student success task force recommendations

8/2/2019 Student Success Task Force recommendations

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S T U D E N TSUCCESS

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S T U D E N TSUCCESS

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Adva nc in g S tu d e nt S u cc e s s i n th eCalifornia Community Colleges

Recommendations of the

California Community Colleges

Student Success Task Force


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART IAdvancing Student Success in the Caliornia Community Colleges

- Introduction

- Overview o Recommendations

- Dening Student Success

- A Commitment to Equity

- Task Force Origins and Process

- State and National Context

- Implementation Processes- Conclusion

PART IIRecommendations o the Student Success Task Force

Recommendation 1

Increase College and Career Readiness

1.1. Collaborate with K-12 to jointly develop common standards or college and career readiness

Recommendation 2

Strengthen Support or Entering Students

2.1. Develop and implement common centralized diagnostic assessments

2.2. Require students to participate in diagnostic assessment, orientation and the development o an

educational plan

2.3. Develop and use technology applications to better guide students in educational processes

2.4. Require students showing a lack o college readiness to participate in support resources

2.5. Require students to declare a program o study early in their academic careers

Recommendation 3

Incentivize Successul Student Behaviors

3.1. Adopt system-wide enrollment priorities refecting the core mission o community colleges

3.2. Require students receiving Board o Governors Fee Waivers to meet various conditions and

requirements

3.3. Provide students the opportunity to consider attending ull time

3.4. Require students to begin addressing basic skills deciencies in their rst year

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Recommendation 4

Al ign Course Oerings to Meet Student Needs

4.1. Give highest priority or courses advancing student academic progress

Recommendation 5

Improve the Education o Basic Skills Students5.1. Support the development o alternative basic skills curriculum

5.2. Develop a comprehensive strategy or addressing basic skills education in Caliornia

Recommendation 6

Revitalize and Re-Envision Proessional Development

6.1. Create a continuum o mandatory proessional development opportunities

6.2. Direct proessional development resources toward improving basic skills instruction and support

services

Recommendation 7

Enable Eicient Statewide Leadership & Increase Coordination Among Colleges

7.1. Develop and support a strong community college system oce

7.2. Set local student success goals consistent with statewide goals

7.3. Implement a student success scorecard

7.4. Develop and support a longitudinal student record system

Recommendation 8

Al ign Resources with Student Success Recommendations

8.1. Encourage categorical program streamlining and cooperation

8.2. Invest in the new Student Support Initiative

8.3. Encourage innovation and fexibility in the delivery o basic skills instruction

A Review of Outcome-Based Funding

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PART IADVANCING STUDENT SUCCESS IN THE CALIFORNIACOMMUNITY COLLEGES

Introduction

Each year, the Caliornia Community Colleges provide instruction to approximately 2.6 million students,

representing nearly 25 percent o the nations community college student population. Across the state, our

112 community colleges and 71 o-campus centers enroll students o all ages, backgrounds, and levels o

academic preparation. We are a system that takes pride in serving the most diverse student population in the

nation, and we value that diversity as our greatest asset. Most o our students are seeking enhanced skills,

certicates, or college degrees that will prepare them or well-paying jobs. Community colleges also oer,

though in ewer numbers than in the past, enrichment courses that serve students who seek personal growth

and lie-long learning.

Te Caliornia Community Colleges have a strong record o beneting our students and the communities

we serve:

Te Caliornia Community Colleges are the states largest workorce provider, oering associate

degrees and short-term job training certicates in more than 175 dierent elds.

Te Caliornia Community Colleges train 70 percent o Caliornia nurses.

Te Caliornia Community Colleges train 80 percent o reghters, law enorcement personnel,

and emergency medical technicians.

28 percent o University o Caliornia graduates and 54 percent o Caliornia State University

graduates transer rom a community college.

Students who earn a Caliornia Community College degree or certicate nearly double their

earnings within three years.


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Cal i orn ia Community Col leges Student Success Task Force6

Te Caliornia Community Colleges can and should take pride

in these positive impacts. For the students who successully

navigate our colleges, we provide tremendous opportunity or

sel-improvement and economic benet.

However, there is another set o statistics that is a cause o con-cern. Tese gures relate to the large numbers o our students

who never make it to the nish line:

Only 53.6 percent o our degree-seeking students ever

achieve a certicate, degree, or transer preparation. For

Arican-American and Latino students, the rate is much

lower (42 percent and 43 percent respectively).

O the students who enter our colleges at one level below

transer level in Math, only 46.2 percent ever achieve

a certicate, degree, or transer preparation. O thosestudents entering our levels below, only 25.5 percent ever

achieve those outcomes.

O our students who seek to transer to a our-year

institution, only 41 percent are successul. For Arican

Americans, only 34 percent succeed. For Latinos, the

gure is 31 percent.

While these statistics reect the challenges many o our stu-

dents ace, they also clearly demonstrate the need or our sys-

tem to recommit to nding new and better ways to serve ourstudents.

Overview o Recommendations

Tis report, the product o the Caliornia Community Colleges

Student Success ask Force, contains recommendations aimed

at improving the educational outcomes o our students and

the workorce preparedness o our state. Te 22 recommenda-

tions contained herein are more than just discrete proposals.

aken together, these recommendations would strengthen thecommunity college system by expanding those structures and

programs that work and realigning our resources with what

matters most: student achievement. Tis report presents a vi-

sion or our community colleges in the next decade, ocused

on what is needed to grow our economy, meeting the demands

o Caliornias evolving workplace, and inspiring and realizing

the aspirations o students and amilies.

Background on theCaliornia Community Colleges

The California Community Colleges is the largest of

Californias three segments of public higher educa-

tion, which also include the University of California

and the California State University. With 2.6 million

students, the California Community Colleges is thelargest system of community college education in

the United States.

Operating through 112 colleges and 71 off-campus

centers, Californias two-year institutions provide pri-

mary programs of study and courses, in both credit

and noncredit categories, that address its three

primary areas of mission: education for university

transfer; career technical education; and basic skills.

The community colleges also offer a wide range of

programs and courses to support economic devel-

opment, specialized populations, leadership devel-

opment, and prociency in co-curricular activities.

The student population served by all of the commu-

nity college programs is characterized by enormous

diversity in age, in ethnicity and cultural heritage,

in walks of life, in their economic situations, in aca-

demic preparation, and in their purposes and goals.

The differentiated missions and purposes of the

California Community Colleges, the University of

California, and the California State University sys-

tem were clearly outlined in the Master Plan for

Higher Education in 1960. The community colleges

were designated to have an open admission policy

and bear the most extensive responsibility for lower-

division, undergraduate instruction. The communitycollege mission was further revised in 1988 with

the passage of Assembly Bill 1725, which called for

comprehensive reforms in every aspect of commu-

nity college education and organization.

Other legislation established a support framework,

including the Matriculation Program, the Disabled

Students Programs & Services, and the Equal Op-

portunity Programs & Services, to provide categori-

cal funding and special services to help meet the

needs of the diverse range of students in the Cali-

fornia Community Colleges. Although many of these

categorical programs have been seriously under-funded as a result of the states scal crisis, they

still afford an outline for addressing such needs as

assessment, placement, counseling, adaptive edu-

cation, and other approaches designed to promote

student learning and student success.


