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Volume 7, Issue 5
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November 3, 2011
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We have to care about student success just as much as we care about student access. I often share that, as the first person in my family to go to college, my family celebrated the fact that I got in - but the real party was when I completed. Increasing access to, and completion in, college for Californians is one of the most important ways we can ensure our state's prosperity. I hope you will continue to join us in our efforts to make sure that more students get in and complete.
Sincerely,
Michele Siqueiros
Executive Director
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THE CAMPAIGN ENDORSES STUDENT SUCCESS TASK FORCE DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS 
 The Campaign for College Opportunity is proud to announce its endorsement of the draft recommendations of the California Community Colleges Task Force on Student Success. We commend Chancellor Jack Scott and the Task Force members for the courage they have demonstrated in proposing these significant reforms. The recommendations focus on the importance of helping students make their college dreams a reality. They highlight strategies that have long been proven to work and move us toward scalable student-centered changes that California desperately needs. In particular, the recommendations start students off on the right track, make progress to completion easier, share information through a college score card, and put student success at the core. To read our endorsement letter, click here.
While The Campaign for College Opportunity regrets that the Task Force missed an important opportunity to recommend an alternative funding formula that includes some reward for college completion, we strongly believe that the bulk of the Task Force recommendations are ambitious and demonstrate a commitment to eliminating barriers to student success.
With California's economy facing a shortage of 1 million degrees by 2025, the recommendations of the Task Force could play a critical role in propelling community colleges to adopt policies that better help students reach their college goals and meet future workforce needs. Draft recommendations include a call to develop and implement common assessments, require student orientation and the development of an educational plan, establish system-wide enrollment priorities, require satisfactory academic progress to receive Board of Governor's fee waivers, as well as implement and publicize a score card on student success at every college. A full listing of the draft recommendations can be found here and a recent article in the LA Times on the Task Force can be read here.
We encourage you to join us in endorsing the Draft Recommendations of the California Community Colleges Task Force on Student Success and pressing policymakers to invest in rewarding community college completion. Endorsement letters can be sent to Dr. Peter MacDougall, Chair of the Task Force on Student Success (cc: Chancellor Jack Scott and the Board of Governors), addressed to the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, 1102 Q Street, Sacramento, CA 95811.
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 The SB 1440 Implementation & Oversight Committee continues to convene monthly to expedite the adoption of the new transfer degree pathways from California Community Colleges (CCC) to our California State University system (CSU). Many of you joined us in the passage of historic transfer reform legislation just over a year ago which will provide a statewide pathway to transfer for students as they earn an Associate Degree for Transfer and are guaranteed admission with junior status to the CSU. To date, sixteen transfer Model Curriculums (TMCs) have been approved by the California Community College Chancellor's Office. This far exceeds the legislative mandate established by SB 1440 that at least two degrees be in place by fall 2011. The TMCs have been developed in high demand majors through a collaborative process that included faculty from both the CCC and CSU.
The first TMC degrees developed by the committee have been sent to CSU campuses for review and approval as "similar" for admission purposes. With the leadership of CSU Chancellor Charlie Reed and CSU Academic Senate Chair Jim Postma, CSU campuses have until December 31st to review and deem TMC pathways similar.
Earlier this year The Campaign worked closely with Senator Padilla on SB 292 - legislation requiring that community colleges accept units taken on the Associate Degree for Transfer pathway at other community colleges. After successfully passing through full Senate and Assembly Higher Education and Appropriations Committees, SB 292 was gutted and amended. Senator Padilla and The Campaign remain committed to ensuring that SB 1440 becomes the preferred transfer pathway for students statewide and to seeing that the implementation is done right, and will capture language previously contained in SB 292, and place it into a new legislative vehicle and resume this effort in January. Thank you again for your unwavering support of student-centered transfer reform!
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The Campaign for College Opportunity and the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) invite you to join a phone briefing to discuss a new PPIC statewide survey, entitled Californians and Higher Education, on Thursday, November 17 at 10am. Learn more about the results of the survey. To receive the call-in information and further details, please RSVP here. |
2011 LEGISLATION UPDATE
Below is an update on the final status on some key higher education bills. Please feel free to call our Sacramento office at 916-443-1681 if you have any questions.
