City College has been named a 2022 Champion for Excelling in Equitable Course Placement in Black English Enrollment by The Campaign for College Opportunity. 

“Santa Barbara City College successfully supported 100% of Black students to enroll directly in transfer-level English coursework, and at least 70% of Black students who enrolled in a transfer-level English course complete it within one year of their initial enrollment,” wrote Michele Siqueiros, president of The Campaign for College Opportunity. “We applaud your dedication and commitment to California students.”

City College will be recognized at the inaugural installation ceremony on May 12 at the RedBird in Downtown Los Angeles.

On Friday, April 22 on an Instagram live, guest speaker Jasmine Presaud, vice president of Legislative Affairs for the Student Senate of California Community Colleges, spoke on her personal experience as a dyslexic ESL Latinx student and added her thoughts on how important it is for students to feel comfortable in the english courses they are placed into at a college level.

“It’s really important that colleges know it can ruin a students self esteem when they are put into courses where they will not have success,” Presaud said.

Over the last decade, City College has significantly reduced its racial-equity gaps in student achievement. 

The Campaign for College Opportunity works as a non-profit organization in celebrating the implementation of AB 705.  This bill was passed on Oct. 13, 2017 and took effect on Jan. 1, 2018 to maximize the probability of a student entering and completing transfer-level coursework in English and Math within a one year timeframe. 

The implementation of the bill included the specific placement of students in respective courses depending on their highschool grades, coursework, and grade point average. Furthermore, the bill takes a stab at standardized testing scores and puts more emphasis on the students overall highschool performance. 

Moving forward, the goal is to completely diminish the racial-equity gap in all community colleges in California, specifically for Black and Latinx students. Ultimately, this would ease the transition to a four-year college or university. 

“I want to thank all the colleges and faculty involved for making this a reality for students to excel,” Siqueiros said in the live-stream.