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Advancing Stud ent Su ccess In The Ca li forni a Co mm un ity Co l leges 7

Te ask Forces student success plan relies on the

ollowing key components to move students more

eectively through our community college system:

Development and implementation o a

common diagnostic assessment tool tomore accurately determine the skill levels

o entering students;

New technology and additional counsel-

ors to create more robust student services,

including broader and more widespread

use o student educational plans;

Structured pathways to help students

identiy a program o study and get an

educational roadmap to indicate ap-

propriate courses and available support

services;

Enhanced proessional development or

both aculty and sta, especially related

to the instructional and support needs o

basic skills students;

Revised nancing, accountability, and

oversight systems to ensure that nancial

and organizational resources are better

aligned with student success;

Stronger statewide coordination and

oversight to allow or the sharing and

acilitation o new and creative ideas

to help students succeed, including the

ability or Caliornia to take to scale the

many good practices already in place; and

Better alignment o local district and

college goals with the education and

workorce needs o the state.

Tis plan calls or greater coordination between

K-12 schools and community colleges. Under the

proposal, K-12 education and community colleges

will align standards with meaningul denitions o

college and career readiness so that students receive

consistent messages about expectations throughout

their educational careers about what it takes to be

ready or, and successul in, college and the work-

orce. We will develop consistent policies, programs,

and coherent educational pathways across our col-

leges in order to better serve the many students who

attend more than one college. Te colleges, while

retaining their local character, will unction as a sys-tem with common practices to best serve students.

Te community college system will leverage technol-

ogy to better serve students, because this generation

and uture generations o students are increasingly

comprised o digital natives. Tese students expect

to use technology to access the world around them

as they conduct commerce, socialize, and learn.

While technological solutions cannot take the place

o human contact and will not work or all students,they have shown tremendous potential to help diag-

nose student learning needs, to enhance the delivery

o instruction, to improve advising and other sup-

port services, and to streamline administrative costs.

Tis report envisions restructuring the community

college system to provide students with more struc-

ture and guidance to encourage better choices and

increase their probability o success. A primary cur-

ricular goal is to increase the eectiveness o basic

skills instruction by identiying and disseminating

strategies that have proven eective at preparing stu-

dents or college-level work.

More than 70 percent o community college stu-

dents enter the system under-prepared to do college-

level work. A majority o these are rst generation

college students, low-income, and/or are rom un-

derrepresented groups. Tese students ace the most

challenging obstacles or success and, unortunately,

have the lowest completion rates in the system. A

major ocus o the ask Force is to give these stu-

dents the tools, support, and academic oundation

to succeed.

While we emphasize the need or our system to im-

prove basic skills instruction through innovation


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and exibility, we urge state leaders to examine the

larger, and critical, issues o adult education in Cali-

ornia. Tere is a large and growing population o

adults who lack the basic prociencies necessary or

gainul employment; the state needs to develop the

overarching K-12 and community college policiesand delivery systems to address this challenge.

Te community college system envisioned in this

plan rewards successul student behavior and

makes students responsible or developing

education plans. Colleges, in turn, will use

those plans to rebalance course oerings

and schedules based on students needs.

Enrollment priorities will emphasize

the core missions o transer to a our-year college or university, the award

o workorce-oriented certicates and de-

grees, and the basic skills development that

supports both o these pathways. Student progress

toward meeting individual educational goals will

be rewarded with priority enrollment into courses

and continued eligibility or nancial aid.

ogether, the recommendations con-

tained in this report will improve the

eectiveness o the community col-

leges and help more students to attain

their educational objectives.

Dening Student Success

Because students come to Calior-

nia Community Colleges with

a wide variety o goals, mea-

suring their success requiresmultiple measures. Despite

this diversity o objectives,

most students come

to community

colleges with

the intention

o earning a degree or certicate and then getting

a job. For some, entering the workorce is a lon-

ger term goal, with success dened as transerring

to, and subsequently graduating rom, a our-year

college. For others, the academic goal is earning

an associate degree. Still other community col-lege students are looking to acquire a discrete set

o job skills to help them enter or advance in the

workorce in a shorter time rame. Tis could be

accomplished by either completing a vocational

certicate program or through any number o skill-

oriented courses. Regardless o their goals, the vast

majority o students come to community colleges

in need o basic skills in reading, writing, and/or

mathematics.

Acknowledging the varied educational goals o

students, the ask Force adopted a set o student

success outcome metrics. Te ask Force recom-

mends that the system dene success using the

ollowing metrics:

Percentage o community college students

completing their educational goals

Percentage o community college students

earning a certicate or degree, transerring, orachieving transer-readiness

Number o students transerring to a our-year

institution

Number o degrees and certicates earned

While the above-noted metrics are key measures o

student achievement, recent research has highlight-

ed the value o also monitoring intermediate mea-

sures o student progress. Specically, along the path

to completion, there are a number o key momen-

tum points associated with an improved probability

o success. Each time a student progresses beyond

a momentum point the likelihood o reaching his

or her educational goal increases. Te recognition

o these momentum points guided the work o the

ask Force and helped structure recommendations

KEY MOMENTUM POINTS

Successfulcourse

completion

Successfulcompletion of first

collegiate levelmathematics

course

Successfulcompletion of first

15 semester units

Successfulcompletion of first30 semester units

Certificate,

Degree,

and/or,

Transfer

Successful

Completionof basic skillspreparation


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aimed at improving completion rates. Examples o

progression metrics include:

Successul course completion

Successul completion o basic skills courses

Successul completion o rst collegiate level

mathematics course

Successul completion o rst 15 semester units

Successul completion o rst 30 semester units

o place additional ocus on these critical progres-

sion metrics, the ask Force recommends that

system-wide accountability eorts be updated to

include the collecting and reporting o both the out-

comes and the progression measures or the system,

and or each college. Tese measures will be disag-

gregated by race/ethnicity to aid the system in un-

derstanding how well it is perorming in educating

those historically disadvantaged populations whose

educational success is vital to the uture o the state.

A Commitment to Equity

As the ask Force deliberated over strategies to im-

prove student success rates in the community colleg-

es, they were unanimous and resolute in their belie

that improvements in college success rates should

not come at the expense o access. Te Caliornia

Community Colleges take great pride in being the

gateway to opportunity or Caliornians o all back-

grounds, including traditionally underrepresented

economic, social, and racial/ethnic subgroups. Our

system looks like Caliornia and we are commit-

ted to maintaining that quality. Te goal o equitable

accessand the commitment to help all students

achieve successis a driving orce behind the rec-

ommendations contained in this report.

Te ask Forces recommendations are aimed at

increasing the number o students rom all demo-

graphic and socioeconomic subgroups who attain a

certicate, complete a degree, or transer to a our-

year college or university. As such, improving over-

all completion rates and closing achievement gaps

among historically underrepresented students are

co-equal goals. Te ask Forces commitment to

educational equity is reected throughout the rec-ommendations, but perhaps most explicitly in its

proposal to establish statewide and college-level per-

ormance goals that are disaggregated by racial/eth-

nic group. Doing so will allow the system and state

leaders to monitor impacts o the policy changes on

these subgroups while also ocusing state and local

eorts on closing gaps in educational attainment.

Given Caliornias changing demographic prole,

the success o these historically underrepresented

groups will determine the ortunes o our state.

Task Force Origins and Process

Chronology o his Eort

In January 2011, the Caliornia Community Col-

leges Board o Governors embarked on a 12-month

strategic planning process to improve student suc-

cess. Pursuant to Senate Bill 1143 (Chapter 409,

Statutes o 2010), the Board o Governors cre-

ated the Student Success ask Force. Te resulting

20-member ask Force was composed o a diverse

group o community college leaders, aculty, stu-

dents, researchers, sta, and external stakeholders.

