Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative partners gather for a June 9 press conference announcing a $1,830,500 state grant that will include CVHEC's Kern Dual Enrollment Teachers Up-skilling Master's Program.
CVHEC Teacher Upskilling for Master’s Degrees Supports
Dual Enrollment in South Valley Via Kern K-16 Collaborative
About 100 South Valley high school teachers will get the opportunity to earn a master’s degree that achieves state qualifications for teaching community college dual enrollment English and math courses on local high school campuses thanks to a partnership between the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative and the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC).
lead grant applicant that serves as the administrative agent for the Kern K-16 Collaborative.
CVHEC, which is one of several partners in the Collaborative, is made up of 30 institutions of higher education in the valley’s nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern counties. The presidents and chancellors of each member institution serve on the CVHEC Board of Directors.
South Valley CVHEC members include California State University, Bakersfield (President Lynette Zelezny); Kern Community College District (Chancellor Sonya Christian); Bakersfield College (Interim President Zav Dadabhoy); and Taft College (President Debra S. Daniels) ...
Re-imagining the social and economic landscape of our region
Greetings Colleagues and Friends of CVHEC,
Welcome to the end of the semester and to the first summer in two years when we are not shut down.
As we emerge from the pandemic, faculty and staff at our Central Valley Higher Education Consortium member colleges and universities have been engaged in providing a great education to our students.
In this issue, please look at this month’s blog that speaks to the Central Valley Program Pathways Mapper project to improve transfer of valley students to UC Merced and our three California State University campuses, Bakersfield, Fresno, and Stanislaus.
We are also delighted to congratulate the Central San Joaquin Valley K16 Partnership (Fresno-Madera Collaborative & Tulare-Kings Collaborative) and the Kern Regional K16 Education Collaborative (Kern County Superintendent of Schools) on receiving $18.1 million in funding from the state for a four-year effort improve the educational and economic well-being of the Central Valley ...
Area high school English teachers in the National University English master’s cohort pose with Fresno City College Interim President Marlon Hall at a celebration held by the Fresno K-16 Collaborative in March.
Two More Dual Enrollment Master Upskilling Cohorts Conferred
Two more cohorts of National University graduate students participating in the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Dual Enrollment Upskilling Teachers Master’s Program in Englishcompleted M.A. degree requirements last month and were conferred master’s degrees June 19.
The Master’s Upskilling Program for area English high school teachers, which addresses equity and access issues, is an innovative CVHEC project that could benefit thousands of the region’s dual enrollment students by providing more high school teachers with a post-baccalaureate degree to teach college classes ...
'Unintentional stumbling blocks for the neediest students'
Central Valley colleges help lead in New Remedial-Ed Reform Bill
New state legislation adopted last month to advance remedial education reforms in the California Community Colleges system will remove what Dr. Benjamin Duran, Central Valley Higher Education Consortium executive director, calls “unintentional stumbling blocks for the neediest students.”
Duran said the passage of new legislation -- Assembly Bill 1705 which builds off AB 705 passed in 2017 -- will strengthen the implementation of co-requisite support courses for essential gateway courses on California’s community college campuses.
“We look for a complete transition away from remedial developmental education courses that often stood as unintentional stumbling blocks for the neediest students,” Duran said. “We are proud that Central Valley community colleges have been leaders in reversing the impact of decades of remedial education on college completion rates" ...
This issue’s “What The CV-HEC Is Happening” Blog features guest contributor Dr. James Zimmerman, senior associate vice provost and dean for Undergraduate Education at the University of California-Merced where he is also director of the Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning and a physics professor. He serves on the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Projectcommittee and here he blog-connects its work the past year to a recent article on UC enrollment expansion.
UC Enrollment Push Supported by CVHEC/UC Merced
Transfer Project and new Mapper Software
The California UC Board of Regents has declared its intent to expand enrollment by adding 20,000 new seats in the next few years as outlined in a UCLA Daily Bruin articlepublished May 12 that also presents the relevant challenges associated with this goal.
This illuminating journalistic endeavor by higher education reporters Megan Tagami and Lisa Huiqin is timely for students in the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium’s nine-county region as member institutions UC Merced, Merced College and Bakersfield College have used the last two years to lay groundwork for a UC Merced Transfer Projectthat is designed to bring the college transfer experience into intersegmental alignment ...
KGO 810 AM Radio in San Francisco followed up the CVHEC Upskilling Teachers Master’s Program story with an interview by Nikki Medoro featuring John Spevak, consortium regional lead.
President James Preston of CVHEC-member West Hills Community College-Lemoore accepts The Fresno Bee “Best of Central California" Award for Best College/University.
West Hills College-Lemoore Named
'Best College/University' (MORE)
Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative
receives $18 million state grant (MORE)
Chancellor Oakley leaves California Community Colleges for College Futures Foundation California Community College Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley, whose six-year tenure was marked by an ambitious agenda to improve student achievement and social justice across a sprawling system, will soon head the College Futures Foundation dedicated to increasing diversity among the state’s college graduates and a Central Valley Higher Education partner. (See EdSource - June 16, 2022)
State Distributes $108.6 Million for K-16 Collaboratives The Department of General Services (DGS), Office of Public School Construction, and the Foundation for California Community Colleges announced the first six awards – totaling $108.6 million – for the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program, as part of a $250 million investment in the 2021 Budget Act. This includes $1,850,000 each for two CVHEC partners: The Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative and the macro-regional Central San Joaquin Valley K-16 Partnership (a collaboration of the Fresno-Madera K-16 Collaborative and the Tulare-Kings College + Career Collaborative). (See Govenor's Office)
Cost, emotional stress leading to college enrollment challenges
Many adults across the United States who don’t attend college are interested in enrolling, but the high costs of attendance are preventing them from doing so. At the same time, significant numbers of students currently enrolled in college have recently considered dropping out, and they overwhelmingly point to emotional stress as the reason. Those are among the main takeaways of a new study published Thursday by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. (See EdSource - April 22, 2022)
REMINDER: 2022 CVHEC
Mini-Grant AppsAvailable
Applications for the next Central Valley Higher Education Consortium 2022 Mini-Grant cycle are now being accepted and will continue until funds are allocated.
and universities have been engaged in providing a great education to our students. 
e director, calls “unintentional stumbling blocks for the neediest students.”
