AB 770: Community colleges: basic skills innovation program.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law authorizes the establishment of community college districts under the administration of community college governing boards, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction at community college campuses throughout the state.

Existing law establishes a financial and professional development grant funding program, which authorizes the governing board of a community college district to apply to the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges for, and requires the chancellor to distribute, multiyear financial and professional development grant funding to community colleges within the district. Existing law requires colleges receiving these funds to adopt or expand the use of evidence-based models of academic assessment and placement, remediation, and student support that accelerate the progress of underprepared students toward achieving postsecondary educational and career goals, as specified. Existing law requires recipient community colleges to report specified information to the chancellors office on program outcomes. Existing law requires makes the chancellors office to be responsible for administering the grant program and distributing and monitoring awards to recipient community college districts, developing application criteria, administrative guidelines, and other requirements for purposes of administering the grant program, and providing the information submitted by community college districts to the Legislative Analysts Office. Existing law requires the Legislative Analysts Office to report to the Legislature on the progress of the grant program in achieving its prescribed purpose, as specified.

This bill would require a community college district, in order to receive grant funding, to submit a plan to the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges that details the strategy of a college or colleges within the district for achieving the goals of the program. The bill would require a district to specify in the plan, at a minimum, the number of students to be served, strategies to be employed, and projected results for the plans implementation. The bill would establish also require the chancellors office to determine levels of funding to be awarded to grant recipients and would set aside $3,000,000 of the funds appropriated for the program to be used to provide technical assistance to recipients, and would authorize the chancellors office to contract with technical assistance providers to assist applicant and recipient colleges in developing and implementing these evidence-based models of academic assessment and placement, remediation, and student support, as specified.