City Teams Convene in San Francisco to Advance Postsecondary Success Strategies
May 23, 2011
by Jonathan Rogers
Teams of city, community college and school district partners convened in San Francisco this month as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Communities Learning in Partnership (CLIP) initiative, for which NLC’s Institute for Youth, Education and Families serves as managing intermediary. The foundation has provided $3 million grants each to San Francisco; Riverside, Calif.; Mesa, Ariz.; and New York City in an effort to help these cities increase postsecondary completion rates among low-income students.
City leaders are implementing their postsecondary plans in collaboration with school districts, community colleges, other institutions of higher education and a range of community and workforce partners. San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee spoke about the San Francisco team’s Bridge to Success initiative, which aims to increase the college completion rates of high school freshmen from 30 percent to 50 percent by 2020.
“We need to make sure students can see the way to graduate from high school and the bridge to City College [of San Francisco] and all of the other college opportunities that they have, and that they have the support to stay there,” said Mayor Lee, who was accompanied by his colleagues Dr. Don Griffin, chancellor of the City College of San Francisco (CCSF) and Carlos Garcia, superintendent of San Francisco Unified School District, at the cross-site meeting.
“Students have to know that at the end, their prize is to compete for the very best jobs this world has to offer — including companies that have their global headquarters in San Francisco. When you get into jobs like that, you can write your own ticket.”
The gathering took place on the heels of a new, citywide college transition event called FRISCO Day that is part of the San Francisco team’s efforts to increase the rate at which low-income youth attain postsecondary degree and credentials.
Named by high school students who are the event’s prime beneficiaries, FRISCO Day (the acronym stands for “Friday = Successful College Opportunities”) took place in April. Every high school senior in the city was invited to attend a day-long fair at CCSF, where they attended college orientation sessions, completed CCSF applications and received information about financial aid.
More than 2,000 students participated in the event, and organizers estimated that several hundred students applied to CCSF who may not have otherwise taken that step. The event also engaged local elected leaders, school faculty and the broader community in promoting a college-going message.
The cross-site meeting provided each of the CLIP cities with opportunities to highlight their strategies for improving student success, share lessons learned and borrow ideas from peers. Participants shared ideas on supporting students as they transition to college, building a college-going and college-completing culture in schools, leveraging funding, using data and designing joint professional development activities for high school and community college faculty.
Seven additional affiliated cities participate in a peer learning network alongside the four CLIP implementation sites. Affiliated cities include Boston; Dayton, Ohio; Jacksonville, Fla.; Louisville, Ky.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; and Portland, Ore.
These affiliated cities are also taking action to boost college completion rates. For instance, as part of Dayton’s Learn to Earn initiative, all high schools in Montgomery County school districts are now participating in National Student Clearinghouse data collection, which enables local partners to analyze and track the percentage of students enrolling in college, the percent persisting through college and the percent graduating. Going forward, the CLIP implementation sites and affiliated cities will continue to share ideas and resources as they pursue their local postsecondary success strategies.
Details: To learn more about the Communities Learning in Partnership initiative, visit www.nlc.org/iyef or contact Kate Sandel at (202) 626-3046 or sandel@nlc.org.