Te ask Force delved deeply into complex college

and system-level policies and practices. It worked or

seven months to identiy best practices or promot-

ing student success and to develop statewide strate-

gies to take these approaches to scale while ensuring

that educational opportunity or historically under-

represented students would not just be maintained,but bolstered.

Each month, rom January through June 2011, the

ask Force met to examine topics critical to the suc-

cess o students, ranging rom college readiness and

assessment to student services, rom basic skills in-


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Te Caliornia Community Colleges are in the midst

o a serious scal crisis brought on by unprecedentedcuts in state unding. Historically, the community

colleges have been the lowest unded o Caliornias

segments o public education. For many decades,

lean unding has orced an overreliance on less ex-

pensive part-time aculty and resulted in too ew

counselors and advisors. Course oerings are oten

insufcient to meet local needs.

While unding has always been scarce, the states

current scal crisis and resulting cuts in unding to

the Caliornia Community Colleges have greatly

exacerbated these signicant challenges. Deep cuts

to categorical programs in the 2009-10 State Bud-

get reduced by roughly hal the unding available to

support critical student services such as counseling,

advising, assessment, and tutoring. Cuts in base ap-

portionment unding in the 2009-10 and 2011-12

State Budgets, totaling over 8 percent, have orced

colleges to reduce thousands o course sections, bar-

ring access to hundreds o thousands o potential

students. Te lack o cost-o-living allocations in the

State Budget, going back to 2008-09, has eroded the

spending power o community colleges by 10.88percent. It is hard to overstate the cumulative strain

that these budget reductions have placed on com-

munity colleges and the students and communities

they serve.

In its deliberations, the ask Force discussed at

length how underunding has diminished the capac-

ity o the community colleges to meet the education

and training needs o Caliornia. It is clear that thecommunity colleges, with additional unding, would

serve many thousands more Caliornians and be

more successul at helping students attain their edu-

cational objectives. In particular, additional unding

would allow the colleges to hire more ull-time coun-

seling and instructional aculty, and student support

personnelall o which have been shown to increase

institutional eectiveness.

Te ask Force wishes to make clear that its recom-

mendations are in no way meant as a substitute or

additional unding. o the contrary, the ask Force

expressed a strong belie that the community college

system should continue to advocate strongly or ad-

ditional resources to support access and success or

our students. Additional investment in the commu-

nity colleges on the part o the state will be essential

i Caliornia is to reach levels o educational attain-

ment needed to be economically competitive.

Te ask Force recommendations represent policy

changes that will support undamental improve-

ments in the eectiveness o the community collegesystem. All the recommendations will yield greater

benets to students more quickly i matched with

signicant additional state investment. In the ab-

sence o additional unding, however, the ask Force

recommendations make good policy sense and will

help ensure that the community colleges are leverag-

ing all available resources to help students succeed.

Fisca l Real i ty



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In recent years a growing body o research has docu-

mented a national decline in educational attainmentat the very time when our economic competiveness

is increasingly tied to a highly skilled workorce.

Tis trend, seen in national data, is even more pro-

nounced in Caliornia. Projections rom the Na-

tional Center or Higher Education Management

Systems (NCHEMS) demonstrate that Caliornia is

at risk o losing its economic competitiveness due to

an insufcient supply o highly skilled workers. Spe-

cically, NCHEMS ound that Caliornias chang-

ing demographics, combined with low educational

attainment levels among our astest-growing popula-

tions, will translate into substantial declines in per

capita personal income between now and 2020

placing Caliornia last among the 50 states in terms

o change in per capita personal income.

As state and national leaders have become aware o

this looming crisis, there has been a concerted call

or reorms to improve levels o educational attain-

ment. Due to their large scale and relatively low cost,

community colleges nationwide have been identi-

ed as the most viable option capable o producing

college graduates and certicate holders in the largenumbers necessary to reverse current trends. Perhaps

most notable was President Obamas 2010 White

House Summit and Call or Action in which he

highlighted the community colleges as the key to

closing our nations skills gap. Tis message resonat-

ed with employers, economists, and educators here

in Caliornia.

It should be noted that the work o the Student Suc-

cess ask Force builds on other state-level reormeorts. Notably, the Community College League o

Caliornias recent Commission on the Futurereport

served as a basis or many o our recommendations,

as did prior community college reorm eorts, in-

cluding the2006 System Strategic Plan, the Partner-

ship or Excellence program, and various reviews o

the Caliornia Master Plan or Higher Education.

National and State Student Success E orts

Advancing Student Success In The Cali fornia Community Colleges 11


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struction to perormance-based unding. Te ask Force turned to

state and national experts (such as Dr. Kay McClenney, Dr. Da-

vid Conley, Dr. Vincent into, and Dr. Alicia Dowd, among

others) or the latest research-based ndings and had

rank discussions about what works to help students

achieve their educational objectives.Beginning in July, the ask Force spent three

months orming the recommendations con-

tained in this report. Recommendations were

chosen based on their ability to be action-

able by state policymakers and college

leaders and to make a signicant impact

on student success, as dened by the

outcome and progression metrics ad-

opted by the group.

o oster public input, during Oc-

tober and November the ask

Force held our public town hall

meetings, made presentations to

dozens o community college

stakeholder groups, and hosted

a lively online dialogue. In these

venues, the ask Force heard rom

both supporters and critics o the

recommendations and received

substantial input that has been used

to inorm its deliberations. Tat

input helped shape the nal recom-

mendations and elevated the public

discussion about improving outcomes

or community college students.

Limitations o Scope

Tere are a variety o topics related to com-

munity colleges and student success that the

ask Force was either unable to address or chose

not to address. For example, policy issues related to

the systems governance structure have been well vetted

elsewhere and thus were not discussed by the group. Further,

the group chose not to address policies surrounding student ees.

Due to time constraints, career technical education, transer, and dis-

tance education also were not addressed directly by the ask Force. Tat

Theres a story that each member

of this Task Force wants to be truetrue

at every community college and for every stu-

dent, regardless of their background or educa-

tional goals.Its the story o a student who walks onto a

Caliornia Community College campus or the rst time, unsure

o what they want to do, but knowing generally that they want to

nd a direction in both lie and career.

The student is able to go online or get an appointment to meet with a

counselor or advisor to learn about the wide variety o options available at

the college and maybe a ew oered elsewhere. The options presented arent

discrete classes but rather pathways toward dierent utures. Not all o them are

easy; some require a lot o time and work, but the student sees where they lead

and understands what needs to be done to succeed in each pathway.

The student participates in a college orientation and prepares or the assessment tests.

They learn that most paths will require work on basic skill mathematics and English.

The student easily nds the nancial aid oce where they learn o the various nancial

aid opportunities available. They see that they can maximize nancial aid opportunities bydeciding to enroll ull time and understand that accepting nancial aid means accepting

responsibility or their academic uture.

