CAEP
Annual Plan

Produced: Aug 19, 2024, 09:22 PM UTC - By Brian Wiliams

61 Sonoma County Adult Education Consortium
CONSORTIUM APPROVED

2024-25

Plans & Goals

Executive Summary

The Sonoma County Adult Education Consortium (SCAEC) has six member agencies; three are funded service providers and three are unfunded members. The funded service providers are Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC), Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE), and Petaluma Adult School (PAS). The three unfunded members are Windsor Unified School District, Santa Rosa City Schools, and Sonoma Valley Unified School District.


As indicated in the Three-Year Plan, SCAEC is direct-funded based on a consensus of the service providers. Allocations for each service provider vary depending on the amount of the grant award, but the percentage of the award allocated to each agency has remained consistent for several years: 38-39% to SRJC, slightly more than 53% to PAS, and almost 8% to SCOE. These percentages will be applied to the full amount allocated for 2024-25. It is SCAEC’s intention to carryover less than 20% of the 2024-25 allocation at the end of Program Year 3.


The SCAEC accomplished the majority of the primary goals it set for itself for Program Year 2 (2023-24), including:

  • continued expansion of outreach efforts;
  • continued increased enrollment;
  • an increase in the number of ESL certificate completers at SRJC;
  • an increase in the number of HSE/HSD certificate and diploma completers at PAS;
  • an increase in the number of students participating in SRJC’s Adult Dual Enrollment program;
  • numerous professional development opportunities for SRJC ESL and CTE faculty, including attendance at the CCAE Conference; and
  • implementation of the WASC goal of increased data collection and study at PAS.


Other accomplishments include:

  • a 16% increase in program hours as reported in NOVA,
  • a six-fold increase in the number of SRJC participant attendance hours,
  • an 8% increase in the number of participants and a 6.5% increase in the number of instructional hours at PAS,
  • a three-fold increase in the number of SCAEC participants making educational functioning level gains,
  • the percentage of SRJC participants achieving measurable gains increased from 22.32% in 2022-23 to 33.55% in 2023-24,
  • a 45% increase in the number of SCAEC participants passing an EL Civics Additional Assessment, and
  • an expanded in-reach program. 


By the end of Program Year 2 (2023-24), SRJC had partially surpassed two of its intermediate outcomes established in the Three-Year Plan. These goals were to increase the number of EMLS and HSE participants by 15% and the number of ESL and HSE certificate completers by 25% by 2024-25. Between 2021-22 and 2023-24, the number of ESL participants more than doubled and the number of ESL certificate completers increased by 142%. On the other hand, there has been no improvement in the numbers for HSE participants or HSE certificate completers. It has become clear that there is no added value for students to apply for an HSE certificate once they have earned their high school equivalency. As a result, outreach specialists will no longer be devoting their time and effort to increasing the number of HSE certificate completers.


Primary goals for Program Year 3 (2024-25) include:

  • continuing to streamline and improve the effectiveness of outreach efforts,
  • continuing to monitor and optimize the modalities and locations of course offerings,
  • expanding course offerings and growing noncredit enrollment at SRJC’s new Construction Training Center,
  • quadrupling the number of participants in the Adult Dual Enrollment program,
  • holding monthly free food markets (PAS’ Family Resource Center already offers a Friday food bank at its main site),
  • continue to increase student persistence and paired CASAS scores for PAS,
  • continue and expand the wrap-around services provided to PAS and consortium students through the Family Resource Center,
  • providing relief to students experiencing housing insecurity, and
  • offering two consortium-wide professional development opportunities.
Regional Planning Overview

SCAEC’s Three-Year Plan is focused on providing educational and workforce training programs in multiple modalities in an effort to grow back in-person classes, retain online course offerings where it makes pedagogical sense and there is demand, and offer hybrid courses so that students can get the hands-on, in-person instruction they need without having to travel to class multiple times a week. In addition, with its outreach and in-reach efforts, SRJC has managed not only to meet the intermediate outcomes established for ESL students in the Three-Year Plan, but to exceed them.


SCAEC monitors the results of its outreach efforts to ensure that resources are committed to methods that work. With this in mind, SRJC’s outreach specialists have strategically expanded their use of social media platforms with boosting and posting short marketing videos that lead to enhanced audience interactions. They have also turned to more traditional marketing efforts, such as mailers, that demonstrate an immediate impact. Large in-person registration and orientation events have proven less successful and will be curtailed in 2024-25.


