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Health & Fitness

Saddleback College Poised to Implement Historic Reforms Following Governor Brown's Signing of the Student Success Act of 2012

Today, Governor Brown signed the Student Success Act of 2012, a historic move in providing California community college students with additional tools needed to complete their educational goals.

Today, Governor Jerry Brown signed the Student Success Act of 2012, a historic, sweeping move in providing California community college students with additional tools needed to complete their degree, certificate, career training, and transfer. The bill aims to improve graduation and transfer rates for Saddleback College students, along with the more than 2.6 million community college students throughout the state. Saddleback College has been working closely with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and the statewide Student Success Task Force and has already started implementing some of the reforms specified in the bill.

The Student Success Act of 2012 saw overwhelming bipartisan support in both the Senate and the Assembly and supports student completions through the following:

  • Refocuses student services to support orientation, assessment, and educational planning
  • Implements a statewide common assessment tool for student placements
  • Requires colleges that are receiving student support service funds to post a student success scorecard with completion rates and close the achievement gap among under-represented groups
  • Requires students who receive fee waivers to make satisfactory academic progress

 

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The Student Success Act of 2012 is based on the work of the Student Success Task Force, spearheaded by State Chancellor Scott, that made the following recommendations to promote student completions: 1) increase college and career readiness; 2) strengthen support for entering students; 3) incentivize student behaviors; 4) align course offerings to meet student needs; 5) improve the education of basic skills students; 6) revitalize and re-envision professional development; 7) enable efficient statewide leadership and increase coordination among colleges; and 8) align resources with student success recommendations. 

“This is the result of nearly two years of hard work that started with the recommendations of the Student Success Task Force,” stated Dr. Jack Scott, community colleges chancellor. “But it’s not the end. Instead, it’s really just the beginning of a restructuring of our priorities so our students succeed in greater numbers.”  

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To further implement the Student Success Task Force recommendations, the California Community Colleges Board of Governors recently approved enrollment priority changes, giving class enrollment priority to new students who have completed college orientation and assessment and developed education plans. Continuing students who remain in good academic standing will also be given priority. These changes, which will be phased in starting fall of 2014, will give these students an edge in enrolling in the classes they need to complete their educational goals – classes that often fill quickly because they are required to transfer and/or complete a degree or certificate.

“The entire Saddleback College community is committed to helping our students succeed and increasing the number of student completions. Saddleback is also dedicated to implementing the changes specified by the Student Success Act of 2012, not only because they are mandated, but because we believe that these changes will better enable our students to meet their educational and personal goals,” stated Dr. Tod Burnett, president of Saddleback College. “In addition to the changes in this bill, we are working to identify new and innovative ways to support our students.”

“We commend the legislature for facilitating changes that will help our students complete more quickly and efficiently,” stated Gary Poertner, chancellor of the South Orange County Community College District.  “Our nation’s competitiveness depends on our ability to educate the workforce.”

“The Student Success Act changes the direction of the original reason for the creation of community colleges. Created by legislation in 1967, the then 72 community colleges became the largest system of higher education in the world, serving more than 2.6 million students,” stated Bob Cosgrove, president of Saddleback College’s Academic Senate. “The 1960’s Kerr plan would serve a wide variety of educational and career goals of students. The new initiatives begin to focus more on transfer and career and technical education programs that will move students through their degree or certificate plans much more rapidly and with more completions. The scope of the community colleges is becoming more restrictive because of the issue of funding.”

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