Using either online or in-person counseling support, the student develops an education plan

and determines a program o study. The student enrolls in basic skills coursework in the rst

term and ollows the counselors lead in selecting a college-level course that is appropriate to

their level o preparation. The basic skills class may rely heavily on tutoring or use other ap-

proaches that help the student learn more eectively than in high school. The results o the

diagnostic assessment test let the proessor know what specic areas the student needs help

with, so that they are able to ocus on those particular things, moving at a pace thats com-

ortable. The student succeeds and takes the college-level coursework needed to complete

their program o study. The students educational plan provides a roadmap, and they nd

that theyre able to enroll in all the required courses in the semester in which the courses

are needed. The student meets their educational goal, whether it be gaining concrete work-

place skills, earning a certicate and/or associate degree, or transerring to a our-year col-

lege with an associate degree in hand. Wherever the path leads, the student successully

reaches their academic and career goals thus able to advance their career and earn a

wage sucient to support themselves and their amily.

This is the vision that the recommendations of this Task Force are designed

to support. Taken alone, no single recommendation will get us there, but

taken together, these policies could make the vision a reality for every

student, at every college.

While it is entirely natural or readers to skim through this report looking or

the two or three recommendations that most aect their particular con-

stituency, we encourage readers to resist this temptation and consider

the set o recommendations as a whole and how they will benet

students. In making these recommendations, each member o

the Task Force strived to do just that, at times setting aside

their particular wants and making compromises or the

greater good.

We hope you will join us in that effort.

Task Force Vision


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said, the recommendations in this report are intended

to strengthen the core capacity o the community col-

leges to serve all students, regardless o instructional

program. Improved student support structures and

better alignment o curriculum with student needs

will increase success rates in transer, basic skills, andcareer technical/workorce programs.

Implementation ProcessTe recommendations in this report represent

policies and practices that the ask Force believes

will help the Caliornia Community Colleges to

improve student success. Some o the recommen-

dations reect changes that are already underway,

while others would chart entirely new territory.

In each case, the recommendations will requirethat in-depth, discrete, and specic implementa-

tion strategies be developed in consultation with

the appropriate practitioners and stakeholders.

Te strategies employed will vary depending on

whether the proposed change is statutory, regula-

tory, or involves disseminating best practices. Te

community college system has a rich history o

shared governance and local collective bargaining;

nothing in this report is designed to upend those

processes. Further, the ask Force recognizes that

to be successul, these recommendations will need

to be implemented over time, in a logical and se-

quential manner. Te recommendations contained

herein will not be achieved overnight.

Ater approval o this report by the Board o

Governors, the Chancellors Oice will develop

and distribute a separate document that willlay out various strategies or implementing the

recommendations contained within this report.

Implementation groups composed o the relevant

internal and external stakeholders, including the

Student Senate and the Academic Senate, will be in-

volved at each step o the process. Implementation

o these recommendations will take time, and it is

the intent o the ask Force that the parties work

together to address the practical matters associated

with the eventual success o the recommendations.

Conclusion

Te ask Force recommendations present the Cali-

ornia Community Colleges with an opportunity or

transormative change that will reocus our systems

eorts and resources to enable a greater number o

our students to succeed. Our colleges have a long,

proud history o helping Caliornians advance. Tis

plan or student success will help us be even moreeective in achieving our mission.


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PART IIRECOMMENDATIONS OF THE STUDENT SUCCESS TASK FORCE


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INCREASE STUDENT READINESS FOR COLLEGE

A vast majority o rst-time students entering the

Caliornia Community Colleges (CCC) are un-

derprepared or college-level work. In the CCCs,

70 to 90 percent o rst-time students who take

an assessment test require remediation in English,

math, or both. In 2010, 79 percent o Caliornias

11th grade students who took the Early Assessment

Program (EAP) college readiness test did not test

college ready. Currently, K-12 and postsecondary

education policies related to standards, curriculum,

and assessment are not well aligned to communi-

cate either clear expectations or college and career

readiness or to support a smooth transition or high

school graduates. Within the K-12 system, students

and parents receive conicting messages about ex-

pectations or high school completion because the

Caliornia High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) mea-

sures English and mathematics skills that are ar be-

low the standards adopted or 11th and 12th grade

curriculum. Tus, many students have been led to

believe that they are ready to graduate and proceed

on to colleges without actually having met grade-

level standards. Te EAP has begun to address that

problem by inorming 11th grade students where

they stand in relation to college expectations and

encouraging them to reach higher beore they leave

high school.

In August 2010, the State Board o Education (SBE)

adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

Policy Statement:

Community Colleges will collaborate with the State Board o Education, the CaliorniaDepartment o Education, and join other statewide eorts to deine and address

college and career readiness.

1

Recommendation


20/77


and in May 2011 joined the SMARER Balanced

Assessment Consortium to develop a new K-12 as-

sessment system based on the CCSS. Under ederal

requirements, the new 11th grade assessment must

include an assessment o college and career readiness.

Te implementation o these state-level reorms

presents an ideal opportunity or the state to de-

velop curriculum rameworks and assessments that

align expectations and standards across public edu-

cation and the higher education systems and to ad-

dress policy gaps that have historically undermined

eorts to set clear expectations or college or career

readiness and to support a smooth transition or

high school graduates.

Stemming the tide o underprepared students com-

ing out o high schools is an urgent priority or com-

munity colleges, as it is or the CSU system. It is this

need that drove the CSU to initiate and the com-

munity colleges to join the EAP. Because the EAP

had to t within the existing K-12 content standards

and assessments, postsecondary aculty had a limited

opportunity to dene or validate standards and as-

sessments. Te states transition to the CCSS pro-

vides an ideal opportunity or collaboration among

all parties to collectively rene the denition o col-

lege readiness upon which the 11th and 12th grade

curriculum rameworks and 11th grade assessments

will be built.

Community colleges and K-12 must also work to-

gether to develop a denition o career readiness

and to use those standards to build the menu o as-

sessments used to guide students programs o study.

Career readiness scores are important in that they

have the ability to inuence students selection o aprogram o study or certicate. Tere is a great deal

o work to be done in this area and the SBE presi-

dent has stated publicly on more than one occasion

that he will rely on community colleges to provide

leadership in this arena.

Absent proactive involvement o the Community

Collegestogether with our higher education and

K-12 partnersthe SBE will have no choice but to

move orward to dene college and career readinessand determine the best means o measuring those

standards, based on its understanding o the needs

o higher education. Te active participation o the

Community colleges in this work is a vastly superior

approach.

Aligning K-12 and community college standards

or college and career readiness is a long-term goal

that will require a signicant investment o time and

energy that the ask Force believes will pay o by

streamlining student transition to college and reduc-

ing the academic deciencies o entering students.


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Increase Student Readiness For College 19

Recommendation 1.1

Community colleges will collaborate with K-12 education to jointly develop new common

standards or college and career readiness that are aligned with high school exit standards.

Te ask Force recommends that the community college system closely collaborate with the SBE and Super-

intendent o Public Instruction to dene standards or college and career readiness as Caliornia implements

the K-12 Common Core State Standards and engages with the national SMARER Balanced Assessment

Consortium to determine the appropriate means or measuring these standards. Doing so would reduce the

number o students needing remediation, help ensure that students who graduate rom high school meeting

12th grade standards are ready or college-level work, and encourage more students to achieve those standards

by clearly dening college and career expectations.

Requirements or Implementation

No statutory or regulatory changes are needed to authorize community college participation in the development

o common standards.

Discussion with K-12 and the CSU may identiy conorming changes to statute governing the EAP.

Leadership rom the Academic Senate, Board o Governors, and Chancellor will be needed to ensure community

college representatives have membership in key committees that will plan and execute the denition o standards

and the development o related curriculum rameworks and assessments.

Establish ormal and regular channels o communication between the community colleges, the SBE and the

Caliornia Department o Education to ensure ongoing partnering on all matters related to college and career

preparation.


