California’s system of 116 community colleges is closing in on the hiring of its new chancellor. Whoever takes the helm will immediately need to contend with declining enrollments, racial disparities in student outcomes and an uncertain fiscal future. And in...

Within the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic – which began to shut down much of the United States in March 2020 — California community college total enrollment decreased by 14%, according to a report from the UC Davis...

Earning college credit in high school can be a powerful tool for exposing students to universities and helping them get a leg up on tuition and earning a degree. But access to those courses remains uneven across California. In many...

UC Davis Graduate School of Education Professors Michal Kurlaender and Paco Martorell will lead a team of researchers recently awarded $3 million to assess pandemic recovery inside community colleges. The U.S. Department of Education-awarded grant will support three years of...

In October, UCLA education professor Cecilia Rios-Aguilar was appointed as Chair of the Department of Education at the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. Rios-Aguilar formerly served as the school’s Associate Dean of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and is a...

The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences has awarded a $3 million research grant to a University of California, Davis-led research team to assess pandemic recovery efforts undertaken by the California Community Colleges. The goal of this three-year...

September is here and family households are abuzz with getting back to school for the fall. And despite the ever-lingering presence of COVID-19 in our lives, most children are going back to school in person and unmasked, restoring some sense...

A research team at UCLA has analyzed multiple data sources to assemble a comprehensive portrait of participation and outcomes in community college baccalaureate (CCB) degree programs across California. This relatively new public college pathway to a four-year degree marks a...

With university set to become a near-universal expectation for high-school graduates, the separate silos in which K12 and higher education have traditionally operated are increasingly being seen as barriers to equity. But what, realistically, can universities do to bridge the...

The recent debate over California’s proposed math framework is missing the forest for the trees. In its myopic focus on which advanced math courses best prepare high school students for their futures, it glosses over a glaring fact: More than...

UCLA Professor of Education and Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Cecilia Rios-Aguilar has been appointed to California’s newly created 16-member Associate Degree for Transfer Intersegmental Implementation Committee.  Rios-Aguilar was appointed to the Committee by California Speaker of the Assembly...

With June coming up, there are many high school students committing to the colleges that they will be attending in the fall. While there is a good percentage of students who want to attend a four year college, there is...

Through a first-of-its-kind program, Compton College, a community college in California, worked to fill a basic needs support gap for its dual enrolled students. A newly released report outlined how this initiative gave dual enrolled students emergency aid—and what lessons...

A recent review of school guidance and communications from the Centers on Disease Control and Prevention argues that the federal agency failed often in its goal of providing timely, actionable information to states and districts around COVID-19 safety protocols. As...

The community college baccalaureate program is on the precipice of expanding in California. Program proponents say the more advanced bachelor’s degree offerings by colleges that typically offer associate degrees are key to training California’s workforce and expanding degrees among the...

Last week, I wrote about the ongoing debate over whether the SAT and ACT exacerbate the larger inequality in colleges. After the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reinstated its SAT/ACT requirement, I looked at the argument that standardized test haters might...

Measures like the private college proposal could be a step toward making those schools as affordable for low-income students as the state’s public universities, said Michal Kurlaender, an education professor at UC Davis. That’s especially relevant given the pressing concern...

Along with affecting students’ possible areas of studies, the pandemic has also increased anxiety about finances and overall wellbeing as high students plan for their future. Analyzed survey research by the California Education Lab at the University of California, Davis...

California’s K–12 students experienced significant academic setbacks during the 2020-21 school year of mainly remote learning, showing growing achievement gaps, lagging progress in math and English, increased chronic absenteeism and a slight decline in the statewide graduation rate, according to...

Dual enrollment allows high school students to take college courses for credit, potentially improving college access. These courses can be offered at high schools, college campuses, or online, depending on the program. A new report from The Education Trust-West, an...

Dual enrollment, the practice in which high school students take college courses for credit in both systems, is on the rise nationally, with more than a million students participating. For decades, California high school students self-selected into a wide array...

The University of California’s historic move to abandon standardized exams may not be the last of changes coming to the admissions process for the public university system. That’s the expectation of college access advocates and admissions experts who say ditching...

Many California voters consider college affordability to be a top priority and also support increasing resources for California’s community college students,  according to “Californians’ Attitudes About College Access, Affordability, and Equity in the Time of COVID-19,”a new research brief published...

We all know the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a change to every aspect of life. We’ve seen how work and school looked drastically different than usual — and so did health care, transportation, nutrition and more. In many cases, inequities...

The impact of dual enrollment at the state’s community colleges is growing: more than 112,000 high school students graduating in the 2019–20 school year enrolled in college courses and earned college credit, representing an increase of 56% from 2015–16. This...