The Student Equity & Achievement Act provides resources to community college districts for activities to ensure equal educational opportunities and promote student success for all students regardless of race, gender, age, disability, or economic circumstances.
Each community college district must have a student equity plan that includes campus-based research on named categories of students in order to determine disproportionate impact. The plan must also detail goals for access and retention, degree and certificate completion, English as a Second Language completion, and transfer outcomes.
Plan development must involve all stakeholders. Plans are due to the Chancellor of the California Community College by December 1, 2019.
This initiative combines the prior Student Success and Support Program and Student Success for Basic Skills funding.
Resources:Element is not present in this initiative.
Requires focus on specific populations:
Research and plan development is largely an intra-institutional process involving academic senate, academic faculty and staff, student services, students though “appropriate people from the community” are encouraged to participate.
Calls out adoption of placement policies that support student success in transfer-level English and math courses
Requires strategies for addressing disproportionate impact of disaggregated subgroups including adoption of evidence-based models of additional academic and financial support services in order to improve student success.
Requires institutional researchers evaluating disproportionate impact to use the “percentage point gap methodology” established by the Community College Chancellor’s Office.
There is opportunity for increased collaboration by connecting to Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) programs to reach populations enrolled in human services and individuals with barriers to employment.
To target specific industries and further work-based learning efforts, the initiative could partner with CalWORKs work-study, WIOA industry sector work in high-demand industries, Strong Workforce, and Linked Learning programming.
There is potential to mitigate basic skills, ESL, and completion inequities by providing learning communities with embedded tutoring and counseling support as well as other instructional support services. This could also help ensure the use of participant-focused, evidence-based practices.
Does this information need updating or adjustment? Send us your suggestions: CAcareerpathway@clasp.org