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Browsing by Author "Rodriguez, Olga"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Higher Education in California: Increasing Equity and Diversity
    Rodriguez, Olga; Cuellar Mejia, Marisol; Johnson, Hans (Public Policy Institute of California, 2017-09-01)
    A solid majority of California’s future college-age population will come from groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education—including Latinos and African Americans, and those who are low income or the first in their families to go to college. PPIC research has shown that this demographic shift could be a major contributor to the state’s future workforce skills gap. To avoid or at least minimize this gap, California needs to increase the number of underrepresented students who graduate from college. It has been well documented that expanding access to college can promote upward social and economic mobility
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    Reforming English Pathways at California’s Community Colleges
    Cuellar Mejia, Marisol; Rodriguez, Olga; Johnson, Hans (Public Policy Institute of California, 2018-02-01)
    California’s community colleges are in the midst of numerous reforms to improve developmental (also known as remedial or basic skills) education. Developmental education is supposed to help prepare students for college work, but it has long been an obstacle to student success: most students in developmental courses never go on to complete a college-level course in English or math. In this report, the authors focus on reforms to developmental English pathways at California’s community colleges. They examine different approaches to reform and their prevalence, and present new evidence on the effectiveness of one of the most common reforms, one-semester acceleration.
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    Remedial Education in California’s Colleges and Universities
    Rodriguez, Olga; Jackson, Jacob; Cuellar Mejia, Marisol (Public Policy Institute of California, 2017-10-01)
    Remedial courses, also known as developmental or basic skills education, generally cover high school material and are aimed at students deemed unprepared for college-level work. At CSU, Latino and African American students are about twice as likely to be placed in a remedial class as their white and Asian American counterparts. At CCC, all groups enroll in remediation at high rates; however, Latino and African American students are more likely to enroll in remedial courses than their white and Asian American peers. What is more, Latinos and African Americans are also more likely to enroll in lower levels of remediation. Similar patterns occur with low-income students and their higher-income peers at both CSU and CCC.