Research
February 2011 | The Road Less Traveled: Realizing the Potential of Career Technical Education in the California Community Colleges
IHELP’s report examines four high-wage, high-need career pathways in the California Community Colleges as a basis for exploring the Career Technical Education mission and its role in the college completion agenda. The study found that the potential of CTE to help meet the state’s completion, workforce, and equity goals is not fully realized due to a lack of priority on awarding technical certificates and degrees and an absence of clear pathways for students to follow in pursuing those credentials. The report offers recommendations to strengthen the CTE function including: reexamining the structure and function of occupationally-oriented associate degrees; offering fewer, more consistent CTE programs that clearly meet regional needs; and having students formally declare a program of study, with colleges ensuring that students have access to the classes they need for those programs.
January 2011 | California 2025: Planning for a Better Future
California’s current economic and fiscal realities make nonpartisan, objective information on the state’s future challenges all the more critical. Understandably, the search is on for immediate solutions to the unprecedented crises we face today. But if the present crises make policymakers shelve long-term planning, the result may be an even more uncertain future for our state. This report highlights California’s most pressing long-term policy challenges in seven key areas: budget, climate change, economy, education, population, water, workforce.
August 2009 | Crafting a Student-Centered Transfer Process in California: Lessons from Other States
In California, community colleges play a major role in producing baccalaureate degrees. Under the Master Plan for Higher Education, the vast majority of college students in California begin their college education in a community college. Access to the baccalaureate for these students is provided through the transfer process. While a large number of university graduates are community college transfers, data on transfer rates show that only a small percentage of students who begin in community colleges successfully transfer. When students do transfer, the process is often inefficient or incomplete. This report from the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy (IHELP) at California State University at Sacramento finds a need for substantial reform in the state’s community college transfer process.
June 2009 | Utilizing College Completion Program Funds
President Barack Obama has set a nationwide goal of leading the world in the percentage of college graduates in our workforce by 2020. One of his Administration’s proposed methods for meeting this goal is to include $2.5 billion in his budget over five years for the College Access and Completion Innovation Fund, which will establish a state/federal partnership to improve college completion. The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) with support from the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation has released this report describing how California can best use those monies.
April 2009 | The New Homegrown Majority in California
For the first time in history, native Californians have become the majority and are changing the face of the state's future according to this report released by the Population Dynamics Research Group at the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development. According to the "Homegrown Majority" report this change has significant implications on education, infrastructure and tax policy as well as state budget making.
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April 2009 | Closing the Gap: Meeting California's Need for College Graduates
This report, released by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), found that California will face a shortage of nearly 1 million college graduates by the year 2025. The report lays out a feasible scenario that would increase the number of college graduates by more than 500,000, closing the education skills gap by half.
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February 2009 | The Grades Are In - 2008: Is California Higher Education Measuring Up?
This report is the third in a series of reports analyzing the performance of California higher education in the areas of preparation, participation, completion, affordability, and benefits. It presents data related to these categories of performance by region and by race/ethnicity, and discusses key issues and policy recommendations for each category. It also describes California's performance relative to other states as presented in the National Center's Measuring Up 2008 report card.
December 2008 | California's Future Workforce: Will There Be Enough College Graduates?
This report, released by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), found that if current trends continue, California will experience a serious shortfall of college graduates by 2025, unable to meet its needs even through the migration of college graduates from other states.
Read the Executive Summary Read the Full Report
October 2006 | State of Decline? Gaps in College Access & Achievement Call for Renewed Commitment to Educating Californians
This report, authored by researchers Nancy Shulock and Colleen Moore of Sacramento State's Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy (IHELP), offers regional analysis and recommendations on closing the higher education gap. This new study, a follow-up to last year's "Variations on a Theme" report, breaks down higher education performance by race, ethnicity, and geography using the methodology from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education's September 2006 "Measuring Up" report.