SCAEC educational service providers continue to offer classes in multiple modalities and in a variety of locations across Sonoma County. In addition to offering classes at its three campuses, SRJC offers courses at ten offsite locations, including the County’s Main Adult Detention Facility. An ESL and three CTE courses were offered in Hyflex in Spring 2024 and proved to be highly successful. A few Hyflex classes are scheduled for Fall 2024. Instructors must volunteer to teach in this modality, but it is hoped that with training and support, more instructors will sign up for this alternative that is so popular with students. PAS offers 31 sections of adult education classes (including ESL, Citizenship, Leadership, computers, parent education, high school diploma, and HiSET test prep) in four cities and locations. SCOE offers three sections of adult education construction classes in three cities to service the north, central and eastern portions of the county.


In 2023-24, SCAEC funded two temporary, part-time in-reach specialists to increase the number of students transferring from noncredit to credit and from ESL to HSD, and completing ESL certificates. Subsequent to the hiring of the first specialist-- the Adult Dual Enrollment (ADE) Coordinator-- the number of students enrolled in that program grew from one in Summer 2023 to 19 in Fall 2023, 43 in Spring 2024, and 21 in Summer 2024. In 2024-25, enrollment is expected to quadruple.


The second specialist hired in Spring 2024 was for the ESL Department. One purpose of this position was to facilitate students’ transition from noncredit ESL to credit ESL and to noncredit GED/HiSET classes. While the number of students transitioning from noncredit to credit improved between 2022-23 and 2023-24, SCAEC will not be able to assess the effects from hiring for this position until 2024-25.


SRJC has a long history of providing for students' food and transportation needs, but in the upcoming year, it will take a significant step forward in addressing housing insecurity. Food insecurity is addressed through snack programs and a largely day-time distribution of produce at the Santa Rosa campus. Beginning in Fall 2024, the Redwood Empire Food Bank will hold a free food market once a month at SRJC Roseland. Student transportation needs are addressed through partnerships with local public transit agencies that allow students to ride free when they show a student ID card. PAS’s Family Resource Center currently offers a food bank, support for completing CalFresh applications, rental assistance and a mobile health clinic to support students attending school at the McDowell site. 


In 2023-24, SRJC was selected by the Chancellor’s Office to participate in a five-year pilot program to provide additional support services to homeless students. In partnership with Interfaith Shelter Network (IFSN), two full-time, temporary social workers-- one of whom is assigned to SRJC Roseland-- will use the Rapid Re-Housing and case management models to place students in short-term housing; provide rental assistance; improve students’ financial literacy; and, if necessary, refer students to psychological services.


Finally, SCAEC remains committed to providing a variety of professional development opportunities for instructors in member agencies. In 2024-25, SCAEC will provide training to SRJC and PAS faculty on the new CASAS Reading and Listening STEPS assessments, as well as the use of AI in the classroom-- ways to enhance instruction, for students to make learning gains, and to avoid pitfalls and problems for users. The SCAEC will also offer Hyflex training to interested faculty across all SRJC adult education program areas. Finally, professional development opportunities for ESL faculty at SRJC will focus on ways to improve instructional consistency within and across levels.


Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs

SCAEC educational service providers offer programs for English language learners, those lacking a high school diploma or its equivalent, those interested in earning a noncredit CTE certificate, and adults with disabilities. The latter program is provided through partnerships SRJC has with community-based organizations to provide direct services to students with disabilities. In the CAEP Three-Year Plan, SCAEC data showed that only a small percentage of the County’s population who could benefit from adult education coursework in ESL, HSD/HSE, and/or short-term CTE programs actually enrolled in such classes.


While SRJC has met and exceeded the intermediate outcomes for ESL established in the Three-Year Plan, there continues to be a significant gap between the number of educational and workforce preparation coursework offered and the number of Sonoma County residents who could benefit from such coursework. Some of this gap is due to the finite number of qualified instructors available to teach such courses. However, it is imperative that SRJC strive to match changing student interest and demand with courses offered in order to continue to maximize enrollment.


PAS will continue to increase outreach to the ESL and parent community to increase enrollment in their in-person classes which are widely preferred to online classes. HSD/HSE classes will be advertised through flyers and communication from their program manager to local high schools, alternative education sites, counseling groups, direct partnerships-- such as Graton Rancheria and Juvenile Hall-- and through the PAS and SCAEC websites. PAS works closely within the consortium to transition students in K-12 Success, ESL and ASE programs to SRJC programs.  SCOE will continue to expand its marketing and outreach efforts to increase enrollment numbers, as well as continuing efforts to expand the program to the northern portion of the county.

