New Plan Could Affect Transfers to UCLA

You may have seen anarticle in the LA Times about apossible change in direction at California community colleges.  UCLA says about 40% of its graduates(undergrads) are transfer students.  Notall of these transfers come from California community colleges, however.  But poking around on the web suggests that around90% of them are from the state's community college system.

The original Master Planviewed community colleges as colleges of last resort.  Anyone with a high school degree could enroll. (Indeed, some enrollees may not havehigh school degrees.)  If an enrollee goton an academic track (some courses offered are vocational/2-year terminal orrecreational), he/she could transfer to a CSU or UC campus.  The reality is that many students don’t getthat far.  Some community colleges seem to be more effective than others at producing transfers.

What the Times articlerefers to is a report – cover shown at right above - that proposes that communitycolleges in effect prioritize and focus on students who are making tangible progresstoward transfer.  The Times story is at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-community-colleges-20120110,0,5859282.story

The actual report whichwill go to the legislature is at:

http://californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/Portals/0/StudentSuccessTaskForce/SSTF_FinalReport_Web_010312.pdf

Data on 2011 transfers to UCLA are at:

http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof11.htm

(Note that there is a difference between applicants, accepted applicants,and actual enrollees in the UCLA report.)

A more detailed analysis of the issue than appeared in the LA Times is at:

http://toped.svefoundation.org/2012/01/10/sweeping-changes-okd-for-community-colleges/