Our November 2008 report, High School to Community College: New Efforts to Build Shared Expectations, focuses on where California's K-12  and community colleges meet and explores some of the potential opportunities currently under discussion for building better bridges between them.

Listed below are resources related to this topic and efforts going on throughout California:

• The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges 

• Basic Skills Initiative, California Community Colleges

• California Community Colleges System Office This website includes more information about the Board of Governors, Chancellor’s Office, Management Information Systems (MIS) data system, and Accountability Reporting for the Community Colleges (ARCC).

• California Partnership for Achieving Student Success (Cal-PASS) This website includes downloadable versions of the mathematics “deconstruction guides” discussed in this report.

• CSU Early Assessment Program

• The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges This website includes more information about the Center for Student Success.
  
  

Recent reports and studies on college readiness, basic academic skills, and placement and assessment in the California Community Colleges

College readiness and basic academic skills have been hot topics of discussion in recent years among California’s public postsecondary systems. The following sources, cited in this report, provide an entry into some of this conversation, with a focus on California community colleges.

• Academic Literacy: A Statement of Competencies Expected of Students Entering California’s Public Colleges and Universities. A 2002 report by the Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates, which represents faculty from all three of the state’s public postsecondary systems.

• Back to Basics: Improving College Readiness of Community College Students. A June 2008 report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office. 

• Basic Skills as a Foundation for Student Success in California Community Colleges, second edition (July 2007). A literature review of effective practices in basic skills instruction that is at the center of the community college system’s ongoing Basic Skills Initiative. 

• Basic Skills for Complex Lives: Designs for Learning in the Community College. A July 2008 report on the Strengthening Pre-collegiate Education in Community Colleges (SPECC) program, a collaboration of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 

• Beyond the Open Door: Increasing Student Success in the California Community Colleges. An August 2007 report by the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at CSU-Sacramento that considers assessment and placement in the context of other state and system policies.

• California Community Colleges System Strategic Plan—Education and the Economy: Shaping California’s Future Today. Prepared for the Board of Governors in January 2006, the plan discusses basic skills instruction as part of the system’s goals for meeting the state’s projected needs for broader postsecondary access and success. 

• Community College Pre-collegiate Research Across California: Findings, Implications, and the Future. An article by Robert M. Johnstone that discusses research on and approaches to basic skills education across a number of California community colleges, published in iJournal in fall 2004.

• An Early Alert System for Remediation Needs of Entering Community College Students: Leveraging the California Standards Test. A July 2008 research study conducted by Cal-PASS on the potential use of high school CSTs to provide feedback about students’ academic readiness and placement. 

• Investigating the Alignment of High School and Community College Assessments in California. A June 2007 report by Richard S. Brown and David N. Niemi on alignment between community college placement exams and the augmented CSTs used in the Early Assessment Program, published by The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

• Issues in Basic Skills Assessment and Placement In the California Community Colleges. A report adopted in fall 2004 by the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges that discusses concerns about how students are provided with assessment and placement services. 

• Postsecondary Preparation and Remediation. Examining the Effect of the Early Assessment Program at California State University. A 2009 study by Jessica S. Howell, Michal Kurlaender and Eric Grodsky exploring how participation in the EAP in grade 11 affects the likelihood of later remediation in English and mathematics among incoming CSU-Sacramento students.

• Report of the Consultation Council Task Force on Assessment to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. A report accepted by the Board of Governors in January 2008 that considers and makes recommendations regarding assessment and placement practices across the community colleges.

• Report on the System’s Current Programs in English as a Second Language (ESL) and Basic Skills. A report to the Board of Governors in January 2008. Produced by the Academic Affairs Division of the community college System Office, the report provides baseline data on student participation and success in basic skills courses and how colleges offer them.