How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?

For the CAEP Three-Year Plan, the SCAEC surveyed and met with adult education stakeholders and students to gather information to evaluate, assess, and identify needs and gaps in educational and workforce services. In addition, data from the U.S. Census, Launchboard’s Adult Education Pipeline, and SRJC’s Student Information System (SIS) were analyzed to both identify new and confirm anecdotal education and workforce service gaps. Data from the U.S. Census clearly demonstrated Sonoma County’s need for ESL, HSD/HSE, AWD, and short-term CTE program area classes.


Of 188,958 household and 488,863 residents:

  • 25.9% of households speak a language other than English at home;
  • 11.9% of residents 25 or over lack a high school diploma or its equivalent;
  • 7.6% of residents under age 65 have a disability; and
  • 7.8% of residents live in poverty.


For purposes of the 2024-25 CAEP Annual Plan, the SCAEC relied mostly on data from SRJC’s Student Information System and TOPSpro Enterprise (TE).

How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?

In the CAEP Three-Year Plan, the SCAEC indicated that program effectiveness/progress would be measured using key data points that had been uploaded from TE to Launchboard; however, the most current data available on Launchboard is from 2021-22. Instead, data available from TE will be used to measure effectiveness/progress as all three educational service providers use this software to record, manage, track, and analyze student data.


In addition, SRJC will use data from its SIS to supplement TE data as not all adult education students attending SRJC classes are tracked in TE. SIS data shows that student enrollment has increased a total of 57% (from 5,972 to 9,373) across all three of SRJC’s adult education program areas. The greatest increase (45%) was between 2021-22 and 2022-23 when enrollment increased by 2,661 students. This increase coincided with the return of in-person instruction across all departments. Between 2022-23 and 2023-24, enrollment increased by 8.6%, or 740 students.


PAS will use its attendance system, ASAP, in conjunction with TE to track data regarding attendance and enrollment. These data sources indicate a 16% increase in total enrollment at PAS between 2021-22 to 2022-23 (a 97% increase in ESL alone). These numbers have continued to rise through 2023-2024 with an increase from 2022-2023 of 9% in ESL and 17% in ASE.

Address Educational Needs

2024-25 Strategies

Expand Outreach Efforts

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Direct and sustained contact with students

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Adults who Became Participants (AE 202 - Overall)

The SRJC Adult Ed Program continues to focus on expanding outreach efforts to increase program visibility, enrollment, and student success. The Outreach Specialists employ a multi-faceted approach that leverages both digital and in-person channels to connect with potential students and build strong community partnerships.


Methods used to successfully optimize digital outreach by strategically utilizing social media platforms in 2023-24 will continue into 2024-25. A successful weekly live segment, called “Educational Gossip”, highlights SRJC’s adult education programs. Segments include information about current course offerings, student and faculty interviews, and a platform for community-based organizations to highlight the services they offer. Outreach specialists have also taken advantage of Las Pulgas, a targeted Facebook community group, and began boosting, a form of paid advertising, on both Facebook and Instagram to reach a wider audience.


PAS partners with SRJC to utilize the above-mentioned outreach strategies. In addition, Petaluma City Schools has recently launched an improved website for the district from which PAS will benefit in terms of outreach. PAS will use recent professional photographs or students and programs from Morelli Photography on our website and flyers, as well as posting HSE videos of teachers in English and Spanish. 


Using template platforms such as Renderforest (short videos) and Canva (flyers, presentations, and videos), outreach specialists are able to create and develop marketing materials that lead to enhanced audience interactions on social media, which in turn leads to increased website traffic and phone calls. Such advertising has been posted at the Petaluma DMV office and will be posted at the Santa Rosa DMV in 2024-25.


Outreach specialists have continued to maintain and make improvements to the SCAEC website to facilitate navigation and student enrollment. In 2023-24, the site was modified so that each program area-- CTE, ESL, and HSE-- now has its own webpage, making it easier for students to navigate. Each page lists available classes with all relevant course information and a link to an interest form. The interest forms make it easier for students to enroll because the outreach specialists process these and determine if additional paperwork is needed. If the latter is the case, students are sent an email with instructions on how to fill out and submit the admission application. Once this is done, outreach specialists enroll students in the class(es) of choice.


