Partners in Success
Below you will find a list of organizations and resources involved in bettering Basic Skills instruction in the state of California.
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges fosters the effective participation by community college faculty in all statewide and local academic and professional matters; develops, promotes, and acts upon policies responding to statewide concerns; and serves as the official voice of the faculty of California Community Colleges in academic and professional matters. The Academic Senate strengthens and supports the local senates of all California community colleges.
The Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative (BAWFC) is a public/private partnership of 14 philanthropic foundations and the State of California Employment Development Department (EDD) designed to increase the economic security of low-income Bay Area residents while meeting the workforce needs of key industry sectors in the region. The BAWFC invests in workforce training efforts that promote the development and sustainability of career ladder initiatives that lead from entry level positions to progressively more skilled occupations in the health care and life sciences sectors. In addition, the BAWFC supports systems reform efforts aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of workforce development practice in the Bay Area region, and ensuring that state and local workforce, education, and economic development policies are responsive to the needs of local communities and critical industries. To date, the BAWFC has conducted two grant cycles distributing $6.5 million to 20 Bay Area workforce development projects.
CCAOE is the professional organization of vocational/occupational administrators and faculty. CCCAOE's purpose is to promote public recognition of vocational education and economic development activities; to develop partnerships with community agencies; to serve as a resource in assisting the membership to provide quality opportunities for professional growth within the community colleges.
The California Community Colleges Chief Student Services Administrators Association (CCCCSSAA) represents the lead student services officers at each of the 109 colleges around the state. The primary purpose of the association is to provide leadership for the student services profession; provide for the professional growth and development of Association members; represent student services at activities such as the statewide consultation process; increase recognition of the value and necessity of a comprehensive student services program in California Community Colleges; provide an efficient and useful vehicle of communication among student services administrators, other community college personnel, and state agencies; and to promote and advance public community college education.
The California Community College Collaborative (C4) is a policy center dedicated to improve community colleges, including the quality of student learning in California’s community colleges, by providing influential data-driven policy research that addresses the growing diversity of students and complexity of mission.
The long-range goals of C4 are two-fold: (1) to support and conduct empirically based research on community colleges that is used by policy analysts to formulate local and state strategies that improve the quality and capacity of California’s community colleges, and (2) to create an outstanding program of professional development for current and future community college leaders. C4 at UCR will be a place that generates innovative new ideas, approaches, and programs for improving the quality of student learning in California’s community colleges.
The Campaign for College Opportunity is a California non-profit organization dedicated to renewing the promise of the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education for the next generation of young Californians. By building a broad-based bi-partisan coalition, raising public awareness, and developing policy solutions, we are working to improve student access to college and success once enrolled in college. We have sponsored a number of activities focused on the California Community Colleges, which we see as the critical path to postsecondary education for the largest part of our population. Among these activities, we have given considerable attention and focused public conversations on the importance of improving Basic Skills instruction and integration of student services to improve student outcomes.
Strengthening Pre-collegiate Education in Community Colleges (SPECC) is a partnership of the Hewlett Foundation and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. A multi-site action-research project, SPECC focuses on teaching and learning in pre-collegiate mathematics and English language arts courses at 11 California community colleges. These courses, which cover material often termed “developmental” or “basic,” serve as prerequisites to transfer-level academic courses. On each campus, faculty members are exploring different approaches to classroom instruction, academic support, and faculty development. Their inquiry into the effects of these approaches engages a wide range of data, including examples of student work, classroom observations, and quantitative campus data. The ultimate goal of their investigations, and of SPECC as a whole, is to support student learning and success through a culture of inquiry and evidence.
The Career Ladders Project for the California Community Colleges works to strengthen the role of community colleges in providing educational and career advancement opportunities for Californians. Through research, policy initiatives, strategic and technical assistance to colleges and their workforce development partners, the Career Ladders Project works to foster career ladders in California.
The Career Ladders Project provides support to a number of initiatives, including the Gateway Project and the system’s Career Advancement Academies (CAAs), regional demonstration projects designed to establish pipelines for underprepared and underemployed young adults. Focused on improving reading, writing, and math skills in the context of high wage career pathways, these projects are creating bridges to college and career for underserved populations.
The Center for Student Success is the research and evaluation organization of the RP Group. Founded in 2000, the Center has completed twelve major research projects for the systemwide initiatives including recent studies on basic skills, accountability performance measures and an environmental scan for the system strategic plan.