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Policy Statement:

Community colleges will provide stronger support or students entering college toidentiy and meet their goals. Stronger support will be acilitated by centralized,

integrated and student-riendly technology to better guide students in their educationalplanning process. he eorts o counseling aculty and other college sta will be moreeectively targeted.

STRENGTHEN SUPPORT FOR ENTERING STUDENTS

2

Status o Matriculation Program

In 1986, the Seymour-Campbell Matriculation Act

charged the Board o Governors with ensuring that

all community college students were provided sup-

port to dene and attain their educational goals. Te

Board adopted itle 5 regulations that require dis-

tricts to provide admissions, orientation, assessment,

counseling, and ollow-up services or all students

(except those specically exempted) to the extent

unding was provided or those services. Funding

has never been adequate to serve all students and,

as a result, colleges have not been able to provide

the level o services needed. In the 2009-10 State

Budget, a 52 percent budget cut in Matriculation

program unding turned a bad situation into a crisis.

Students Need Guidance

Extensive research has documented the importance

o assessment, orientation, and inormed education

planning to set incoming students on a pathway to

a successul outcome and build early momentum

or their success. Given options, students who lack

guidance are likely to seek what they think will be

Recommendation


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their most direct path through college-level courses,

without understanding what is required to be suc-

cessul in the college environment and without re-

gard to their academic preparation or college-level

work. Tere are multiple consequences when stu-

dents make uninormed choices:

Students nd themselves in courses that

are unconnected to reaching an educa-

tional goal and or which they are not

prepared, at best lengthening their time

to completion and all too oten causing

them to drop out;

Colleges lose the ability to target limited

seats and services where they will be most

eective; and

Faculty are aced with underprepared

students in their courses.

Assessments Vary by College

Currently, the community college aculty at each

college determine which assessments are adminis-

tered to place students within that colleges curricu-

lum or English, math, and English as a Second Lan-

guage (ESL). Colleges are required to also consider

other measures o a students ability to succeed, such

as academic history and demonstrated motivation.

Tis local approach to assessment has created ob-

stacles or students by causing signicant variation

across campuses, in some instances limiting porta-

bility o assessment results even within a single dis-

trict. Other signicant drawbacks include the high

cost o assessment instruments purchased locally and

inefcient test administration.

Since 2008, the system has taken signicant steps

to move toward a centralized assessment system.

Grant unding was obtained rom the Bill and Me-

linda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora

Hewlett Foundation to complete a common assess-

ment easibility study. In an initiative called CCC

Assess, an advisory committee was convened that

included aculty, matriculation and assessment co-

ordinators, instructional and student services ad-

ministrators, technology experts, and CSU and

CDE representatives to determine system require-

ments or English reading, writing, math, and ESLassessments. Te CCC Assess advisory committee

identied diagnostic assessments, computer-scored

writing samples, opportunities or test preparation,

and psychometrically sound re-test capacity as criti-

cal components o a centralized assessment system.

Vendor capacity and interest to develop these as-

sessments was determined to be strong. wo barri-

ers caused this work to stall. Te rst is the need to

identiy sufcient unding to support statewide im-

plementation, and the second is the need to ensurealignment with the new K-12 assessment systems

standards and processes. However, all o the work

done by this committee will guide the implementa-

tion o the ask Forces recommendation.

In a parallel eort, the Board o Governors sponsored

AB 743, Block (Chapter 615, Statutes o 2011).

Tis recently enacted legislation directs the Chancel-

lors Ofce to adopt a low-cost common assessment

as an interim step toward developing a robust and

coordinated assessment system or the community

colleges. Te CCC Assess advisory committee will

be reconvened to assist in guiding implementation

o AB 743 and achieving the ask Forces vision.

Guidance is Key to Student Success

While students are asked to indicate their education-

al objective on the application or admission, many

students are unclear about their educational goalswhen they rst enroll in community college and re-

main so or too long given no systematic process, or

even encouragement, to dene and pursue a specic

program or major. Te current matriculation model

assumes that students will clariy their educational

objective in the course o meeting with a counselor.

However, many students never see a counselor. Even


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Strengthen Support For Entering Students 23

beore the 52 percent budget cut to Matriculation

unding in 2009-10, colleges were unable to provide

all students with access to counseling services to help

them clariy and rene their educational objectives

and assist with the development o education plans

to achieve those objectives. Student to counselor ra-tios range rom 800 to 1 to more than 1,800 to 1 in

the community colleges. As a result, students oten

enroll in courses without understanding the level o

rigor associated with the course or the applicability

o the course to any specic program or transer ob-

jective. While there is clearly value to students hav-

ing the opportunity to explore disciplines and other

options beore declaring their program or major,

there is a dierence between systematic explora-

tion and the blind trial and error experienced by toomany students. Helping students make inormed

choices about their education is a critical strategy to

help increase student success in the CCCs.

Every Matriculating Student Needs anEducation Plan

Every student who enrolls to pursue a certicate, de-

gree, or transer objective, and in many cases even

those seeking career advancement, needs a StudentEducation Plan that represents the sequence o cours-

es that can get them rom their starting point to at-

tainment o their educational goal. Students who ar-

rive without a clear goal need an education plan that

allows them to systematically dene their educational

needs and objectives and explore their options. For ex-

ample, a student who indicates transer as the goal but

lacks a major or career objective should be guided to

enroll in general education courses, along with basic

skills courses or resources i the students assessmentresults indicate such a need. General education cur-

riculum is designed to expose students to a breadth o

educational experiences that can enable them to nd

areas o particular strength and interest. Once a stu-

dent selects his or her program o study or major, the

discipline-specic sequence and specialized or elective

options can be actored into the plan. Tere would

be nothing to preclude a student rom changing their

objective or program o study, but the implications

o a change, in terms o cost and time to completion,

should be made clear. Expanded resources or career

exploration are essential.

Technology Can Help

Te creation o online resources that would sup-

port advisement and allow many students to sel-

manage their academic pathways is essential. Some

districts have undertaken this task, but high devel-

opment costs make creating such systems imprac-

tical or most districts, leaving students to strug-

gle with a dearth o inormation available to help

them to nd and ollow an appropriate academic

pathway. Currently, almost all students enter the

CCCs through CCCApply, a common electronic

application process. Tat system could be urther

developed to lead students, once they are admitted,

to build an online prole and access guidance and

planning resources. Scaling up the use o technol-

ogy is one o the ew viable approaches to reach

substantially more students, many o whom preer

navigating their pathway through community col-

lege in an online environment.

In the same manner that many private businesses

have created tightly integrated online pathways or

their customers, the CCC system needs to look to-

wards the creation o centralized student support

modules that oer high interactivity with local cam-

pus and district I and administrative systems. Ap-

propriate suggested student choices could be devel-

oped using research conducted on educational data

to create deault pathways that are suggested tostudents through online advisement systems. Tese

systems could be used as tools by students, counsel-

ors, and advisors to nudge students towards better

academic choices and to reduce excess unit accumu-

lations and unnecessary withdrawals.


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Te ask Force recognizes that not all students have

access to the hardware, high-speed interconnectiv-

ity, or digital literacy needed to navigate these new

online environments. As such, it will be incumbent

on both the CCC system and individual colleges to

ensure that measures are in place to respond to stu-dents needs and help bridge these technology gaps.

