Student-Centered Outreach Programs

The programs below represent a sampling of the University’s outreach programs that focus directly on students and their families. Services typically provided include academic enrichment and support, academic counseling, tutoring, parental involvement, and motivational activities. One of the key objectives of these programs is to provide students with a broad range of educational experiences outside the classroom -- visits to university campuses, internships with local companies and businesses, community service work -- with the expectation that these opportunities will make students’ classroom instruction and interactions with teachers and peers more relevant. UC’s student-centered programs also work to raise K-12 students’ aspirations for college.

Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID): Begun in San Diego by a high school English teacher, AVID operates in 265 California middle and senior high schools. AVID enrolls educationally disadvantaged students in rigorous college preparatory classes and provides the academic support necessary for them to be successful in those classes and in preparing for college. 

Break the Cycle Program: Provides individualized instruction to underrepresented and disadvantaged elementary school students to increase their mastery of math, using UC Berkeley undergraduates as tutors. 

Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP): Established in 1975, EAOP is a University-wide program which operates on each UC campus and in 452 California middle and senior high schools. EAOP is designed to increase the UC eligibility and enrollment rates of disadvantaged students.  

Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA): Established in 1970, MESA is partnered with UC, CSU, California community colleges, and independent Universities. MESA operates in 242 California middle and senior high schools and 11 community colleges. MESA is designed to increase the number of disadvantaged students who attend college and pursue majors and careers in math, engineering, computer science, and other science-based fields. 

Puente Project: Established in 1981, Puente operates in 39 Community Colleges. The goal of the Puente program is to increase the transfer rate of Puente students to four-year colleges and universities.  

High School Puente: Established in 1993, High School Puente currently operates in 18 California high schools. The goal of the High School Puente program is to assist students in high school so they are prepared to enroll in four-year colleges and universities and ultimately return to the community as mentors and leaders.

School-Centered Outreach Programs

UC’s school-centered programs build upon the expertise of educational professionals who are working in K-12 schools. These programs focus on assisting and enhancing K-12 schools by providing teacher training in the University’s schools of education, providing professional development activities for teachers and administrators, conducting education-related research and policy analyses, developing curricular reforms. 

Advanced Reading Leadership Program: Located on the Berkeley campus, this program provides professional development for teachers in the following subject areas: English as a second language, mathematics, science, and computer applications.  

Beginning Teacher Support Assessment (BTSA): BTSA’s goal is to reduce attrition within the teaching profession. The program employs veteran teachers to advise new teachers and provides a series of structured seminars. 

California Subject Matter Projects: (CSMP): This program offers on-going teacher professional development through intensive institutes and other programs and workshops in nine different subject areas. In addition to helping teachers deepen their understanding of the subjects they teach, CSMP provides them with an opportunity to analyze relevant research and to share good instructional practices with colleagues.  

Center X: Located in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA, Center X conducts educational research and practice relating to urban education. By blending theory and practice related to teacher education and school reform, the Center links its various academic and non-academic professional development programs in collaborative efforts with low-income, urban schools. 

Center for Research and Extension Services to Schools (CRESS): Located on the Davis campus, CRESS education extension specialists, education faculty, and California Subject Matter Project Directors work closely with regional schools to build on local expertise and address local issues through innovative programs.  

Community Teaching Fellowships (CTF): This project recruits mathematics teachers for schools in low-income, urban areas. In addition, CTF recruits undergraduate and graduate mathematics majors to tutor K-12 students in these schools. 

Nexus: Sponsored by the UC Office of The President, in cooperation with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Nexus is a new initiative designed to enhance the use of instructional technology by more closely linking campus programs and resources to teachers and counselors through use of computers and the Internet.  

The Puente Project Training Institute: For 16 years, the Puente Project has provided initial and on-going training to teachers and counselors to work effectively with students from families with no college experience. Among the methodologies that Puente has pioneered are strategies for linking academic programs to local communities, methods of integrating cultural literature into the core curriculum, and strategies for successfully teaching students reading and writing in untracked, mixed-skill classes.

Application of Emerging Technologies to Outreach

The programs described below take advantage of recent advances in computer and Internet technology to help students and their families obtain information about, and prepare for, the University. 

Articulation System Stimulating Interinstitutional Student Transfer (ASSIST): ASSIST is a computer software program and a database of transfer-related information for California’s colleges and universities. The ASSIST software is used to display and maintain the transfer information in the database. The goal of the Project is to provide students and counselors with an easy way to access accurate and complete information about transferring from one California college or university to another. 

Gateway: Gateway is designed to provide more efficient access to outreach program data for UC campuses, and access to UC information for middle school and high school students and their families.  

Pathways: Based at the UC Office of the President, Pathways is a new electronic guidance and admissions system providing prospective students with an opportunity to gain information about, and apply to, the University over the Internet.

Partnerships and Collaborations

The programs below represent initiatives that link the University and K-12 more closely in meeting mutual outreach aims such as student preparation. 

The Berkeley Pledge: Established in 1995, the Berkeley Pledge is designed to maintain student diversity on the Berkeley campus. The Berkeley Pledge has four primary goals: 1) expand recruiting efforts targeted at disadvantaged students; 2) make Berkeley affordable for every student; 3) renew and expand commitment to working with K-14 schools and teachers; and 4) enhance academic support/enrichment programs designed to help undergraduates succeed at Berkeley.  

El Paso Collaborative for Excellence: This collaborative includes civic, business, and educational leaders from throughout El Paso county. The collaborative focuses the capacity of El Paso schools to offer a high quality mathematics and science curriculum and instruction program to all students.  

Monterey Bay Educational Consortium (MBEC): Established on the Santa Cruz Campus, the purpose of the MBEC is to bring together K-12 and postsecondary educational institutions in the Monterey Bay Area across levels (K-18) to further collaborative inquiry as well as develop additional cooperative initiatives directed toward improving curriculum, pedagogy, policy, and the public’s understanding and support of education. 

San Diego K-16 Executive Council: Established to provide a forum for higher education leaders to exchange ideas and work on common projects with K-12 superintendents, community college presidents, and the San Diego County Office of Education. 

Urban Community-School Collaborative: Sponsored by the University of California Office of the President, the purpose of the Urban Community-School Collaborative is to help develop and coordinate collaborative efforts of the nine UC campuses with local communities, school districts, and other institutions and agencies throughout California.

Recommended Outreach Programs

The programs described below are in the planning stage, but represent new ways for the University to meet its outreach goals and obligations. 

Business MESA: An extension of the MESA model to encourage and guide students toward business-oriented disciplines such as business, accounting, and economics.  

Charter Schools: In 1992, the California legislature passed legislation allowing entities to establish charter schools, allowing teachers, parents, business, and/or higher education institutions to petition local school districts for funds to run a public school. Several UC campuses are considering the establishment of charter schools as a way to accelerate the academic development of disadvantaged students. 

Electronic a-f: This Universitywide and campus-based initiative is designed to address the problem of limited UC "a-f" course offerings in educationally disadvantaged schools. The University proposes using "distance learning" technology to provide "a-f" courses to students who might not otherwise have access to them. 

UC/Community College Transfer Partnership: A Universitywide partnership with California community colleges. The goal of the partnership is to increase the UC transfer rate of students who participated in high school or community college academic development programs.