Reports and Briefs

This report examines demographics and academic outcomes, analyzes effective program design elements from the 2023-24 Umoja programs that increase Umoja student success—measured by students’ perceived self-concept, sense of belonging within Umoja, and academic self-efficacy—and outlines strategies reported by Umoja college program core teams for aligning effective program design elements with broader core services and supports.

In this third brief of our Community Anchor series, EdInsights offers policy recommendations to strengthen workforce development to better serve students, communities, and regional economies. In this brief, we outline steps the state and the California Community Colleges (CCC) have taken to address barriers to more effective career education (CE) programs, point to some early […]

Learning from the experiences of faculty, staff, and administrators can help colleges prepare for barriers and avoid pitfalls while redesigning their CE programs to better meet students’ needs. Their perspectives are also relevant in the context of current efforts by the U.S. Department of Education to issue grants meant to expand short-term and work-based learning programs […]

A Community Anchor: Student Perspectives about Career Education The CCCs provide education and training to diverse student populations for a variety of purposes, including to prepare them for careers in today’s workforce. CE programs are aimed at helping students find meaningful jobs and careers with family-supporting wages, aligning curriculum with industry needs, encouraging timely completion, […]

These briefs address important data quality considerations as California takes steps toward building a longitudinal student data system to support efforts to improve student progress and outcomes from preschool through higher education and into the workforce. It is an addendum to EdInsights’ four-part series examining California’s approach to student-level data, aimed at supporting the state’s Cradle-to-Career Data Workgroup and other stakeholders as they make critical decisions about the structure and function of this important resource for educators, researchers, and students and their families.

Bridging the Gap (BtG) supports successful student transitions from high school to postsecondary, via cross-system, education partnerships. With funding from The James Irvine Foundation, BtG partnerships focus on first-generation college students, students of color, and low-income students who face substantial barriers in meeting their educational goals. This series explores the experiences of two California partnerships that joined the Bridging the Gap initiative in 2016: one in Long Beach and the other in the Salinas Valley.