A Statewide Phone Briefing was held:  Wednesday, November 19th 2008 at 10:30am

Speakers Included:

• State Senator Jack Scott, Incoming Chancellor of the California Community College System
• Robin Calote Ed.D, President of Ventura College
• Micah Jendian, Cal-PASS Freshman Composition Alignment Project, Grossmont College
• Lianne Richelieu-Boren, Director of College Options
• Monica Small, Director of Sutter Center for Health Professionals
• Michele Siqueiros, Executive Director of the Campaign for College Opportunity

California community colleges and universities face the important task over the coming decade of providing access, improving student success, and ensuring affordability of college for California residents. The state faces rapid demographic change, a growing young adult population, and increasing demands for highly educated workers to keep our economy strong. Policymakers will need to increase their investment in college-going to ensure the state's future vitality. At the same time, taxpayers, policymakers, the public and especially educators themselves want to ensure that resources are well spent providing the maximum benefit for the people of California.

Against this backdrop, California educators are developing and implementing positive solutions to provide better college opportunities for our residents. Some of these efforts entail new innovations, while others rely on the solid execution of well-tested ideas. Some happen within one institution, others cross segmental boundaries.

Building on the success of the inaugural year of Practices with Promise, the Campaign for College Opportunity commenced another round of Practices with Promise in 2008. We wanted to know about the effective and innovative work underway to improve college opportunities, and make sure that other educators, policymakers, media, and civic, business and community leaders are aware of these efforts.

This project invited educators in California to submit a solution or practice they had put to work in improving college opportunity for California residents. The Campaign then worked with college presidents, academic senates, faculty associations, professional associations and research intermediaries to ensure that the project information reached a wide range of educators.

All submissions that met the basic eligibility criteria were acknowledged with a certificate of participation for the institution and were listed in appropriate materials. A panel of reviewers, composed of experts from within and outside higher education, reviewed the submissions to identify 10 or more specific innovations and effective practices to receive special recognition through events, media, and other appropriate activities. The Campaign for College Opportunity then provided visibility for the effective and innovative practices of educators in support of college opportunity, with a goal of encouraging the wider adoption of these practices in collaboration with education leaders throughout the state.

Through this effort, we hoped to achieve three major goals:

1. Dissemination – We wanted to identify good ideas that are working on California campuses and share these ideas with other educators and policymakers to make an even bigger impact.

2. Appreciation – We wanted to thank the educators and institutions who are making good use of resources to find solutions for college opportunity for California residents.

3. Recognition – We wanted to offer public recognition for the people, institutions, and ideas at work in making higher education achieve its full promise for the people of California.

If you are reporter and would like to get more information, please contact Marty Trujillo at marty@collegecampaign.org or call him at 213-817-6034.