UC Merced Project To Improve College Readiness Data Completes First Phase

1300 Campaign Students Hosted at UC Merced Academy

UC Merced Ranked No. 1 in the Nation for Social Mobility, No. 18 Overall

Pathways to College Completion in the San Joaquin Valley

Grant Supports UC Merced Effort to Improve College Readiness in Valley

1300 Campaign Continues to Lift up Young Men of Color to Pursue Higher Education

UC Merced to oversee $18M in funding to boost health education in San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties

UC Merced-led Regional Education Collaborative Awarded $18.1 Million in State Funds


UC Merced adds Veterans Upward Bound program to support veteran students through college

Campus Upward Bound Program to Expand to Gustine Unified School District

CEP Students Participate in Project 1300 Summer Academy

Math Academy at UC Merced

May 27—Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday a new Kern County educational collaborative will get $18 million to advance equity by expanding access to higher education and creating opportunities for local careers.

Newsom Devotes $18M to New Educational Collaborative

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded UC Merced’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CEP) five grants totaling more than $6.9 million for its Talent Search program. The program aims to increase the number of youths from disadvantaged backgrounds to continue their post-secondary education. “We are excited to expand CEP’s footprint in the Valley and to offer Talent Search participants the services and resources needed to graduate with the greatest number of postsecondary choices from the widest array of options,” said Orquídea Largo, interim associate vice chancellor for student affairs. For the next five years, the grant will help CEP offer students from 10 San Joaquin Valley high schools the opportunity to receive financial counseling and academic support to help prepare them for college. Those high schools are: Le Grand, Delhi, Livingston, Golden Valley, Fresno, Roosevelt, Edison, McLane, Corcoran and Farmersville. More than 6,000 students have benefited from the program since its first grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 2006. Students who participate in the program must meet federally outlined eligibility guidelines, including being citizens or nationals of the U.S., permanent residents of the U.S., and considered low-income and potential first-generation college students.

Campus Talent Search Program Funded for the Next Five Years

In an effort to prepare middle and high school students for rigorous mathematics coursework, UC Merced’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CEP) joined with 11 school districts in the San Joaquin Valley to launch a series of summer academies at UC Merced, CSU Fresno, Fresno City, Porterville College and College of the Sequoias.

The academies ran from early June to late July. More than 420 middle and high school students from the districts of Delhi, Livingston, Atwater, Merced, Le Grand, Cutler-Orosi, Golden Plains, Fresno, Farmersville and Corcoran participated in one of seven academies that were offered.

“The academies offer students in the Valley an opportunity to prepare for the rigor of A-G coursework and a postsecondary education,” CEP Director Orquidea Largo said.
Outside activities like playing with chalk helped students learn mathematics.
Outside activities like playing with chalk helped students learn mathematics.

The collaboration and academies are sponsored by GEAR UP, Talent Search, Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math and Science grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the UC Scholars Early Academic Outreach Program. The academies’ focus is on preparing students in mathematics and the completion of A-G subject requirements to ensure they graduate with the greatest number of postsecondary choices available from the widest array of options.

Since 2007, the CEP has offered students in the San Joaquin Valley an opportunity to participate in academic interventions in the spring or summer that support their academic preparation in mathematics and other subjects.

The CEP remains steadfast in serving as a change agent at K-12 partnership sites to help advance the college and career readiness of middle school and high school students. The implementation of academies is intended to be a short-term intervention, serving students with the potential to excel if offered academic supplemental services.
UC Merced's Center for Educational Partnerships summer academies help students with mathematics and the completion of A-G requirements.
UC Merced's Center for Educational Partnerships summer academies help students with mathematics and the completion of A-G requirements.

Math Academies Prepare Local Students for Higher Education

UC Merced welcomed more than 500 students from across the San Joaquin Valley to campus Wednesday to celebrate College Signing Day.

Every student was a high school senior who will move on to higher education in the fall. Seven colleges and universities were represented, including UC Merced, Fresno State, Stanislaus State and CSU Bakersfield.

The event at UC Merced coincided with a larger College Signing Day event at UCLA — put on by former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher foundation — and Obama gave the keynote address.

“I know a lot of you have been counted out,” Obama said. “Maybe your parents didn’t get to go to college. Maybe you were like me and somebody told you that you weren't college material.

“Ask yourself whether you’re going to believe the haters or the honest truth of your own story.”

