Recent legislation called AB 86 has the potential to radically change Career Development and College Preparation (CDCP) all across the state of California. You may have heard about AB 86, but it’s likely that you don’t know all of the details. You may have heard that adult schools are going away, or you may have heard that they are being absorbed into community colleges. Neither of those is true, but what is true is that AB 86 has the potential to create stronger CDCP than ever before.
So what is AB 86? In a nutshell, it is legislation that allows for planning grants given to consortia throughout the state to redesign adult education into pathways that truly work for students from the basic literacy and GED levels all the way up to college and beyond. SMCCCD’s consortium, called ACCEL for Adult-Education College and Career Educational Leadership, was formed in Spring 2014 and has emerged as a collaborative and innovative group whose work is being held up as a model for other consortia throughout the state. Visit the ACCEL web site at http://www.accelsmc.org/ .
The ACCEL consortium has faculty involvement from the steering committee on down to the Collaborative Action Teams, or CATs. Skyline College is proud to have the following faculty on our CAT: Garry Nicol (ESOL), Julie Carey (ESOL), Leigh Anne Shaw (ESOL), Javier Urena (COUN), and Jon Freedman (MATH). There are four CATs working on plans for aligning adult education to community colleges, and they are arranged as follows:
North CAT: Skyline College, Jefferson Adult School, South San Francisco Adult Education
Co-chairs: Leigh Anne Shaw (Skyline College) and Marta Bookbinder (SSFAE)
Mid-county CAT: College of San Mateo, San Mateo Adult Education
Co-chairs: Marissa Pienaar (CSM) and Lisa Dolehide (SMAE)
South CAT: Cañada College, Sequoia Adult Education
Co-chairs: Nadya Sigona (Cañada College) and Natacha Matute (SAE)
Coastside CAT: Cañada College, County Office of Ed, Cabrillo Unified School District
Co-chairs: Jenny Castello (Cañada College), Joan Rosas (COE), John Corry (CUSD)
At the September 22, 2014 Board of Trustees meeting, Board President Schwartz and Trustee Mohr praised ACCEL for its work to date and pledged its continuing support of ACCEL’s efforts.
How will AB 86 affect you? If you work with students in basic skills, career development, or college preparation (and we’re pretty sure you do!), the work of AB 86 will impact you and your work directly. You may consider contacting the North CAT team members to find out how you can get involved.
Want to learn more? All faculty, staff, and administrators are invited to a forum held at Skyline College on October 14, room 6202, from 1:30 to 4:00pm to learn more about AB 86 and its impact.
Article by Leigh Anne Shaw