Tere is a plethora o education data collected both

within the CCC system and in other educational sec-

tors that can be aggregated in education data ware-

houses, leveraged, and used to help advise students

on eective pathways through college. An example o

this would be the use o an analysis o past student

outcomes in various courses or students at various

levels o basic skills to create an advisement matrixthat keeps students enrolled in courses appropriate or

their particular skill levels.

An additional benet to the creation and mainte-

nance o centralized technology utilities is that doing

so will create huge economies o scale or the system.

Employing a more centralized approach to technol-

ogy, the CCCs will be able to use their large buying

power to drive down costs and secure additional ea-

tures at low cost. Further removing these costs rom

local districts will ree up local monies that districts

can then reinvest in additional human resources.

Need or More Counselors

echnology, while having many benets, will not

serve all students or ulll all student needs. An ex-

panded student-riendly technology system will al-

low the most sel-directed students to complete a

variety o activities (e.g., education planning, orien-

tation, preparing or assessments) using their com-

puters and smart phones. However, many students

will still need the ace-to-ace interactions provided

by advisors and counselors. By shiting the lower-

need, sel-directing students to online tools, we will

ree up advisors and counselors to ocus their ace-

to-ace interactions with those students who lack ac-

cess to technology or are not adequately prepared to

utilize it and those who need more complex inter-

actions with a counselor. It would also allow coun-seling aculty to spend less time perorming routine

unctions and utilize their proessional skills to sup-

port students in more complex dimensions.


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Recommendation 2.1

Community colleges will develop and implement a common centralized assessment or

English reading and writing, mathematics, and ESL that can provide diagnostic inormation

to inorm curriculum development and student placement and that, over time, will be aligned

with the K-12 Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and assessments.


Reconvene the CCC Assess Advisory Committee to guide implementation o this recommendation.

Design a centralized assessment system that includes a robust array o options to help students prepare to take

the assessments or the most valid result. It should include consistent testing and re-testing policies that are

decided based on psychometrics rather than budget considerations.

The centralized assessment must be diagnostic to ensure placement into appropriate coursework and to inorm

local academic senates as they design appropriate curriculum. It should also include an assessment o college

knowledge and the extent to which a student understands and exhibits key academic behaviors and habits o

mind necessary or success in college. This more robust assessment, coupled with multiple measures, would

be used to determine students needs or additional support and to enable colleges to more eectively place

students in appropriate courses and target interventions and services.

Work with the Academic Senate and the K-12 system to ensure alignment o community college

assessment standards within the states new CCSS assessments when those are implemented in 2014 (see

Recommendation 1.1).

Ater development o the diagnostic assessment, amend Education Code Section 78213 to require colleges

to use the new common assessment or course placement while allowing districts to supplement common

assessment with other validated multiple measures.

Eventually, the Board o Governors would propose to amend Education Code Section 99300 . to transition the

use o the EAP to the new assessment that is aligned with the K-12 CCSS.

In the meantime, the enactment o AB 743 will acilitate theinterim selection o a currently available o the shel

assessment instrument or English, math, and ESL, to be procured in the most cost-eective manner or use

statewide.

One-time unds o $1 million (already secured rom outside sources) together with dedicated state-level unding

o approximately $5 million would enable the Chancellors Oce, working with the CCC Assess advisory

committee, to conduct a centralized procurement o the common assessment. Leveraging the systems buying

power will drive down the costs and allow some customization o the assessment. Under this approach, colleges

will have unlimited assessment capacity at low or no cost.

Participation in the interim assessment system would be voluntary but incentivized by the signicant local cost

savings.


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Recommendation 2.2

Require all incoming community college students to: (1) participate in diagnostic assessment

and orientation and (2) develop an education plan.

By requiring students to participate in these core services, the community college system will ensure that

students have the oundational tools necessary to make inormed choices about their education. Te Board

o Governors will dene categories o students who should be exempt rom mandatory placement and ori-

entation, such as students with a prior degree returning to pursue training in a dierent career eld. Colleges

would also be able to exempt students rom each o these requirements on a case-by-case basis.


Education Code section 78212 and Title 5 section 55500 . already require colleges to provide these and other

matriculation services to all non-exempt students i unding is provided or that purpose.

Amend Title 5 sect ions 55521-25 to require students to participate in assessment, or ientation and developmento a student education plan.

Amend Title 5 sect ion 55532 to establ ish more explicit criteria or exempting students rom participation in

required services in order to achieve greater clarity and statewide consistency in the proportion o students to be

served.

Te ask Force recognizes that implementation o this recommendation requires: (1) a substantial realloca-

tion o existing local resources; (2) additional resources; and (3) new modes o service delivery in order to

make these required services available to all incoming students.


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Recommendation 2.3

Community colleges will develop and use centralized and integrated technology, which

can be accessed through campus or district web portals, to better guide students in their

educational process.

Several recommendations in this report rely heavily on the capability o technology to help guide students

along educational pathways. o implement many o the recommendations, the community colleges must

develop and implement a variety o centralized technology applications. Toughtully designed online

technology will enable students to guide as much o their own education planning as is appropriate or

their level o technology access and skills and their ability to choose and ollow an appropriate pathway.

It will also provide useul tools or counselors and advisors to better assist students with educational plan-

ning and or administrators and aculty to better plan class schedules to ensure that students have access

to the courses they need to complete their educational goals in a timely and efcient manner. As the

system moves in this direction, it is essential that there be strategies and tools to bridge the digital divide,

ensuring that all students have necessary access to computers, high-speed internet, and the opportunity

to learn basic technology skills.

Tese technological applications will generate efciencies, but more importantly they will increase and

improve communication with students by using platorms they already rely on to manage their daily lives.

odays students use laptops, smart phones and tablets not only to communicate with riends and proessors,

but also to make appointments, purchase goods and services, watch movies, and do research. Tis is where

our students spend much o their time, and we must create smart applications that make it easier or them

to pursue and reach their educational goals. While not all students have the devices, skills, and experience to

make eective use o this kind o technology, a large and growing proportion do and have expectations that

the institutions with which they interact will utilize current technology to acilitate practical transactions as

well as the learning experience.

Rather than having individual colleges create their own online student planning tools, the Chancellors

Ofce will work with students, counselors, instructional and student services administrators, and college

technology representatives to create applications that could be plugged into existing college and district web

portals. Colleges will be able to place these applications in locations that mesh with their own unique web-

sites, with the services being centrally provided and centrally supported.

Examples o the types o online services include:

A common application to college;

An electronic transcript;

An online BOG Fee Waiver orm;

An education planning module;

An electronic library resource and library catalog;

A career exploration module;


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A job placement module;

A textbook purchasing module; and

A transer advisement module.


Secure additional state unding or the development o the proposed technology tools that would then be

provided to colleges ree o charge.

A centralized development and procurement process would leverage the systems size to drive down the

estimated annual cost o the project to approximately $12 million.

Initiate discussion with existing advisory groups, such as the Matriculation Advisory Committee,

Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Committee, Chancellors Oce Advisory Group on Counse ling,

CCCApply Steering Committee, and others, to rene the scope and approach to growing services.

Convene appropriate advisory groups that include program and technology experts to plan and execute

technology projects as unding is secured.


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Recommendation 2.4

Require students whose diagnostic assessments show a lack o readiness or college to

participate in a support resource, such as a student success course, learning community,

or other sustained intervention, provided by the college or new students.