Jose Hernandez, Ph.D. — a former NASA astronaut, previous UC Merced Commencement speaker and UC Santa Barbara alum — spoke to students at UC Merced’s event. He discussed growing up in Stockton and how his father provided him with a “recipe” for success after he decided he wanted to be an astronaut at 10 years old.

Students also watched the live stream of Obama’s speech and took part in a campus tour and lunch. UC Merced’s Center for Educational Partnerships hosted the event on campus.

 

    Congratulations and welcome to the Bobcat family! #collegesigningday #bettermakeroom #ichosemerced pic.twitter.com/TusevpEtd0

    — UC Merced (@ucmerced) May 1, 2019

 

    Today is #COLLEGESIGNINGDAY It’s a day when students select their school and take a step into their educational futures! Congratulations for taking charge of your futures! #BobcatPride #ucmerced #ReachHigher #BetterMakeRoom @UofCalifornia pic.twitter.com/jw41VcvQbK

    — Rufus Bob Cat (@RufusBobcat) May 1, 2019

 

    Honored to address 500+ future scholars ⁦@ucmerced⁩ & #CollegeSigningDay We believe in you! ⁦@MichelleObama⁩ shared 10 yrs ago ⁦@ucmerced⁩ “You are the hope of Merced & of this nation...be the realization of our dreams & the hope for the next generation.” pic.twitter.com/oXTevyL1LP

    — Charles Nies (@NiesUCM) May 1, 2019

UC Merced Celebrates Newest Batch of College Students with College Signing Day 

Education is one of the most challenging areas our foundation works on. There will never be a medicine that guarantees every child has access to a world-class education or a vaccine to prevent kids from dropping out. Each district has unique needs, and a good idea that works in one school might be difficult to scale across the entire system.

Melinda and I have evolved our thinking about education over the years, but one thing we remain committed to is innovation. I try to meet regularly with teachers and administrators in the field who have creative ideas about how to make school systems work for every child.

I recently had an insightful conversation with one of these big thinkers: Jorge Aguilar, the superintendent of the Sacramento City United School District. Although this is only his first year running his school district in Northern California, he’s already making a real difference in the lives of his students. Jorge’s approach as an educator is shaped by his personal story. His parents were migrant farm workers from Mexico, and he split his childhood between a small town in California and his family’s hometown. When his senior year of high school came around, his parents didn’t know enough about the U.S. system to help him apply to college. He didn’t even know how community colleges differed from universities until a representative from the University of California visited his school.

Today, Jorge uses data to make sure kids like him don’t slip through the cracks. Twenty percent of the students in the Sacramento school district are still learning the English language, and approximately 70 percent are classified as low-income—two groups that are particularly at risk for falling behind academically. Jorge helped develop an early-warning system that looks at attendance, behavior, and academic records to detect kids who are more likely to drop out. His district also uses national college acceptance data to create recommendations for seniors about where they should apply.

“Data can keep you very human as long as you remind yourself that every numerator, every denominator is the face of a child,” he told me. “There’s just so many ways in which we can use data for this idea of making our work more human and taking a humanist approach.”

Jorge is also a big believer in what he calls an “opt-out philosophy” (it has nothing to do with opting out of tests). If a student excels at a particular subject, she gets automatically enrolled in college prep and other classes such as Advanced Placement. If she’s falling behind, the school signs her up for additional winter or summer classes. In both cases, parents must sign a form saying they don’t want their child to participate if they want to opt out.

He first implemented this approach in his previous job with the Fresno Unified school system. Jorge knew from the data that more Fresno students could benefit from extra instruction than were currently enrolled in summer school. Before the program, the entire district would see only four or five students sign up every year. After switching to an opt-out system, an impressive 18,000 students attended summer classes. He is now implementing a similar program in Sacramento.

I hope that eventually no child will need remedial instruction to succeed in the classroom. Until that day comes, I’m glad more students are getting the help they need. It’s too early to tell if Jorge’s approach is working in Sacramento, but I’m excited that he’s willing to try something new. I can’t wait to see the results.  

A humanist approach to teaching kids

To help prepare middle-school students for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), UC Merced’s Center for Educational Partnership (CEP) collaborated with four local school districts to launch a series of Saturday math academies at the UC Merced campus.

The academies began late last month and run for eight weeks. More than 300 students from Delhi, Le Grand, Cutler-Orosi and Golden Plains school districts are participating, with 52 students attending academies at Fresno Pacific University.

The collaboration and academies are funded by GEAR UP, Talent Search and Upward Bound Math and Science grants from the U.S. Department of Education. The academies are designed to address students’ preparation in mathematics to ensure they each receive a performance rating of “met” on the upcoming CAASPP.