Outreach specialists continue to work with community partners to inform their clients of noncredit class offerings at SRJC, PAS, and SCOE. This is done both in person and online via outreach presentations. During 2023-24, the Adult Education Outreach Specialists participated in several tabling events and conducted approximately 32 presentations. The increase in presentations is largely due to the increased interest in the Adult Dual Enrollment (ADE) and test voucher programs, as well as in classes that include a stipend for students. The Adult Ed team plans to continue with presentations as demand for courses continues to grow, particularly for ADE and ESL courses.


With regards to traditional outreach efforts, the SRJC Adult Education team focuses its resources on methods that have proven to be effective, such as mailers promoting SRJC adult education programs. Sending of these mailers correlates with a high number of phone calls and increased traffic to the SCAEC website. Furthermore, the team continues the use of local and digital radio ads to promote HSE and ADE programs.


Through this combination of outreach strategies, the SRJC Adult Ed team aims to create a robust and effective outreach strategy that drives program growth, enhances student success, and strengthens the program’s position in the Sonoma County community.


PAS offers online registration for their HSD and HSE programs. This is conducted through a mandatory orientation/registration process that includes CASAS testing. The school administrators, counselor and other staff table at local events at the Graton Rancheria, Hanna Boys Center, Job Link, local schools and others throughout the Petaluma community.  Recruitment for parent education programs, which increasingly have wait lists, is done through flyers, website and door-to-door visits and canvassing target neighborhoods. ESL recruitment is done through the SCAEC and PAS websites. tabling at community events, such as St. Vincent’s Church and school welcome-back activities. Additionally, the PAS Family Resource Center hosts a wide variety of events where attendees learn about all the programs offered by PAS.


Optimize instructional modalities, course offerings & locations to meet student demand and interest

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Direct and sustained contact with students

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Adults who Became Participants (AE 202 - Overall)

All three of SCAEC’s educational service providers monitor student enrollment to ensure that student demand and interest is being met. When creating class schedules, administrators, department chairs, and faculty meet to discuss which course to offer and in which modality. In the case of in-person classes, location is also a consideration. In 2023-24, this type of analysis led to an increase in the number and type of CTE classes offered in person and in a hybrid format, but only a small reduction in the number of fully online classes. In 2024-25, SRJC will no longer offer HSE courses in a hybrid format as this was not a popular choice among students. In addition, SRJC’s HSE program seems to have found a good combination of in-person and online offerings, with slightly more than half being in person. Lastly, SRJC added three new offsite locations to its schedule-- two schools where approximately 90% of the students are Latinx and the local adult detention facility.


The ESL Department has also made adjustments to the number of course offerings by modality. Between Fall 2023 and Spring 2024, a small number of online class offerings were eliminated and replaced with in-person classes as the latter are more popular with students. In addition, a faculty member volunteered to teach a noncredit class in Hyflex in Spring 2024. This modality gives students the flexibility to choose how they want to attend each class session-- either in-person or online. The class proved so popular that the Fall 2024 class is already full.


Since returning to in-person instruction, the SRJC administration has allowed the ESL Department to grow-- increasing the number of sections and classes offered, faculty hired, and students enrolled. This was permitted because many other departments across the District fell below their target FTES (full-time equivalent student) to FTEF (full-time equivalent faculty) ratios between Fall 2022 and up until Summer 2024. Because other departments are nearing their target FTES/FTEF, the ESL Department was forced to cut sections and classes to lower its ratio to target levels. This led to the reduction of nine classes from Summer 2023 to Summer 2024 and 13 classes from Fall 2023 to Fall 2024. SRJC administrators realize this is problematic since growing noncredit enrollment is part of the current strategic plan and SRJC is the largest adult education service provider in Sonoma County. Consequently, the administration will be reviewing its current practices for managing FTES/FTEF and allocating resources. PAS has recruited two new teachers to increase sections of ESL classes offered.


On a more positive note, SRJC’s Construction Training Center will open in Fall 2024. Seven noncredit in-person and hybrid classes will be offered there, including two new classes: Carpentry Tool Use and Safety and General Contractor License Preparation. All but two of the construction CTE classes offered at this location are full, and it is anticipated that the others will fill, too, as they are only a few seats shy of capacity. A stipend of $1,500 is offered to students who successfully complete Carpentry Tool Use and Safety so that they may begin to acquire their own set of tools.


SCOE continues to offer construction courses in Santa Rosa and Sonoma and continues outreach efforts directed toward offering a north county (Cloverdale) class. Offerings include Essential Carpentry/Construction courses complimented by skill-specific clinics each semester.


