Press Release May 03, 2006

San José, CA — San José/Evergreen Community College District, in collaboration with the San José Unified School District, will be the first community college in the state of California to utilize the California Student Information Service’s common student ID tracking system.

The California School Information Services (CSIS) Program is a legislative initiative initiated in 1997 responsible for developing and implementing an electronic statewide school information system to facilitate the exchange and reporting of student information by local education agencies to the California Department of Education.

Established in 2001 when San José City College and San José State University collaborated to secure a $106,000 grant from the Intergenerational Center at Temple University to establish SHINE in San José, San José City’s Project SHINE is part of a nationwide consortium that now includes 18 colleges and universities in 14 cities. In 2003, SJCC secured its first $10,000 extension grant and with the newly-awarded extension grant, bringing the college’s total award to $73,000.

“By utilizing CSIS data, both San José City and Evergreen Valley Colleges will be better able to communicate with San José Unified District on how well their students are prepared for postsecondary education,” says Bayinaah Jones, Director of Institutional Initiatives at SJECCD. “This will assist both our community college district and San José Unified’s high schools to make adjustments to the curricula, to better collaborate between our institutions, and most importantly, to help ensure student success.”

A non-identifying CSIS number will be assigned to each K-12 student, and that number will remain as the student’s identifier in the CSIS system throughout his or her academic career. The data will be used to track achievement, program participation, graduation and dropout data.

An example of the kind of information that will be shared are the results of academic placement exams when students initially enroll at SJCC or EVC. Regardless of a student’s grades or level of math or English in high school, each student is required to take an assessment exam, and the results of that exam determine which math and English coursework a student may enroll in. If students from a given district have consistently low placement scores in math or English, the ability to track where high school students came from will help not only the community college better plan for needed remedial courses, but through shared data, will also help the high school adjust their curriculum.

“Both San José/Evergreen Community College and the San José Unified School Districts are working toward becoming trendsetters in creating a mutual understanding of education,” says Jones. “In this pilot study, our districts will work out the best manner to share student data, open a two-way system of communication that best creates an approach that can start in high school to help students get the best education possible, and to prepare students for the skills they need to complete their college educations.”

"Our community college district is committed to developing partnerships with our local school districts that demonstrate our shared responsibility for the success of students coming out of our area high schools," says Chancellor Rosa Pérez. "It is an honor to work with districts like the San José Unified School District that are interested in sharing information in a way that leads to improved institutional and student performance."

At the completion of the pilot program, which begins with the Fall 2006 semester, San José/Evergreen Community College District will present program results to the California Department of Education as a model on how to best implement this important communication method between K-12 and postsecondary schools on a statewide basis.

Contact: Bayinaah Jones, Director of Institutional Initiatives
SJ/Evergreen Community College District
Phone: 408-270-6402
Fax: 408-531-8722
E-mail: Bayinaah.Jones@sjeccd.org