Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/649572
City College has seen a 500 percent increase in students from LBUSD. TO O L K I T TO H E L P I M P L E M E N TAT I O N Community college and K-12 leaders are hopeful that the new legislation can smooth over some of the problems as new programs are implemented. Still, AB 288 is more of a carrot than a stick. "First and foremost, AB 288 is a voluntary initiative," says Vince Stewart, vice chancellor for external relations with the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office. "No one is mandating that community colleges and K-12 districts have dual enrollment, and it doesn't affect pre-existing programs. But this will offer one way of doing dual enrollment." T h e o n g o i n g c h a l l e n g e s that dual enrol lm ent presents prompted the Community College Association (CCA), the higher edu- cation affiliate of CTA, to offer two general sessions on the topic during its fall conference and to exact a prom- ise from the Chancellor's Office to produce a "tool kit" to help districts implement programs. Ever yone agrees there are positive aspects about high school and community college districts working together. Still, there have also been some cases in which poorly thought out programs violated collective bargain- ing agreements. One such case occurred when an Orange County high school implemented a middle college program offering Cypress College courses taught by high school teachers. Cypress College English professor Long Beach's Model Partnership The Hechinger Report recently published a story, "How One California City Saved Its Schools" by Lillian Mongeau, on Long Beach Unified School District's successful partnership with Long Beach City College and CSU Long Beach. Among the partnership's initiatives: early college tours by elementary schoolchildren, professional development for teachers, and col- lege admissions standards that favor local students. As a result, student test scores, AP class enrollment, high school graduation rates and college attendance rates have all risen over the partnership's 20-plus years of existence — even as Long Beach's mostly working-class demographics have remained unchanged. (According to 2014-15 California Department of Education data, 68 percent of Long Beach students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.) LBUSD's "graduation rate has hovered around 80 percent since 2010," the story reports. "Seventy-five percent of high school graduates attend college within one year, and 42 percent, on par with the state average, graduated in 2014 having met course requirements for admission to the Uni- versity of California or California State University. Preliminary numbers show that 49 percent of the Long Beach Unified class of 2015 nailed those requirements." LBUSD graduates who attend Long Beach City College graduate from that school at higher rates than their college classmates. When they transfer to CSU Long Beach, they graduate at higher rates than other transfer students. A legislative package proposed in January, called the California College Promise, is modeled on the Long Beach partnership and aims to get more California children to and through college. America's College Promise proposal to provide free community college for all eligible students — much the same as a free public education is guar- anteed to K-12 students. One nationally recognized program is the partnership between Long Beach Unified School District and Long Beach Community College Dis- trict, which was formalized in 2011 and has been in existence for about two decades. By removing barriers for underserved students and allowing high school students to enroll concurrently in college coursework, Long Beach Arie'ann Velasquez, 10, center, tours Long Beach City College with other elementary schoolchildren, thanks to LBCC's successful partnership with Long Beach Unified and CSU Long Beach. Credit: Lillian Mongeau/The Hechinger Report. Vince Stewart 41 March 2016