PAS will continue to offer in-person classes for HSD, HSE, K-12 Success, and ESL/Citizenship. Hybrid options are available for all HSD and HSE sites and classes.


Scheduling of large-scale group registration and orientation events

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Direct and sustained contact with students

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Adults who Became Participants (AE 202 - Overall)

In Summer and Fall 2023, SRJC successfully planned and executed large-scale registration events at Job Link, La Luz Center, Healdsburg Community Center, SRJC Roseland, and the Adult Ed office in Santa Rosa. However, both the Adult Education Program Director and the Director of SRJC Roseland have determined that these large-scale events are not the most efficient means of registering students for a variety of reasons. First, there is a tremendous amount of effort that goes into planning such events, from the logistics of securing rooms, tables, and chairs, to providing childcare. Second, such events require a minimum of five to seven staff members to greet and orient students, provide childcare, and meet individually with students to discuss the educational interests, find an appropriate class, possibly complete an application, and finally enroll them. Finally, it was difficult to predict how many would actually attend some events. This resulted in some events where students had to wait two to three hours to enroll for a class, and others where two staff members would have been sufficient to handle the volume of students.


Towards the end of Fall 2023, the SRJC Adult Education team started making these events more accessible by offering them online. These were often better attended, required fewer staff to be on-hand, and minimized the logistical requirements enormously. Hence, the Adult Education Program will pivot to offering more online registration events in 2024-25. Furthermore, the SRJC Adult Ed team has incorporated tools like Calendly to facilitate the scheduling of in-person and online appointments with outreach staff. Similarly, SRJC Roseland has found that students prefer a drop-in registration model that allows them to meet with a student support services specialist, either in-person or online, as their schedule permits. This practice will be continued in the 2024-25 Program Year.


Moving into 2024-25, the Director of SRJC Roseland will pilot the offering of workshops in the two weeks before the start of the semester. In addition, these events will be strategically located at SRJC Roseland. Having a single, centrally located event will allow all staff from both the Adult Education Program and SRJC Roseland to be on hand to assist students. These events will then be assessed for their efficiency and effectiveness to determine whether they should be improved or discontinued.


As PAS has been at capacity for ASE and maintained waiting lists for ESL level 1, PAS will continue with website and flyer outreach for classes. 

Improve Integration of Services & Transitions

2024-25 Strategies

Improve Transition Rates

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Direct and sustained contact with students

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • Student Barriers: English Language Learner (AE 305 - Overall)

After a significant decline in transition rates during COVID, SRJC has seen a 17% increase in the number of students transitioning from noncredit to credit. In calendar year 2022, 1,793 students transitioned to credit from noncredit; in 2023, that number increased to 2,103. Unfortunately, SRJC does not have data for the number of students transitioning between adult education programs. SRJC’s Adult Education Program Director will be working with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Research and Planning during 2024-25 to develop a method for capturing this data.


Since offering both in-person and online modalities, ESL classes have become impacted, making it difficult to ensure that current students without priority registration can enroll in classes where seats are still available. To address this need, counseling hours dedicated to serving adult education were increased. One benefit of this is that counselors were able to conduct in-class orientations and then meet with students individually during class time to develop education plans with them, two key requirements for gaining priority registration. Since implementing this program, counselors have been to 48 in-person and online classes to orient almost 300 students and provide them with education plans.


In addition to fulfilling a priority registration requirement, the orientation also covers all SRJC adult education programs, the credit program and how to transition to it, and available student support services-- from basic needs to health to tutoring. The Adult Ed outreach specialists have also developed pre-recorded orientation videos and conducted live online orientations that provide comprehensive information about course offerings in all adult education program areas, certificate requirements, and the process for obtaining a certificate. The goal of these orientations is to increase the number of students transitioning between adult education program areas and obtaining certificates. In addition, a robust follow-up system that includes phone calls, emails, and text messages was implemented.


The focused orientation videos and follow-up system were also expanded to include HSE. The purpose of these orientations is to inform students about the differences between GED and HiSET exams, how to register to take the GED or HiSET exams, Adult Dual Enrollment, and the GED/HiSET test voucher program.


In 2023-24, SCAEC devoted resources to funding two temporary, part-time in-reach specialists-- one for Adult Dual Enrollment (ADE) and the other for ESL. The ADE Coordinator was hired in early 2023-24 to manage the program and increase enrollment. The Coordinator developed informational flyers; delivered in-class presentations to students enrolled in ESL and HSE classes; tabled on-campus student events; and recruited student participants, counselors, and instructors to spread the word. As a result of these efforts, the number of adult dual enrollment participants grew from one in Summer 2023, to 19 in Fall 2023, 43 in Spring 2024, and 21 in Summer 2024. The number of adult dual enrollment participants is expected to grow to at least 250 in 2024-25. The ADE Coordinator will continue building enrollment, improving messaging, and fostering student success through consistent engagement with students, counselors, and instructors.


