Convened by UNITE-LA
Amidst a record period in state funding dedicated to strengthening education and workforce pathways, UNITE-LA in partnership with L.A. County’s K-12 districts, community colleges, CSU campuses, and UC campuses, launched the L.A. Region K-16 Collaborative in 2021. The L.A. Region K-16 Collaborative aims to close postsecondary attainment and workforce gaps for students who have been historically excluded from high-skill and high-wage positions in health care, computer science, and engineering fields. These students, primarily Latinx, black, and women-identifying, are served by partners through the creation and deployment of equitable and holistic education pathways and workforce engagement.
Formally launched with an $18.13 million state grant award in the fall of 2022, the L.A. Region K-16 Collaborative is comprised of five subregional partnerships across the county, designed to strengthen existing articulation patterns for students and create community hubs for success. The subregional partnerships each work toward the same regional goals while also strengthening subregional relationships and strategies. By the end of the grant period, partners aim to:
- Strengthen connectivity between segments and systems of education.
- Increase enrollment in ADT pathways and/or free community college programs.
- Better align pathways to specified career fields.
- Increase BIPOC student enrollment, retention, and completion.
- Develop or endorse robust affordability reforms.
- Increase dual enrollment offerings.
UNITE-LA has supported the identification of five subregional conveners responsible for coalescing partners in each subregion: Cal Poly Pomona for east L.A. County; LA Mission College for the San Fernando/Antelope Valley; Glendale Community College for the Greater LA Metro Area; Long Beach Community College for Long Beach region; and co-conveners the South Bay Workforce Investment Board and Centinela Valley Unified School District for South LA.
Our subregional partners are shifting policies, practices, and resource flows by developing an integrated system to improve equitable pathways in healthcare, engineering, and computer science careers for BIPOC and women-identifying students in LA County, including:
- Aligning CA’s Ethnic Studies curriculum with STEM fields to support advisor/faculty professional development in the computer science field
- Providing faculty stipends to create maps of stackable credentials and transfer opportunities across meta majors
- Re-developing dual enrollment computer science courses (in coding and computer engineering) to count as transferable introductory courses at community and CSU colleges
- Articulating a pathway to a BSN program directly from K-12 or through community colleges, prioritizing early access to CSU campus resources, transfer credit, and early proctorship for work-based learning requirement
- Recruiting local businesses to develop work-based learning opportunities like job shadows, internships, and post-graduation jobs, aligned with skills learned in the classroom.
Learn more about the K-16 Collaborative here: https://losangelesk16.org/