A students readiness or college is based on several actors in addition to their academic prociency in

English and mathematics. College readiness includes other variables that can inuence a students ability

to successully complete credit-bearing, college-level coursework. Te extensive work done by Dr. David

Conleys Education Policy Improvement Center at the University o Oregon denes our dimensions o

college knowledge critical to student success: (1) Key cognitive strategies, including analysis, interpreta-

tion, precision, problem solving, and reasoning; (2) Specic types o content knowledge, most importantly

the ability to read and write critically; (3) Attitudes and behavioral attributes, including study skills, time

management, awareness o ones perormance, persistence, and the ability to utilize study groups; and (4)

Contextual knowledge about college resources and expectations and how to successully adjust to navigating

the college environment.

Community colleges have tested numerous models o supporting under-prepared students, both inside and

outside the classroom, through college success courses, rst-year experience programs, learning communi-

ties, and campus-wide initiatives. Tese eorts promote critical thinking skills and behaviors, or habits o

mind essential to college success. Experience within the CCC system and nationally demonstrates the e-

ectiveness o such deliberate interventions in supporting student persistence and success.


Amend Title 5 section 55521 to allow or students to be placed in a student success course or other support

activity.

Require students to participate in a student success support intervention i assessment results demonstrate a

need.

Encourage colleges to review the readily available literature on student success courses and other

interventions to determine elements that would likely make them most eective or their local population.

The Chancellors Oce should review college models or campus and online student orientat ion and student

success courses currently in place and disseminate the most eective scalable approaches and curricula.


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Recommendation 2.5

Encourage students to declare a program o study upon admission, intervene i a declaration

is not made by the end o their second term, and require declaration by the end their third

term in order to maintain enrollment priority.

Declaring a major or program o study is more specic than declaring a broad educational goal such as earn-

ing an associate degree or transerring to a our-year college. Declaring a program o study sets incoming

students on a specic educational pathway and builds early momentum or their success. Research rom the

Institute or Higher Education Leadership and Policy shows that students who entered a program in their

rst year were twice as likelyto complete a certicate, degree, or transer as students who entered a program

ater their rst year. First-year concentrators were nearly 50 percent more likely to complete than those who

entered a program in their second year, and the rates o completion ell sharply or students entering a pro-

gram o study later than their second year. A student who is unable to declare a major or program o study

by the end o their second term should be provided counseling and career planning interventions to assist

them. Students who ail to declare a program o study ater their third term should lose enrollment priority.

Nothing would preclude a student rom changing their direction and declaring a new program o study

but the implications o change, in terms o cost and time to completion, should be made clear. In addition,

students would have the ability to appeal a loss o enrollment priority.


Amend Title 5 regulations to requi re students to declare a specic program o study by the end o their second

term.

Current Title 5 regulations require students to declare an educational goal during the term ater which the

student completes 15 semester units or 22 quarter units o degree-applicable credit coursework, unless the

district establishes a shorter period. Title 5 also requires districts to establish a process or assisting students to

select a specic educational goal within a reasonable time, as dened by the district, ater admission.

Amend Title 5 to dene program o study as a certicate, degree, or transer objective in a spec ic

occupational area or major. Groups o students exempted rom meeting this requirement should also be

specied in regulation.


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INCENTIVIZE SUCCESSFUL STUDENT BEHAVIORS

Policy Statement:

Community colleges will incentivize those student behaviors that are associated withtheir eventual success.

One o the basic tenets o the Master Plan or High-

er Education is that all Caliornians who have the

capacity and motivation to benet rom higher edu-

cation should have a place in the Caliornia Com-

munity Colleges. Given the scarcity o resources cur-

rently available to the colleges, the reality is the state

has ailed to live up to that commitment and we as

a system are rationing access to education. While

we continue to admit all students that apply, not all

admitted students are able to enroll in the courses

needed to meet their educational goals.

Under current law and practice, students already in

the system have enrollment priority over new stu-

dents. In addition, registration priority is generally

higher or students with higher unit accumulations.

As a result, there is a perverse incentive or students

to enroll in classes, even i they do not urther their

educational objectives, simply to gain a place higher

in the enrollment queue. In the 2009-10 academic

year, approximately 133,000 rst time students were

unable to register or even a single course due to

their low placement in the registration queue.

Policies that enable students to wander around the

curriculum, withdraw and repeat classes multiple

times, avoid services that could help them nd a

productive pathway, and accumulate an unlimited

3

Recommendation


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34

REGISTRATIO

115 Units AttemptedFouth term; no identified

course of study

First-time studentseeking transfer

Worker seeking re-training

and/or new job skills

Continuing student taking

crafts for fun

CURRENT REGISTRATION PRIORITY

Continuing student

showing progress

number o units are a disservice to enrolled students

and to those who cannot get into the system due to

a lack o available classes.

Adopt Consistent Polices or EnrollingStudents

As a system, we have established and continue to

rely on these ineective enrollment priority policies.

However, now is the time or the community col-

lege system to adopt new enrollment management

polices that encourage students to ollow and make

progress along delineated educational pathways that

are most likely to lead to completion o a certicate,

degree, transer, or career advancement goal.

Use the BOG Fee Waiver Program as a Wayto Incentivize Successul Student Behaviors

Te Board o Governors (BOG) Fee Waiver pro-

gram, which was designed to ensure that the com-

munity college ees do not present students with a

nancial barrier to education, is an underutilized

mechanism or incentivizing successul student be-

haviors. Unlike ederal and state nancial aid pro-

grams, the community colleges do not require BOG

Fee Waiver recipients to declare a goal or make satis-

actory academic progress, and there is no limit the

maximum number o units covered by the award.

Te ask Force believes that policies governing eli-

gibility or the BOG Fee Waiver should be consis-

tent with enrollment policies designed to promote

student success. Te proposed BOG Fee Waiverchanges would ensure that low-income students

who rely on the waiver will be provided the same

level o interventions and support and held to the

same standards required or all students to maintain

enrollment priority.


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35

REGISTRAT

ION

115 Units AttemptedFouth term; no identified

course of study

First-time student

seeking transfer

Worker seeking re-trainingand/or new job skills

Continuing student taking

crafts for fun

SSTF PROPOSED REGISTRATION PRIORITY

Continuing studentshowing progress

Recommendation 3.1

The Community Colleges will adopt system-wide enrollment priorities that: (1) relect the

core mission o transer, career technical education and basic skills development; (2)

encourage students to identiy their educational objective and ollow a prescribed path

most likely to lead to success; (3) ensure access and the opportunity or success or new

students; and (4) incentivize students to make progress toward their educational goal.

Current law and practice guiding student enrollment tends to avor the continuing student, based solely on

their accrual o course units. Te existing system does not reect the core priorities o community colleges:

to provide courses or students seeking to earn a degree or certicate, transer, participate in a career-tech-

nical program, or improve their basic language or computational skills. Altering enrollment prioritization is

an efcient way o encouraging successul student behaviors and ensuring that we are intelligently rationing

classes to provide more students with the opportunity to succeed.

Highest enrollment priority should be provided or:

Continuing students in good standing who are making progress toward a certicate,

degree, transer, or career advancement objective. Tis would include displaced and

incumbent workers who enroll in career-related courses and students who are actively

pursuing credit or noncredit basic skills remediation.


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First-time students who participate in orientation and assessment and develop an in-

ormed education plan.

Students who begin addressing any basic skills deciencies in their rst year, through

either courses or other approaches.

o address student equity goals, current statutory and regulatory provisions requiring orencouraging priority registration or special populations (active duty military and recent

veterans, current and emancipated oster youth, students with disabilities, and disadvan-

taged students) should be retained. o the extent allowable by law, these students should

be subject to all o the limitations below.