The ESL Department hired a temporary, part-time In-Reach/Transition Specialist for the Spring 2024 semester. The purpose of this position was to facilitate students’ transition from noncredit ESL to credit ESL and to noncredit HSE classes and inform undocumented students about the financial aid options available to them should they wish to take credit courses. This was accomplished by delivering 76 in-class presentations and meeting with students one-on-one. The Adult Education Program is currently in the process of hiring a new In-Reach/Transition Specialist for Fall 2024 to continue this important work.


PAS, with its varied programs and classes, utilizes a variety of strategies to support transitions to education and employment. For K-12 Success, students are encouraged to take other classes, such as ESL, Citizenship, Leadership, HiSET test prep, or computers simultaneously. ESL students who progress through their classes, make EFL gains, and take the Bridges and Transitions class can transfer to higher non-credit or lower-level credit classes at SRJC. To support CTE and career transitions, the FRC assists students with resume building and support in applying for jobs. HSD students complete a mandatory five-credit career exploration elective which allows them to explore and compare different careers. They are also connected to SRJC’s outreach specialists and counselors to transition to SRJC. Finally, a partnership with CALRegional medical training allows students who complete an HSD/HSE with PAS to benefit from a scholarship for phlebotomy and/or clinical medical assisting courses.


Expand Basic Needs Support Services

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Direct and sustained contact with students

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Adults who Became Participants (AE 202 - Overall)

Adult education students often require a high level of student support services, from education and career counseling to basic needs assistance. The ability to provide these support services can mean the difference between a student completing their classes or dropping out. Traditionally, counseling, career development, tutoring, and disability resources have been available on SRJC’s Petaluma and Santa Rosa campuses. All but disability resources have also been available at Roseland, but this gap in services was addressed in Spring 2024. Now, students at the Roseland campus have access to disability resources at that location and do not have to travel to another campus. In addition, SRJC has long partnered with local transit agencies-- Sonoma County Transit, Santa Rosa City Bus, and Petaluma Transit-- to provide free transportation to students who show their student ID cards. Support services are also available to help students apply to reduced cost transportation programs for low-income residents, such as Clipper START which can be used on the SMART Train and California’s Low-Cost Auto Insurance program.


SRJC has been addressing students’ food insecurity needs at its Santa Rosa Campus where fresh produce and other nutritious foods have been available three days a week for several years. Unfortunately, the hours of 10:00 to 4:00 on two days and 10:00 to 6:00 on one day are inconvenient for evening adult education students who typically work during the day. To address this gap in services, Roseland instituted a snack program in 2022-23 when it was unable to secure a contract for services similar to those provided at the Santa Rosa campus. Food options include snacks, instant meals, dried goods, fruit and vegetable juices, and protein shakes. In 2023-24, this program was expanded to include all three SRJC campuses as well as eight off-site locations. More recently, the Director of SRJC Roseland and the Basic Needs Social Worker and Support Services Specialist are working together to develop a contract with the Redwood Empire Food Bank to hold a free food market at Roseland where students will be able to pick up produce and other nutritious foods once a month. Students do not have to demonstrate need in order to participate in any of SRJC’s food programs.


In 2023-24, SRJC was one of 27 California Community Colleges selected by the Chancellor’s Office to participate in a five-year pilot program to provide additional support services to homeless students. Funding from the Housing and Homelessness Incentive Program (HHIP) is to provide resources and services to students who are homeless or on the verge of being so. This funding provides SRJC with the financial leverage it has needed to expand its basic needs assistance program, called Bear Cub Basics.


Since receiving HHIP funding, SRJC has accomplished two key tasks. First, two full-time, temporary social workers were hired in February 2024. One social worker will assist online students, as well as those taking classes at the Roseland and Petaluma campuses. The other will assist students taking classes at the Santa Rosa campus; Public Safety Training Center; and Shone Farm, SRJC’s outdoor learning laboratory; as well as students living in the dorms. The second task was to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with Interfaith Shelter Network (IFSN), a leading local non-profit that provides a wide range of support services to homeless and housing insecure individuals.