“The academies offer students an opportunity to reach their academic potential and commit school partners to sustain these efforts beyond the grant cycles,” CEP Director Orquidea Largo said. Since 2007, the CEP has offered students in the San Joaquin Central Valley opportunities to participate in activities in the spring or summer that support their academic preparation in mathematics. The short-term goal is students’ performance rating in the CAASPP and their successful placement in A-G approved math coursework in high school. The CEP’s long-term goal is for program participants “to have the greatest number of postsecondary choices from the widest array of options upon graduation .”

The CEP remains steadfast to serve as a change agent at K-12 partnership sites to help advance the college and career readiness of middle- and high-school students. Academies are intended to be short-term interventions for students with the potential to excel if given supplemental academics.

For more information, contact CEP’s main office at 559-241-7476.


Saturday Academies Offer Local Students Help with State Assessment

From the time UC Merced opened its doors, helping underrepresented students in the San Joaquin Valley has been a goal.

By joining with the College Advising Corps, the university now has a partner to help low-income and first-generation Valley students enroll and succeed in college.

The partnership will serve about 3,800 students by placing adviser fellows at Madera, Madera South, El Capitan, Atwater, Buhach Colony, Los Banos, Pacheco and Turlock high schools.

College Advising Corps uses “near-peers” — advisers who recently graduated from college and closely resemble the student populations they are advising — to walk the younger students through financial aid and college application processes. Eight in 10 adviser fellows involved in other College Advising Corps partnerships are first-generation, low-income or Pell-eligible themselves.

The adviser fellows serve two-year terms and often focus on seniors, though students of all grade levels can use their services, including providing individual academic plans, SAT and ACT registration, career workshops and individual parent meetings. The advisor fellows do not have to come from UC Merced.

"We are excited to partner with the College Advising Corps whose mission aligns with UC Merced’s Center for Educational Partnerships to provide district, student and parent-centered services that ultimately result in students from the San Joaquin Valley having the greatest number of postsecondary choices from the widest array of options upon graduation,” Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Charles Nies said.

UC Merced is the 25th American institution to join with North Carolina-based College Advising Corps, and the only new partner in 2018. University of Southern California and UC Berkeley are the only other partner schools in the state.

College Advising Corps said the partnership with UC Merced is a natural fit because of the university’s work in helping underserved students.

This partnership supports the expansion of UC Merced services to two new service regions, the Turlock and Los Banos unified school districts.

“Our daily presence will hopefully contribute to an increase in Valley students’ pursuit of a postsecondary education," Nies said.

UC Merced Enters Partnership to Help Students Apply for College

Three grants totaling more than $3.6 million from the U.S. Department of Education will help UC Merced’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CEP) continue its Talent Search program, which helps high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds pursue postsecondary education.
“We are honored to receive additional grant funding, evidence of the great work being done to provide crucial resources and opportunities for San Joaquin Valley high school students,” Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Charles Nies said. “These new grants will enable us to expand our existing support and increase the number of students who are college ready and aware of the greatest number of post-secondary options available to them, both academically and financially.”
The five-year grants will support academic, college preparation and financial counseling for approximately 1,500 high school students from six area high schools: Fresno, Roosevelt, Corcoran, Farmersville, Le Grand and Delhi.
Through the Talent Search program, students learn about financial aid opportunities and are walked through the college application process. Students’ families will also benefit from the Talent Search program, as they will be included in many workshops.
Each program participant must meet federally outlined eligibility guidelines, which include being a citizen or national of the U. S., being a permanent resident of the U. S., and being considered low-income and a potential first-generation college student (neither parent completed a bachelor’s degree).
Approximately 2,100 high school students have benefited from the initial grants CEP received from the Department of Education in 2006 and 2011.
Ana Gonzalez Pena is one such student who graduated Strathmore High School in 2009.
“As a first-generation, low-income student, I never dreamed that I would be able to attend and afford college,” she said. “Talent Search guided me throughout my senior year and exposed me to college campuses I didn’t know existed.”
Gonzalez Pena tapped into the available Talent Search funded resources and was accepted at UC Merced, graduating in 2013 with a degree in psychology. She earned a master’s in counseling from California State University, Bakersfield, and now works for the Center for Educational Partnerships under the Talent Search grant as an academic preparation specialist serving Corcoran, Strathmore and Farmersville.
“I had such a good experience with this program that I decided that I wanted a career in education,” Gonzalez Pena said. “I believe this program is very impactful for students.”