Continuing students should lose enrollment priority i they:

Do not ollow their original or a revised education plan

Are placed or two consecutive terms on Academic Probation (GPA below 2.0 ater at-

tempting 12 or more units) and/or Progress Probation (ailure to successully complete

at least 50 percent o their classes)

Fail to declare a program o study by the end o their third term

Accrue 100 or more units, not including basic skills and ESL courses.


Adoption o this policy is wi thin the current purview o the Board o Governors.

Board o Governors should amend Title 5 regulations to establish statewide enrollment priorities.

Current legal requirements and relevant legislation include the ollowing:

Education Code section 66025.8, as recently amended by SB 813 (Chapter 375, Statutes o 2011) requires

community colleges to grant priority enrollment to any member or ormer member o the Armed Forces o

the United States or any academic term within our years o leaving active duty.

Title 5 sect ion 58108 authorizes community college districts to establ ish procedures and policies or

registration, including a priority registration system.

Title 5 sect ion 58108 permits colleges to provide special registration assistance to d isabled and

disadvantaged students in accordance with a priority system adopted by the local board o trustees.

Title 5 sect ion 56026 authorizes community colleges to provide registration assistance, including priority

enrollment to disabled students.

Title 5 sect ion 56232 requires colleges to provide access services or EOPS students, including reg istrat ion

assistance or priority enrollment.

AB 194, Beall (Chapter 458, Statues o 2011) requires communi ty col leges to grant priority enrollment to

current and ormer oster youth.


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Incentivize Successful Student Behaviors 37

Recommendation 3.2

Require students receiving Board o Governors (BOG) Fee Waivers to meet various

conditions and requirements, as speciied below.

(A) Identiy a degree, certiicate, transer, or career advancement goal;

(B) Meet institutional satisactory progress standards to be eligible or ee waiver renewal;

and

(C) Have a transcript that relects no more that 110 units, not including basic skills and ESL

courses.

Te BOG Fee Waiver program allows nancially needy students to have their ees waived. Unlike ederal and

state nancial aid programs, the community colleges do not limit the maximum number o units covered

by the award, nor do they require students to make satisactory academic progress toward an educational

goal. Federal and state nancial aid programs impose these requirements because they work to keep students

progressing toward their educational goals and help them to meet those goals in a timely manner.

When the BOG Fee Waiver program was established more than 25 years ago, its sole purpose was to prevent

the newly established student enrollment ee rom posing a barrier to the enrollment o low-income stu-

dents. oday, the programs lack o progress requirements stands in sharp contrast to all other aid programs

that encourage student progress and success. Tese recommendations would hold BOG Fee Waiver recipi-

ents to the same standards required o all students to maintain enrollment priority and would encourage

them to take advantage o resources provided by colleges to support their academic success. It would be

incumbent on colleges to implement systems to let students know when their continued access to the ee

waiver is threatened and to establish an appeals process to address extenuating circumstances.

Although saving money is not the intent or purpose o this recommendations, implementation will likely

result in modest short-term savings that should be captured and reallocated within the community col lege

system or reinvestment in the student support and retention activities identied in the student success

initiative. Any savings derived rom this recommendation will diminish over time as the ask Force recom-

mendations lead to improved student outcomes.


Amend Education Code section 76300(g) and Title 5 section 58612 or 58620 to add eligibility criteria.

Implement a series o active interventions to ensure that students acing diculties do not lose nancial aid eligibility.

Ensure that students ailing to make progress or approaching or exceeding the unit cap have the ability to appeal.

Ensure that nancial aid oces retain capacity to administer nancial aid programs regardless o the number o ee waivers

granted on a particular campus.


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Recommendation 3.3

Community Colleges will provide students the opportunity to consider the beneits o ull-

time enrollment.

Research indicates a high correlation between ull-time enrollment and students achieving their educational

objectives. Te aster a student completes his or her education, the less time there is or lie or amily issues

to get in the way. Students benet rom ull-time attendance by increasing their earning potential sooner

while colleges benet rom the greater efciency o serving one ull-time student versus two or more part-

time students or the same unding.

Many community college students are not in a position to enroll ull time, particularly those who work ull

time and are enrolled to upgrade their job skills as well as those who depend on ull-time employment to

support amilies. Nonetheless, there are simple steps that can be taken to ensure that all students are made

aware o the benets o ull-time enrollment and can consider whether such a route is possible or them.


No statutory or regulatory changes are needed.

The Chancellors Oce will disseminate best practices or nancia l aid packaging and deployment o existing

resources, including the I Can Afford College nancial aid awareness program.

Recommendation 3.4

Community colleges will require students to begin addressing basic skills needs in their frst year

and will provide resources and options or them to attain the competencies needed to succeed in

college-level work as part o their education plan.

Chapter 5 o this document addresses improving the quantity and efcacy o basic skills instruction. Col-

leges need to oer students an array o courses, laboratories, and other approaches to skill improvement.

Tese might include courses with embedded contextualized basic skills instruction, special interventions like

Math Jam, online and other computer-based laboratory resources, tutoring, supplemental instruction, and

intensive basic skills courses.


Following the procedures or establishing prerequisites or co-requisites outlined in Title 5 (Sections 55200-02)

community college districts are already permitted to require students assessed below collegiate level to begin

remediation beore enrolling in many college-level courses.

A more direct approach would be to adopt a new Title 5 regulation making the requirement explic it or all

students at all colleges.


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ALIGN COURSE OFFERINGS TO MEET STUDENT NEEDS

Policy Statement:

Community colleges will ocus course oerings on meeting student needs.

Oer Courses that Align with StudentEducation Plans

Signicant reductions in public unding have orced

community colleges across the state to reduce the

number o course sections they oer. As a result, the

availability o courses is insufcient to meet the stu-

dent demand in almost every area o the curriculum.At the beginning o each term, course sections close

quickly and waiting lists are longer than ever beore

seen in the system.

Given this context, Caliornias community colleges

must strategically ocus the scheduling o courses to

meet the needs o students who are seeking degrees,

certicates, and job training. Tese high priority

needs are at the core o the CCC mission and unda-

mental to helping Caliornians o all backgrounds to

achieve their economic and social goals.

Under the recommendations contained in this re-

port, colleges would have an additional responsibil-

ity to align course oerings to the needs o students.

Chapter 3 recommends specic incentives or stu-

dents to develop and ollow an education plan and

includes consequences or students who ail to do so.

I students are to be held accountable or enrolling

in specic courses, then colleges must ensure that

these courses are available in a timely manner.

4

Recommendation


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Use a Balanced Approach

Te ask Force recognizes that the scheduling o

courses is a complex matter that requires balancing

numerous priorities o the college. In order to meet

student and industry needs, colleges must shit rom

primarily relying on historical course scheduling

patterns and instead utilize the numerous sources o

data available to them as the basis or inormed course

scheduling. o help meet this objective, Chapter 2

recommends that all matriculating students, as well

as students enrolling or career advancement, com-

plete an education plan. Coupling a more universal

use o education plans with technology will provide

colleges with access to valuable inormation about

the uture course needs o their students.

Fund Courses that Support StudentEducational Plans

Te Board o Governors and the Legislature should

ensure that state subsidization or instruction,

whether it be credit or noncredit courses, is used to

oer those courses that support a program o study

and are inormed by student educ

student success task force recommendations

Documents