About this Project

Challenge for California Schools

Most high school students want to go to college. In fact, most high school students say they expect to earn at least a bachelor’s degree. A national survey in 2002 found that 72 percent of high school sophomores expected to obtain at least a bachelor’s degree, and 10 percent did not have definite expectations, so only 18 percent definitely did not expect to earn a bachelor’s degree.1  National surveys also show that the percentage of high school students who expect to graduate from college has grown significantly since the 1980s. Between 1981-82 and 2003-04, the share of high school seniors who expected to attain at least a bachelor’s degree rose from 35 to 69 percent.2  (More...)

 

1 Steven J. Ingels, Laura J. Burns, Xianglei Chen, Emily F. Cataldi, and Stephanie Charleston, A Profile of the American High School Sophomore in 2002:  Initial Results from the Base Year of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (NCES 2005– 338,  Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2005).

2 U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education 2006 (NCES 2006-071, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2006), Indicator 23.

College Tools for Schools tackles the issue of unequal access to California's colleges and universities.California now lags behind most other states in preparing students for postsecondary education. Challenge for California Schools explains why schools should make college an option for all students. Why College? offers ideas for parents and families about how to support children's preparation for college. More Resources provides links to related background and research papers.

This website is the product of a University of California effort to expand college access in California. The project is a collaboration among three organizations: the University of California’s Office of the President; the Center for Educational Partnerships at UC Berkeley; and the Career Academy Support Network in the Graduate School of Education at Berkeley. It is supported by a grant from the James Irvine Foundation in San Francisco. Read a report about the project to learn more about the initiative briefly described below.

A team made up of representatives from these three organizations has been working with high schools in three regions of the state (the Bay Area, Central Valley, and Inland Empire) to:

  • Develop a college-going culture
  • Employ the new electronic analysis of student transcripts (TES)
  • Strengthen their SLCs and/or Career Academies

Much new information came out of this effort. Many creative activities were developed, and we saw a sizable jump in the number of freshmen and sophomores who were meeting the UC/CSU a-g course entrance requirements in these pilot high schools. We have incorporated many of the lessons and activities that came from these efforts into this website.

Project Team

UC Office of the President
   Juan Sanchez, Acting Director, State Early Academic Outreach (EAOP) Program

Center for Educational Partnerships (CEP), UC Berkeley
   Gail Kaufman, Deputy Director; Director, School/University Partnerships (SUP)
   Miya Hayes, Assistant Director, School/University Partnerships
    Claudia Morales, Community Coordinator, School/University Partnerships

Career Academy Support Network (CASN), UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education
   Patricia Clark, Program Manager
   Carrie Collins, Administrator
   Charles Dayton, National Coordinator
   David Stern, Professor of Education and CASN Principal Investigator
   Susan Tidyman, State and Regional Coordinator

Website design
   Nick Despota, Lumina Media Production

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