students, educators and families chart a course to that goal.”

Duran will discuss CVHEC’s support for the regional roll-out of the Program Pathways Mapper for colleges and universities in the Central Valley. CVHEC consists of 29 colleges in the nine-county region from Stockton to Bakersfield with the presidents/chancellors of each member institution serving as the board of directors.

He said this groundbreaking project, which supports CVHEC’s core mission to improve college completion rates while also supporting the valley’s only UC campus in collaboration with member community colleges, is unique in the state.

“Nothing like this is taking place anywhere else in California that I’m aware of,” said Duran a former Merced College president. “This kind of collaboration, especially intersegmentally, just isn’t happening. This is a big win for the Central Valley.”

Work is well underway to implement the same type of partnership transfer agreements between CVHEC’s CSU member campuses at Bakersfield, Fresno and Stanislaus, he said, with the intent to make this new model available for community college transfers in other regions of the valley.

Members and prospective members of the Program Pathways Mapper community are invited to attend the free event that will include breakfast and lunch. Space is limited but registration is available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/program-pathways-mapper-convening-tickets-168987649609.

For additional information and updates, including details on speakers and breakout sessions, see www.foundationccc.org/ChartingBetterMapstoDegrees.

Additional event questions may be directed to Lori Ortiz,  executive secretary for the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at Bakersfield College at lori.ortiz@bakersfieldcollege.edu.

Pilot CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project improves process for students  

Rollout of Program Mapper software app for transfers set for Nov. 4

A pilot program developed between the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and three member institutions — UC Merced, Merced College and Bakersfield College — is showing promise for outstanding results that can enhance a community college student’s transfer experience including a new web-based software application, Program Mapper.

This new initiative, the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project, was presented to the CVHEC Board of Directors, made up the presidents and chancellors of CVHEC’s 29-member institutions, at its quarterly meeting Sept. 3.

Tom Burke, chancellor-emeritus of the Kern Community College District, has been recruited to serve as the Transfer Project coordinator, Dr. Ben Duran, CVHEC executive director, also announced to the board.   

The specific aim of the initial pilot project is to increase the number of successful and timely transfers from the Central Valley member community colleges in CVHEC’s nine-county region to UCM, reports Stan Carrizosa, southern regional coordinator for the consortium.

And work is well underway to implement the same type of partnership transfer agreements between Bakersfield College and CSU Bakersfield with the intent to make this new model available for community college transfers to the region’s other California State University campuses at Fresno and Stanislaus as well, Carrizosa reported. Project resource teams are currently being solicited from each community college with the goal to eventually begin replicating the faculty convenings and admissions/articulation alignments developed through the pilot.

“All of CVHEC’s 17 community college members have accepted our invitation to participate in the process developed by the colleges in the pilot project with the tentative timeline for completion projected for the end of the spring semester and summer,” added Carrizosa, a former superintendent/president with College of the Sequoias. “This tentative timeline would position all final transfer admission pathways to be approved by UC Merced for full implementation beginning in the fall semester, 2023.”

Duran said this groundbreaking project, which supports CVHEC’s core mission to improve college completion rates while also supporting the valley’s only UC campus in collaboration with member community colleges, is unique in the state.

“Nothing like this is taking place anywhere else in California that I’m aware of,” Duran reported to the board. “This kind of collaboration, especially intersegmentally, just isn’t happening. This is a big win for the Central Valley.”

This new initiative builds on the 10-year effort by the state’s community colleges to expedite a successful transfer by implementing the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) agreement, specific lower-division course sequences for approval by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and CSU campuses, to fulfill the 60-unit transfer requirements for various majors offered throughout the colleges in the CSU system.

Specifically for this pilot, UCM faculty were invited to review the CSU-approved ADT’s developed previously, and which are becoming more widely known by Central Valley community college students. They were asked to consider approval of selected ADTs to fulfill the lower division transfer requirements for these same discipline majors at UCM.

“To date, the work of the pilot project colleges is progressing nicely,” Carrizosa reported. “These intersegmental teams have reviewed and approved up to 15 different ADT discipline majors. They adjusted and aligned course syllabi where needed — to be approved by UCM faculty — to fulfill the lower division requirements for successful transfer admissions to UCM.”

In addition to the review and approval of the various ADT discipline majors, Carrizosa said the teams are also identifying the specific upper division courses required for students once admitted to UCM and aligning these with the ADT to show a four-year sequence to be called the “UCM transfer admission pathways for students.”

Once completed and approved, the courses are being uploaded into the new web-based software application Program Mapper.

“This application enables students to select the community college they are attending and identify the ADT they may be interested in being enrolled in,” Carrizosa said. “From there, Program Mapper will automatically display the required community college courses for their ADT and the required upper division courses for that major at UC Merced in the format of a four-year Transfer Admission Plan (TAP).”

Plans are underway to unveil the Transfer Project and Program Mapper application at a special event Nov. 4 at UC Merced. (Event details of the Program Mapper and launch will be forthcoming in the October CVHEC e-newsletter).

Funding for the Transfer Project is provided in part by the Fresno K-16 Collaborative with support from California Governor Newsome’s office and by the College Futures Foundation.

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