L.A. Compact Connection | January 2020

Looking Back at 2019

L.A. Compact adopts new goals, priorities, and values

In 2019, the L.A. Compact Stewardship Group finalized the first update to the collaborative’s foundational goals since the first signing in 2010. The new goals reflect a greater emphasis on attainment over access, as well as the important contributions that early childhood development and social and emotional skills make toward holistic student success. In 2020, partners will have an opportunity to commit to regional collaboration in support of five bold goals. Read more!

Paving the path for upward socioeconomic mobility

The CSUN Connections program flourished in 2019 as it helped in the streamlining of student-centered institutional policies at each participant institution. A partnership among Cal State Northridge, L.A. Mission College, L.A. Pierce College, and L.A. Valley College, the program is designed to re-engage stopped out students and create a pathway toward an associate degree and an eventual bachelor’s degree. Read more!

Making college accessible

In May, the LA College Promise saw its inaugural class of graduates at a ceremony hosted by Cal State LA. 500 family and community members gathered to celebrate the 150 graduates. As L.A. City Mayor Eric Garcetti challenged partners to increase the number of student participants to 10,000 by 2022, this year also saw capacity planning for the program’s future.

The drive to this goal is off to a positive start, as the first cohort saw a 75.5 percent persistence rate from fall 2017 to fall 2018. Among those students, 76.5 percent successfully completed English requirements and 57.1 percent successfully completed math requirements.

Strengthening early childhood systems

2019 was a pivotal year for little kids in Los Angeles County. In addition to elevating the Early Development Instrument (EDI) as a tool to measure early childhood wellbeing, there were several positive developments bringing the field closer to a unified vision where public and community systems are more family-centered and child-focused.

On the EDI front, two new school districts – Compton Unified School District and Lowell Joint School District – joined the group of seven school districts in the county already collecting the EDI. Read more!

Closing the education & workforce gap for transition-age foster youth

L.A. Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC) co-conveners and partners celebrated many successes in 2019:

Through the efforts of the OYC Foster Youth College Advancement Project, L.A. County attained a 61 percent FAFSA completion rate for its foster youth who were high school seniors in 2019, increasing from 33 percent in 2018.
Through Foster Youth at Work, a year of planning and coordination led to L.A. County’s launch of a coordinated foster youth referral process in March 2019 among the Department of Children & Family Services, the seven workforce boards and over 40 local youth workforce centers.
The OYC helped launch the TAY AmeriCorps program, hiring 63 foster youth to serve as peer navigators, connecting other young people in foster care with the resources and skills needed to find employment and achieve success once they age out of the system. In just six months, the TAY AmeriCorps ambassadors connected 1,800 foster youth to education and employment services.
Read more about what the OYC accomplished in 2019!

Ensuring a holistic student education

18 L.A. Unified Schools joined the first cohort of the district’s Community School pilot in 2019. The pilot represents an opportunity for schools to transform the way they partner with families and community members to ensure students’ holistic success. The community school model emphasizes integrated student supports, expanded and enriched learning time, family and community engagement and shared decision-making. All of the schools received funding to hire a specialized Community School Coordinator who will lead their schools in a community needs assessment and planning process in the 2019-20 school year.

The L.A. Unified Community Schools Steering Committee, co-convened by the district, UTLA, and the L.A. Compact, developed a selection process for the first pilot cohort, as well as several workshops and webinars to support school teams in adopting the community school model.

Check out what’s happening across all of the L.A. Compact workgroups!