The Center for Urban Education (CUE) is a research and action center whose mission is to conduct research that will result in the creation of enabling institutional environments for children, youth, and adults from socially and economically disenfranchised groups residing in urban settings. We define enabling institutional environments as those that foster successful educational and professional transitions (from K-12 through graduate school and into the world of work). And "urban settings" as those with frequent interactions among high population densities from a variety of ethnic, language, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Situated in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, CUE is uniquely positioned to explore the complex interplay between education and an urban environment similar to that found in most of the world's cities.
The Chancellor's Office sub-unit responsible for Basic Skills and English as a Second Language (ESL) provides State Leadership activities for the colleges, including, technical assistance; program evaluation; faculty/staff development; research and identification of emerging issues; advocacy; and special project funding and monitoring. The sub-unit also answers requests for information on community college Basic Skills and ESL activities from the public, lawmakers, the media and other interested parties.
The CCLDI, founded in 2000, encourages and promotes leadership development activities for current and future campus leaders, research dissemination and coordination, and opportunities to share information and access to professional development in community college education in the western region. The CCLDI is a partner of the University of San Diego and is a recipient of grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation.
The Community College League of California is a nonprofit public benefit corporation whose voluntary membership consists of the 72 local community college districts in California. The League serves the districts in six areas: education programs, research and policy analysis, fiscal services programs, governmental relations, communications, and governance of athletics.
The Community College Research Center (CCRC), part of Teachers College, Columbia University, is the leading independent authority on the nation’s more than 1,200 two-year colleges. Since our inception, CCRC’s consortium of researchers has strategically assessed the problems and performances of community colleges. Our mission is to conduct research on the major issues affecting community colleges in the United States and to contribute to the development of practice and policy that expands access to higher education and ensures success for all students. CCRC’s extensive body of research provides a strong foundation on which to build new policies and initiatives to improve the outcomes of these institutions so integral to the higher education system, employment landscape, and national economy.
The Digital Bridge Academy (DBA) is a program that offers under-prepared students who do not see themselves as college bound a chance to reclaim a positive experience of learning in an academic environment, succeed in higher education, and work effectively in knowledge based careers. The program is multi-layered: students build strong relationships through intensive immersion-style accelerated courses that focus on increasing learner motivation, self-knowledge, and self-discipline. It offers a sequenced program of academic and career-oriented courses with extended support services to support success with a full-time course load. DBA is currently testing and implementing a dissemination program. The goal is to focus first on California and then nationwide. The DBA is funded by the National Science Foundation and the James Irvine, William and Flora Hewlett, and Walter S. Johnson Foundations.
Contact: Rogéair Purnell 
The James Irvine Foundation’s youth program seeks to increase the number of low-income youth in California who complete high school on time and attain a postsecondary credential by the age of 25. We believe the most promising approach to increasing the number of youth who complete high school on time, then progress to postsecondary credential attainment and on to a rewarding career and life, is to build “multiple pathways” to success, embracing the fact that California is home to diverse students with different learning styles and a wide variety of interests and life demands. To close the gaps in secondary and postsecondary academic achievement, credential attainment, and career preparedness, we commit ourselves to addressing the needs of youth aged 14 to 24 who must steer a course through significant educational and life transitions, often with diminishing levels of guidance. We support a range of educational models and options that promote effective academic engagement, utilize contextual approaches infused with high expectations for performance and achievement, and tie formal education to the broader world of career, community, and engaged citizenship.
The Research and Planning Group is the organization representing California community college research and planning and learning assessment professionals. The RP Group provides leadership in research, analysis, and planning issues for California community colleges.
The RP Group provides liaison with other professional groups, such as the Chancellor's Office, Community College League of California, California Postsecondary Education Commission, the Academic Senate, Board of Governors. The RP Group also provides support to California community college faculty and staff regarding research and planning issues through: training; keeping member colleges informed; developing and disseminating new tools, methodologies and approaches; and providing opportunities for networking and sharing.
The Student Senate for California Community Colleges represents 1.5 million students on issues that have or may have a significant impact on students in the California Community Colleges. Student Senate for California Community Colleges presents student perspectives before the Chancellor's Office and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, State Legislature and the Governor.
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is a private foundation based in Menlo Park, California. Hewlett places a high value on sustaining and improving institutions that make positive contributions to society. Since 2002, California community colleges have been a strategic priority because of their key role in providing postsecondary education. Our investments aim to strengthen the colleges as an avenue for lifting postsecondary attainment for California students, with a particular emphasis on improving outcomes for the large majority of students who arrive unprepared for college-level instruction. Our strategy works on two levels. First, we seek to build colleges' capacity to increase student success - through, for example, replicating effective instructional programs and improving colleges' ability to track student performance. But because colleges ultimately can't succeed in such efforts without resources and regulations that support change, we also place a significant emphasis on improving state policy through research, dissemination, and advocacy.