As the largest system of higher education in the nation, the California Community Colleges is uniquely positioned to help residents of all backgrounds improve their social and economic mobility and build a better future for themselves and their families. Our 116 colleges serve more than 1.8 million students annually and transfer nearly 80,000 each year to the University of California and California State University systems while providing hundreds of thousands more with a skills-based, career education needed to secure good-paying jobs.

The North Star guiding the California Community Colleges is the Vision for Success, adopted by the Board of Governors in 2017. The Vision calls for eliminating achievement gaps, increasing by 35 percent the number of students transferring to a University of California or California State University campus and increasing by at least 20 percent annually the number of students who earn a degree, credential, or certificate preparing them for in-demand jobs.

Over the past year we have made progress toward leveling the playing field for students from traditionally disadvantaged backgrounds by collaborating with faculty and staff and community partners. Among them: a new Student Centered Funding Formula that rewards colleges for boosting success rates among students from neglected communities; a major expansion in the Associate Degree for Transfer initiative that provides seamless pathways toward bachelor degree programs at four-year universities; a California College Promise that waives enrollment fees for all first-time, full-time students; a new California Online College that offers an attractive resource for low-wage workers; and abandoning an outdated remedial education system that failed to accurately measure students’ potential and trapped a disproportionate number of students color in a quagmire of remedial education sequences.

Read more about how we are doing in the latest State of the System Report.