A focus on faculty professional learning, given the challenges that California community colleges and students face, must remain a high priority and continue to evolve. The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) has long been an advocate for the development of robust professional development policies as part of senate purview…

During her time at the Kellogg Honors College at Cal Poly Pomona, Suketu Bhavsar has encountered several high-achieving students who, after coming to trust her, have revealed themselves to her as undocumented. These students came to the United States as children through non-legal channels, generally brought by their families, who were searching…

From 2013 to 2014, more than 66,000 children and adolescents, unaccompanied by their parents, made journeys from urban and rural areas of México and Central America and arrived in the United States in search of safety and educational opportunities. To date, various local, state, and federal agencies, as well as community and faith-based…

Since 2002 the authors have offered an undergraduate major in Mathematical Biology at Harvey Mudd College. The major was developed and is administered jointly by the mathematics and biology faculty. In this paper the authors describe the major, courses, and faculty and student research and discuss some of the challenges and opportunities they have…

The academic success of students in schools across the state is a top priority for California policy-makers. But for some students, academic goals set by the state remain out of reach. The issue of "CenterView" concentrates of the situation of the more than 74,000 children in the California foster care system. By the standard measures…

In this article, the author argues that teaching "technological literacy" at the expense of hands-on skills training is wrong for the students, wrong for the economy, and wrong for the nation. Students need not only the opportunity to explore a variety of trade skills but also the opportunity to learn a skill well. It is in the teaching…

Despite the efforts of the California Community Colleges (CCCs) during the past 15 years to increase the enrollment and employment of ethnic minorities and women, the data today reveal that the CCCs have no better representation of these groups in 1986 than they had in 1970. To address this issue, the Board of Governors of the CCCs and the…

Earthwatch, a nonprofit clearinghouse that places interested amateurs on scientific expeditions, has sent over 3,000 people to work with 350 scholars. This article describes experiences of a young woman doing archaeological fieldwork at a 300-year-old California mission. (DS)

The legal bases of federal and state requirements for addressing the linguistic and academic needs of national origin minority students are reviewed. A national origin minority student is defined as one whose home language is other than English and who is not performing up to district standards of proficiency. The legal milestone leading to…

The institutional structure that supports the arts in the United States needs to be transformed so that it reflects both the internal cultural diversity and the global perspective appropriate for the 1990s. In developing a more comprehensive and equitable system, policymakers should be guided by social science research on the cultural needs and…

Educational vouchers were proposed several times during the early seventies, but received only one limited trial. Because of recent changes, the political climate for vouchers should be more favorable in the next few years. Public schools are facing both increased demands and decreased political support as a result of several trends: the…

Discusses the use of tax increment financing to fund public redevelopment or urban rehabilitation projects and the opportunity for school districts to take advantage of such projects to supplement reduced property tax revenues in areas of declining valuation. (PGD)

A supporter of affirmative action in California sees attackers as mean-spirited and practicing wedge politics. He stresses its legality and opposes a proposed California Civil Rights initiative. An opponent criticizes affirmative action, noting practical difficulties in application and its opposition to American values of fairness. He defends the…

A modified Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) allocation formula has been recommended for implementation in the California community colleges by the end of 1982-83. The modified formula has been designed to shift funding policy toward performance outputs as distinct from inputs. The current formula is based upon four weighted…

Provides public and system policy recommendations to state and local elected officials, governing bodies, and administrators responsible for the changes needed to create an integrated, comprehensive workforce development system that will sustain California's economic growth. Public policy recommendations include: workforce development services…