To consider how interdisciplinary P-20 partnerships increase college-going rates among Chicano/ Latino youth, the authors highlight evidence from the Educational Partnership Center (EPC) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a P-20 partnership that builds academic achievement and college and career pathways. Three elements advance EPC effectiveness: collaborative governance structures sustaining shared vision, mission, and goals; innovating with data-driven decision-making; and complementary theories aligning goals from childhood through college to careers. Three studies, guided by these theories, illuminate such effectiveness.
KeywordsP-20; K-16; Latino students; college access; data-driven reform; university partnerships Like other states across the nation, California shows great disparities in student achievement and college-going rates between its general population and Latino students. On the California Standards Test, 2007, 62% of White students compared to 29% of Hispanic/Latino students tested at the "proficient" level (the goal for all students) in language arts, and 53% of White students compared to 30% of Hispanic/Latino students tested as proficient in mathematics (O'Connell, 2007). This statewide achievement gap is mirrored among the largely student Latino population of California's central coast. This paper considers how the Educational Partnership Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a P-20 collaboration that brings together universities, community colleges, and schools with youth and families to improve alignment to increase college-going rates, has made progress increasing achievement and college-going rates among Latino students. For example, in one district in which EPC has collaborated over the past 5 years, Latino students increased 20% compared with a 6% increase for White students on state Academic Performance Indicator scores (O'Connell, 2007).
Emerging Research, Policy and Practice on P-20 PartnershipsNationally, 38 states have P-16 state councils that focus on student achievement through a range of activities that include early learning programs, alignment of standards, P-20 data systems, dual high school and college enrollment, building academic rigor and teacher quality, college placement, and workforce development (Cech, 2008). The growing research literature on school-university P-20 partnerships includes states such as California Gomez, Bissell, Danziger, & Casselman, 1990) and Texas (Navarro & Natalicio, 1999;Oliva & Nora, 2004), as well as nationwide analyses (Conley, 2006;Stonecipher, 2001). Thus states look to P-20 partnerships to connect their goals of closing the achievement gap in P-12 with access to higher education, often by linking systemic and whole-school reform (Navarro & Natalicio, 1999) with student-centered programs (Weiss, 2001 . Due to the size and complexity of California's P-20 educational systems, which includes three systems of public higher education--the University of California, California State University, and California Comm...