Action to create a more streamlined pathway to assess students, develop e-transcripts, expand financial aid opportunities, and align our colleges and universities with workforce needs are very promising.
We regret that deep budget cuts to higher education, over $1.7 billion this year alone with additional trigger cuts expected in December, continue to restrict access to college for all eligible students and create serious burdens on our public colleges and universities in their ability to serve students. We urge the Governor and Legislature to minimize cuts to higher education, set clear statewide goals for access and student success, and identify additional revenue streams in order to adequately invest in our future.
SIGNED BY THE GOVERNOR
AB 743: Assembly member Block - Common Assessment System
This bill requires the California Community Colleges Board of Governors to establish a common assessment system for the purposes of community college student placement and advisement.
AB 1056: Assembly member Fong - Electronic Transcripts
If the Office of the Chancellor for California Community Colleges receives new, one-time state, federal, or philanthropic funding, colleges would be required to utilize electronic transcripts by December 2012. If all colleges were to participate in e-transcript delivery, this would help track students on the transfer pathway and towards progress on their educational objectives.
AB 130: Assembly member Cedillo - The California DREAM Act of 2011: Part 1
This bill provides that, on and after January 1, 2012, a student attending a CCC, CSU, or UC, who is exempt from paying nonresident tuition under AB 540, is eligible to receive a scholarship derived from non-state funds.
AB 131: Assembly member Cedillo - The California DREAM Act of 2011: Part 2
This bill amends the Donahoe Higher Education Act, as of January 1, 2013, to require the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors, and to request the University of California Regents, to establish procedures and forms that enable AB 540 students, or who meet equivalent requirements adopted by the regents, to apply for, and participate in, all student aid programs, including Cal Grants.
SB 611: Senator Steinberg - University of California Curriculum Integration Institute (UCCI)
SB 611 expands and codifies the UCCI with the goal of keeping more students interested in school through project-based, applied learning opportunities that engage and better prepare them for college and career.
SB 612: Senator Steinberg - Instructional Strategies
This bill expands the California Subject Matter Projects to meet the needs of the new economy by including professional development that prepares teachers to deliver hands-on, integrated curriculum, such as that developed by the UCCI, that is connected to high-need sectors of the economy.
SBx1 1: Senator Steinberg - Partnership Academies
SBx1 1 redirects existing special funds--$40 million total over five years--to invest in high school career pathway programs ("California Partnership Academies") leading directly to further education and successful employment in the growing fields of clean technology, renewable energy or energy efficiency.
HELD BY THE LEGISLATURE
AB 2: Assembly member Portantino - Articulating Goals for California Higher Education
This bill would have repealed the existing higher education accountability program and require the state to establish a new accountability framework for achieving prescribed educational and economic goals.
VETOED BY THE GOVERNOR
AB 91: Assembly member Portantino - Community College Financial Aid Pilot
This bill would have piloted an elimination of the Board of Governor Fee Waiver short form instead allowing for the information to be taken from a student's FAFSA application. Increasing FAFSA applications would ensure greater federal aid to students in keeping with previously-sponsored legislation by The Campaign (AB 668) and increase the low proportion of community college students accessing federal aid at a time when fees continue to rise and Pell Grants have increased.
SB 547: Senator Steinberg - Public School Performance Accountability
This bill would have required the Superintendent, in consultation with a specified advisory committee, to develop an Education Quality Index (EQI), which would replace the current Academic Performance Index (API), in order to include indicators of student preparedness for success in college and the workplace.
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A college degree pays off--but by just how much? In this report from
Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, just what a college degree is worth is examined--and what else besides a degree might influence an individual's potential earnings. This report examines lifetime earnings for all education levels and earnings by occupation, age, race/ethnicity and gender. The data are clear: a college degree is key to economic opportunity, conferring substantially higher earnings on those with credentials than those without. Read The College Payoff here.
