http://www.presstelegram.com/opinion/20150924/long-beach-makes-the-path-to-college-easier-for-some
At the height of the Great recession, three of Long Beach's top educators came together to address the worrying and persistent problem of their own students falling off course.
Dropout rates at Long Beach Unified School District were 16 percent and even higher for youth of color.
Students were getting lost in the system. Those with potential weren't enrolling in college. Students needed a clearer pathway to higher education. They got one.
It’s been seven years since LBUSD Superintendent Chris Steinhauser, Long Beach City College President Eloy Oakley and then-Cal State Long Beach President King Alexander created a plan to get Long Beach high school graduates into college. They called it the College Promise.
It isn’t perfect and it can still use further refinement, but the program shows a strong commitment to the community.
Beginning in 2008 with LBCC offering 50 scholarships for Long Beach-area students through its foundation, the College Promise is really more like an agreement among educators that children should be encouraged to go to college and be shown the way to get there.
To that end, a series of programs and plans are put in place to do so.
Fourth- and fifth-graders tour the two colleges. Eighth-graders sign a pledge to go on to higher education. Now, free city college tuition has been increased from a semester to a year for academically qualified LBUSD grads.
In high school, students are encouraged to take Advance Placement and SAT tests, with a minimal charge. And qualified students have priority admission at CSULB.
Then, there’s Promise Pathways, a key component to the program which provides city college students with tailored academic plans to ensure that if they follow them, they will get into the university. When those students transfer to the state university, they graduate at a rate 5 percent higher than other city college students, a report on the program released this week found.
And with a commitment to give priority to Promise students, Cal State Long Beach has seen a 32 percent increase of LBUSD students enrolled since 2008.
That amounts to about 500 students. It may not sound like much, but with momentum, stronger tracking and a more refined effort to shepherd youth through school those numbers could be bolstered.
This year, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia joined in the alliance, saying he will be pushing to create internship opportunities for those Long Beach students who go on to college. He also will further advocate for access to preschool
That support is welcome and it comes as President Barack Obama, who supports two years of free community college, backed the Long Beach program as a model.
The attention has the drivers of the College Promise, Steinhauser, Oakley, now CSULB President Jane Close Conoley and Garcia pushing for more public and philanthropic help to build out their plan. So far, much of the funding has come from within their own budgets and education foundations.
Their call deserves our attention. Officials say they have improved academic outcomes for African-Americans, Latinos and Cambodians, but an achievement gap remains. College Promise has raised the bar and with increased community support, many more students will be able to reach it.
