Partnering with the Community to Raise
Student Academic Achievement

About Us
University-Community Engagement (UCE) supports UC campus-community collaborations that raise student achievement, close achievement gaps, and increase college-going rates among low-income and disadvantaged students.

Purpose
UCE funds and supports campus-based collaborations and serves as an information clearinghouse for community leaders, UC faculty and administrators, educators and policymakers on programs, resources and research on community partnership and collaboration.

Why Collaborate?
The University's longstanding academic preparation programs and emerging P-20 partnership efforts provide a broad range of services to students, their teachers, families and school administrators. However, the diversity and enrollment at UC is unlikely to significantly change unless the University joins with community-based organizations with the same enthusiasm and consistency with which it has joined with schools. In such university-community collaborations, organizations are committed and engaged together, working as equal partners to research, plan and take action to improve student achievement and close achievement gaps.

2010 Grant Recipients

Campus:
Department/Program:
Community Partner:
UC Berkeley
Center for Educational Partnerships
Solano County Educational Consortium



This collaborative will build a sustainable train-the trainers model for delivering a community relevant curriculum about preparing for community college while in high school, so that more students will enter, persist, and succeed in community colleges with the goal for most to transfer to a four year institution.

Campus:
Department/Program:
Community Partner:
UC Irvine
American Indian Resource Program
American Indian Student Association, Acjachemen Nation, Walking Shield, Little Eagle Free, Southern California Indian Center, and others



This collaborative is designed to increase the American Indian college-going rate by bringing academic preparation resources to American Indian students that do not currently have access to such resources, and build sustainability by training community leaders, parents, and staff in UC admissions requirements and financial aid processes.

Campus:
Department/Program:
Community Partner:
UCLA
Student Affairs
UCLA-Community Collaborative: Foster Youth Scholars Initiative,
United Friends of the Children, Para Los Niños



This collaborative promotes educational opportunities for Los Angeles-area foster care youth by enabling rising 9th graders in foster care to participate in a 3-day summer immersion program on the UCLA campus, where they will learn about college admissions requirements and self-advocacy skills, meet former foster-care students currently attending the University, and receive follow-up.

Campus:
Department/Program:
Community Partner:
UC Merced
Center for Educational Partnerships
CommunityPartnership Alliance, Boys and Girls Club of Merced County



This collaborative will provide enriched instruction in mathematics to low-income, first-generation students entering 9th grade and will provide enriched instruction in mathematics and English/language arts to 9th grade students to prepare them to pass the California English Language Development Test and increase the likelihood of being reclassified as English proficient in order to complete the A-G course pattern.

Campus:
Department/Program:
Community Partner:
UC Riverside
Student Affairs
Legacy Roundtable



This collaborative enlists parents as full partners in providing intensive mathematics instruction to low-income African American high school students that yields community college credit and raises mathematics achievement in subsequent coursework.

Campus:
Department/Program:
Community Partner:
UC San Francisco
Student Affairs – Center for Science Education and Opportunity
San Francisco College Access Center



This collaborative will train parents, teachers, and community volunteers as college mentors for low-income elementary school students, providing skills-building support and college knowledge, and engaging UC faculty and students to provide professional development for the schools’ science teachers in linking learning to related job opportunities, which is a demonstrated method of increasing student interest in science, math, and engineering education.

Campus:
Department/Program:
Community Partner:
UC Santa Barbara
English Department and Center for Black Studies Research
Project Excel, yStrive, Endowment for Youth Council, New Missionary Baptist Church



This collaborative will improve the enrollment of African American and American Indian students at four-year institutions, particularly UCSB, by delivering and monitoring students’ progress in carrying out their individual academic goals, providing mentoring, and working with families on college awareness and support initiatives.

Campus:
Department/Program:
Community Partner:
UC Santa Cruz
Educational Partnership Center
Second Saturday Network



This collaborative will develop a long-term, sustainable partnership to offer community-based cultural and educational activities to African American youth to improve academic achievement and prepare them for success in postsecondary education.

UCE Principles of Engagement

• Promote collaborations and partnerships as learning spaces that value a broad range of expertise about student achievement, higher education, equity and access;
• Respect and build community capacity to improve student learning and achievement by connecting organizations with UC's resources;
• Focus community collaborations development and resources around the SAPEP Accountability Framework of expectations and goals; and
• Practice responsible stewardship that encourages community organizations to share control of partnerships and collaborations.