Community colleges can have a transformative effect on students who attend, opening doors to careers and further education opportunities. But in this era of limited resources and rising expectations, the colleges may need to transform themselves as well.

This issue brief highlights the comments of California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott and Hal Plotkin, a senior policy advisor in the U.S. Department of Education, who both spoke at EdSource’s 33rd Annual Forum on California Education—California at a Crossroads: Crisis & Opportunity—held in Santa Clara on March 19, 2010.

Highlights:

• How the federal government is supporting transformational change
• The impact of the state’s fiscal problems on community college access
• Communication and articulation issues between community colleges and public schools and universities

Watch video of discussion

 

EdSource thanks the Stuart Foundation, School Services of California, Inc., Sierra Health Foundation, Riverside Publishing, ACT, California Casualty Group, California Collegiate Brain Trust, DecisionInsite, and Olson Hagel & Fishburn LLP for their financial support of this year’s Forum and this brief. In addition, EdSource thanks The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Reed Hastings, and The James Irvine Foundation for their generous general support grants, which help underwrite the cost of the annual Forum and this brief.