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 Dollars and Sense: IHELP's newest report uses data from the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity, and Accountability to analyze revenue and spending patterns across California higher education. The report documents several unique characteristics of California higher education including the largest disparity in the nation in educational expenditures per student between the research university sector and the community college sector and a very low share (one-tenth) of educational costs covered through community college tuition compared to the national average of one-third. Read the report here.
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 Testing Ground: How Florida Schools and Colleges Are Using a New Assessment to Increase College Readiness highlights how Florida's colleges worked with K-12 partners to design, plan, and launch an ambitious college-readiness agenda with a new college placement test as its centerpiece. As other states are considering pursuing similar efforts, Florida's experiences have implications beyond the Sunshine State. Check out the full report or executive summary here.
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 Sense of Direction: The Importance of Helping Community College Students Select and Enter a Program of Study: This report from IHELP examines the importance of declaring and entering an academic program of study for community college student success and completion. Researchers found that entering a program of study is an important milestone on the path to college completion that only half of entering community colleges students reach, and that students who enter a program of study in their first year are twice as likely to complete a certificate, degree, or transfer as those who enter a program of study in the second year or later. Access the report here.
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 In Crossing the Finish Line: A National Effort to Address Near Completion, IHEP lays out a framework through which higher education leaders, federal and state policymakers, institutional administrators, and private sector executives can effectively address near completion as part of the larger call for accomplishing America's goal to increase the number and diversity of people who complete college. IHEP focuses on four issues that impede the success of near completers: recruitment, assessment, affordability, and recognition of completion. Read the brief here.
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In the signing of the 2011-2012 budget in June, Governor Brown effectively terminated the state's higher education coordinating agency, the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC). CPEC has been a guardian of valuable statewide higher education data.
The agency's Executive Director, Karen Humphrey, has provided us with some thoughts as CPEC prepares to close its doors after 38 years and the implications it holds for the state. Click here to read more.
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NEWS & NOTES FROM THE CAMPAIGN
- News from our Board of Directors: We are pleased to
 announce that Campaign Co-Founder David Wolf was elected Board Chair, and Thomas Saenz, President & General Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) was elected Vice Chair. Van Ton-Quinlivan of the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office will continue on in the role of treasurer. We are also excited to announce that William G. McGinnis, a trustee for the Butte-Glenn Community College District, has joined our Board of Directors. We extend our greatest thanks to Bill Hauck for his long and faithful service in the role of Board Chair and are proud that he will continue his leadership on our Board. - New Support From Funders: The Campaign is thankful for recent grants of $20,000 from PG&E and $5,000 from The Vons Foundation in support of our activities.
- In Case You Missed It: Catch an article by USC Professor Dr. Dowell Myers who writes about the connection between the baby boomers in the housing market and college educated Latinos. We also posted the Campaign's founding story - interested in learning why we do what we do?
- Speaking Out: Our team has had the chance to speak at various conferences, hearings, and convenings about issues facing higher education in California and the importance of student success.
- In October, Michele Siqueiros testified on rewarding community colleges for completion at the Little Hoover Commission and spoke about the critical nature of increasing Latino student success at Excelencia in Education's Ensuring America's Future convening in Washington, DC. In September, Michele was the keynote speaker, discussing the power of collaboration and partnerships, at the College Access Foundation of California's grantee convening. In August we joined Excelencia in Education in co-hosting a press conference and policy discussion on Latino College Completion in California. They released a fact sheet and you can watch Michele's remarks here.
- Later this month, Jessie Ryan will be presenting at the Public Education Network's National Conference in Washington, DC.
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 The cost of a college education keeps rising with each slash to the budgets of California Community Colleges, the California State Universities, and the Universities of California.
Yet, according to Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements through 2018 by Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, 63% of jobs are projected to require some level of postsecondary education. Higher education is becoming less optional for students hoping to be prepared for the future workforce. How do parents and students plan for such a reality? One way is to open a 529 savings account, state-sponsored plans developed under Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Code 529 that offer low fees, low-minimum investments, and are allowed to be used at any accredited higher education institution in the nation and at many institutions abroad.
For more information, visit the ScholarShare website. |
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