The SRJC HHIP Team, which includes a reassigned support services specialist, will refer students with housing needs to IFSN. Throughout the spring and summer, the IFSN and the HHIP Team have been developing referral and placement practices in anticipation of becoming operational in Fall 2024. Housing needs will be addressed using the Rapid Re-Housing model and include the following options: short-term housing in a four-bedroom home close to the Santa Rosa campus newly leased by IFSN; rental assistance; case management; financial literacy; and, if necessary, psychological services in English or Spanish.


PAS’ Family Resource Center provides food bank, mobile health clinic, support with CalFresh applications, immigration and naturalization support and workshops, healthy cooking classes, mental health services and referrals and many other wrap-around services to support students.

Improve Effectiveness of Services

2024-25 Strategies

Provide Professional Development

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Professional Development

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Number of Adults Served (AE 200 - Overall)

The SCAEC is committed to funding professional development for faculty and staff that results in greater learning outcomes for students, improved retention, and a measure of instructional consistency, especially among the 60 ESL noncredit faculty at SRJC. In 2023-24, ten new faculty members attended a department orientation; six of these new hires also received training on conducting EL Civics assessments. A workshop was held to share and discuss effective use of the new ESL noncredit readers. Instructors using Burlington English met five times during the academic year to share ideas about effectively incorporating its use with the ESL noncredit readers and to boost CASAS test scores. There were also two Canvas trainings held-- Basic and Advanced. Finally, after receiving information from the District that ESL student retention was low, half the faculty met at the end of the spring semester to discuss ways to improve it.


In addition to the above professional development, the SCAEC was able to send eleven individuals from its ESL, CTE, and HSE programs-- seven faculty, two outreach specialists, and two administrator-- to the 2024 CCAE State Conference in Anaheim. Participants attended sessions on improving student persistence, retention, and transition; using artificial intelligence in the classroom; and learning about best practices from model agencies. Faculty from all three SRJC adult education programs attended the annual Local Assessment Policy training at SRJC Roseland in Spring 2024. An introduction to the differences between the CASAS Life and Work Reading and Listening tests and the new STEPS tests was also coerced at this meeting.


In 2023-24, the ESL Department committed to holding hybrid department meetings to encourage attendance. Attendance did, in fact, increase, so the department meetings were lengthened and guest speakers invited to share information relevant to the adult education program faculty and students. Topics included student educational and career counseling, placement testing, grading, student learning outcomes, and the class enrollment process. Attendance at these meetings is voluntary for associate faculty since they are not compensated; however, once these guest speakers and topics were added to the agenda, associate faculty attendance increased to an average of 70%. As a result of this success, the ESL Department plans to include the following topics at department meetings in 2024-25: student physical and mental health services, SRJC’s Undocu-Immigrant Dream Center services, and adult dual enrollment.


In 2024-25, SCAEC will provide consortium-wide professional development. Since CASAS has implemented its new Reading and Listening STEPS assessments, SCAEC will schedule training in Fall 2024 for faculty to learn about the changes, plus how to access and use materials on the CASAS website to inform instruction and help students improve their test scores. In Spring 2025, faculty will be invited to participate in training focused on AI-- how faculty can use it to enhance instruction, how students can use it to make learning gains, and how to avoid pitfalls and problems for AI users.


The ESL Department will reintroduce an effective practice from prior years: level meetings. Faculty from each level will meet monthly to share materials and effective practices and discuss solutions to identified challenges. The goal is to improve student learning gains and retention, as well as enhance instructional consistency within each level. Rather than continue to offer training sessions for Canvas and Burlington English, the SCAEC and SRJC ESL Department have agreed to move to a mentoring model for faculty desirous of being introduced to or improving their use of these important tools. A mentor must have demonstrated experience using either Canvas or Burlington effectively, and each mentor will be matched with no more than two mentees.


The SCAEC also plans to offer training to SRJC faculty on the effective use of HyFlex. SRJC does not currently compensate faculty for HyFlex training; however, adult education program faculty are interested in this option as offering courses in this modality may prevent classes from being canceled due to under-enrollment.

Fiscal Management

A narrative justifying how the planned allocations are consistent with the annual adult education plan which is based on your CAEP 3-year plan.

The SCAEC is comprised of six members, three of which are service providers. SCAEC is direct-funded, and it is the goal to continue with this model as all the service providers agree that this model works well, and they are not interested in reverting back to the fiscal agent model. The allocation percentage for the three agencies has remained consistent over the past nine years, with approximately 38-39% going to SRJC, a little over 53% going to PAS, and close to 8% going to SCOE. Since SCOE has reduced the number of classes they had offered before the pandemic, they have been unable to spend their funds as expected. Therefore, SCOE has agreed to have their PY 2024-25 allocation reduced by 50%. These funds will be split evenly between SRJC and PAS.


