By Frank X. Moraga / Amigos805.com
After years of planning, which included proposals to build on land overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Ventura and on farmland near the California Youth Authority in Camarillo, it was with great relief and excitement by community members that the former Camarillo State Hospital was selected and approved in 1996-97 as the future site of California State University, Channel Islands.
Almost immediately, discussions began on how to connect the new university with local public schools and existing community college programs. Many community members were especially concerned with how the university would connect with a growing and diverse student population in Ventura County and what specific programs would be created at the university to serve those populations.
Those concerns were raised during discussions at Café on A in Oxnard and other locations that eventually led to the creation of a state-of-the-art Chicana/o Studies program.
The university recently released its own report on programs it has created to better prepare young people for college life.
The two key components are the Early Start Program and the university’s Early Assessment Program, the university reported in a media release.
The “Early Start” policy was adopted by the CSU trustees in 2010 to help students be better prepared in mathematics and English when they enter the CSU as incoming freshmen.
“As a new campus, CI had an opportunity to develop some extremely innovative programs for freshman writing that have greatly helped new students reach desired levels in language skills, so we’ve been successful in our efforts in this area since even before this new initiative,” said Renny Christopher, associate provost.
Remediation at the college level is not only extremely costly but often results in students falling behind their classmates as they attempt to complete degree requirements. Since its adoption by the trustees, each of the 23 CSU campuses has been working to develop individual Early Start campus plans, the university reported.
In the eight years that the program has been in place, both math and English tests have shown overall, countywide improvement, said Robert Bleicher, professor of education and director of the university’s Early Assessment Program (EAP). The EAP is a voluntary part of the California Standards Test (CST).
“We give the assessment test to students in the 11th grade to determine where they stand academically in both math and English,” Bleicher said.
Students who are not college ready in English can take the Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC) their senior year in high school, which qualifies as an A to G college preparatory course. Those not ready in math can take during their senior year the Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS) online module to enhance their math skills, the university reported. Last year, three high schools and this year 12 of the 26 high schools in the university’s early assessment service area adopted the course in English or math or both.
The university also offers professional development programs in both English and math to high school teachers and other educators, on a district-by-district basis, to inform them about college readiness and strategies designed to prepare students for success in college, Bleicher said.
Over the years, the university has also sought to prepare elementary and high school students by hosting a variety of campus tours and other education programs for Latino and other diverse student populations. CSU Channel Islands is a Hispanic Service Institution, a status achieved when a university meets a diversity level of having at least a 25 percent Hispanic student population.
For the fourth year, CSUCI’s University Outreach presented its “College for a Day” migrant education day for third- through eighth-grade students in November 2010.
The university also presents its “Pathway to College” campus visit program each Friday during the academic year.
For more information on these and other programs, visit University Outreach at http://www.csuci.edu/universityoutreach/index.htm or Jose Alamillo, coordinator and associate professor of Chicana/o Studies jose.alamillo@csuci.edu
— Frank X. Moraga has previously worked with such publications as the Ventura County Star, the Oxnard Press-Courier, the Los Angeles Daily News and the Orange County Register