A skilled workforce is key to a thriving California economy. Strong and growing demand for highly educated workers has been a hallmark of the state's economy for decades, and forecasts show this demand continuing into the future. If current trends continue, about 40 percent of jobs in California will require at least a bachelor's degree by 2030.…

Adapting campuses, classes, and processes to better serve Hispanic students will be a crucial step toward meeting national attainment goals. Since fall 2000, the number of Hispanic students in public colleges has effectively doubled. However, due to a Congressional ban on a student-level data system, the federal government is flying blind when it…

Education has until recently promoted social mobility, broad economic growth, and democracy. However, modern universities direct policy and resources toward criteria that exacerbate income inequality and reduce social mobility. Online education can make education more socially, geographically, temporally, and financially accessible, impacting the…

In uncertain economic times, universities have taken steps to address financial problems by including the use of business models. In 2009, the California State University (CSU) system implemented furloughs of a 10% pay reduction and 18 days removed from the academic calendar. Faculty in 16 CSU schools of social work participated in a Web-based…

California legislature made a policy change with Senate Bill (SB) 1644 (2000), shifting Cal Grant Programs to focus on entitlement; counter to the national trend of merit based grant programs. This article describes a study examining effectiveness and extent to which SB 1644 is meeting its legislative objectives: increase in higher education…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to trace the organizational history of the University of California Santa Cruz from its inception in 1965 to its 40th anniversary in 2005. The study investigated the original vision of small residential colleges as modeled after the Oxford University plan. The study chronicled the critical turning points of…

Although public universities account for most of the higher education enrollment in California, independent colleges and universities make an important contribution to meeting enrollment demand. California's 76 independent non-profit colleges and universities provide a wide range of degree and certificate programs. In fall 2008, the independents…

With California's public higher education system facing massive funding cuts and an increasingly diverse demography, the University of California recently established a commission to discuss policy options to shape the future of the ten campus system. The University of California Commission on the Future is chaired by UC Board of Regent Russell S.…

In 2009, Excelencia in Education launched the Ensuring America's Future initiative to inform, organize, and engage leaders in a tactical plan to increase Latino college completion. An executive summary of Latino College Completion in 50 states synthesizes information on 50 state factsheets and builds on the national benchmarking guide. Each…

This timely book examines issues pertaining to equal opportunity--affirmative action, challenges to it, and alternatives for improving opportunities for underrepresented groups--in higher education today. Its starting point is California's Proposition 209, which ended race-based affirmative action in public education and the workplace in 1996. The…

Despite months of work by the California Commission on the Teaching Profession and ten specific recommendations introduced into the legislature, the reform effort in California is stymied. This article discussed how demographic elements, money and control issues, and public apathy have overpowered change attempts. (MT)

The purpose of a state report card is to provide the general public and policymakers with information to assess and improve post secondary education in each state. "Measuring Up 2008" is the fifth in a series of biennial report cards that evaluates states in six overall performance categories: (1) Preparation for post-secondary education…

Predicts imminent pressures on the state of California's education system, particularly on the nine-campus University of California (UC), due to demographic and financial trends and a shift in the ethnic mix in the college-age population. Discusses the problem of providing greater access to UC while preserving academic standards. (CS)

A comprehensive series of 12 courses provides school facilities planners with the knowledge to make demographically responsible and educationally sound recommendations about present and future educational facility needs. (MLF)

This series of seven issues of this publication explores California's educational equity policies, programs, and practices. Each of the first six issues includes one major article and a fact sheet; the final issue updates the series and presents a set of options for the state's consideration. Titles of the first six issues are: (1) "Toward a…