SRJC will use most of its CAEP funds to pay for a full-time Adult Education Program Director; one full-time Outreach Coordinator; three full-time Outreach Specialists; one full-time Testing Technician; one full-time Administrative Assistant; one part-time temporary Adult Dual Enrollment Coordinator; half of the salary of a full-time SRJC Roseland Director; one part-time STNC Outreach Specialist; one part-time permanent Testing Technician; one to five student employees; curriculum and professional development for noncredit ESL, CTE and HSE instructors; program and classroom supplies, including furniture for some renovated classrooms at SRJC Roseland; marketing; and equipment, such as laptops, keyboards, and mice.

 

PAS will use approximately 85% of its funds to pay for a FT Principal, Assistant Principal and .5 counselor for ASE as well as 2.5 FTE certificated teachers and 23 hourly teachers working in K-12 Success, ESL and ASE. With regard to classified staff, PAS will fund a FT senior secretary, registrar, .5 learning center coordinator, FT FRC bilingual family mentor, other PT FRC staff and parent education and childcare staff, some with PT regular assignments and others hired as substitute childcare assistants. Books, supplies, educational software, copier licenses, professional memberships, conferences, and indirect costs are also funded through CAEP.

 

With the 2024-2025 allocated funds, PAS will continue to offer ESL and Citizenship classes in person and restore the full number of hours for each class and section to pre-pandemic times. PAS will expand the hours, days and locations for their HSD and HSE (English and Spanish) at McDowell bringing the total ASE sites to four, with morning and evening options and free childcare located in four Sonoma County cities. They will continue to offer HiSET testing and recently added three more test sections to meet the demand. Instruction will continue primarily in person with additional virtual classes to support learners who benefit from online instruction. With regard to parent education (K12 Success), PAS will continue to offer allowable K-12 Success programs.

 

Their award-winning Family Resource Center will concentrate on wrap-around services and support for their Sonoma County students as well as developing collaborations with multiple business and social service partners. A new area of education development for the current and upcoming years is English and Newcomer classes for the refugee populations in our area, including Afghans and Ukrainians.

 

With the 2024-25 allocated funds, SCOE will offer construction courses in three areas of the county: Sonoma and Santa Rosa classes are ongoing. Outreach efforts to expand course offerings to the north county (Cloverdale) will continue. Offerings will include Essential Carpentry/Construction courses, complemented by skill-specific clinics each semester. When possible, these courses will be scheduled so that students completing SRJC coursework can matriculate into the SCOE courses. Courses will continue to be held in both Sonoma and Santa Rosa to serve students in or near the community in which they live, with the hopes of expanding to the northern part of the county.

An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2024-25.

The three funded service providers will use any carry-over funds to meet their agency’s responsibilities for the provision of consortium supported programs and services. CAEP funds not spent within the year they are allocated are rolled into the subsequent year’s budget to ensure continuity of staffing and services to adult education students. The director of the SCAEC reviews the financial reports for the 3 services providers on a quarterly basis to monitor the rate of expenditure to make sure that all allocated funds are spent in a timely manner and adequate carryover funds are available for subsequent years.

 

The SCAEC Oversight Committee will monitor overall consortium spending and the spending of all members with the submission of quarterly fiscal reports and by reviewing the FIFO data. If a member is not spending their allocation per state guidelines and as a result, the Consortium is in danger of exceeding the 20% carryover limit, the consortium director will work with this member to create a plan to reduce their carry over. The SCAEC updated and approved its bylaws in January 2024 to include article X- Member Effectiveness that governs carryover.

Certification

Petaluma Joint Union High - Member Representative

Approved by Nancy Emanuele 7784633

08/13/2024 01:38 PM PDT

Santa Rosa City Schools - Member Representative

Approved by Aaron Gildengorin

08/13/2024 02:12 PM PDT

Sonoma Co. Office of Education - Member Representative

Approved by Georgia Ioakimedes

08/13/2024 04:50 PM PDT

Sonoma County CCD - Member Representative

Approved by Daniela Kingwill

08/13/2024 01:39 PM PDT

Sonoma Valley Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Liz Liscum

08/14/2024 02:49 PM PDT

Windsor Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Brian Wiliams

08/19/2024 02:22 PM PDT