Bakersfield College Presents
Intersegmental Pathways Symposium:
Meeting California's 2030 Baccalaureate Completion Goals
Join the Conversation #BCIPS
Friday, November 15, 2019, Bakersfield College hosted an educational symposium in California's Central Valley to focus on statewide intersegmental pathways that enhance baccalaureate completion. We invited cross-functional Guided Pathways teams to this event where practice and policy met to advance the agenda of student completion!
Bakersfield College serves over 37,000 students annually and we continue to grow, having seen a nearly 50 percent increase in enrollment in the past five years. Many of our students hail from our surrounding rural communities – some reaching as far as an hour away from our campus.
According to data reported by the California Department of Education, Kern County’s baccalaureate attainment rates are roughly half the statewide rate. In rural service areas, fewer than three in every 100 residents holds a bachelor’s degree or higher. Over 28 percent of those in BC’s service area lack a high school diploma.
Low baccalaureate attainment rates in the Central Valley have a massive impact on the health of our communities. The per capita income in the area is among the lowest in California, at just $21,094 – well below the state average of $31,458. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the unemployment rate in Kern County well exceeds the national rate at 7.7% while nearly a quarter of residents live below the poverty line. In many of our service-area rural communities, residents experience poverty rates topping 35% and debilitating unemployment over double the national average.
Yet, beyond the borders of Kern County, there is a widely recognized shortage of educated workers in California. The Public Policy Institute of California has estimated that the state will have a shortfall of 1 million workers with bachelor’s degrees by 2025.
I invite you to engage in this important dialogue. Together, we will blur the lines between our educational segments in the interest of student equity and completion. Together, we will catalyze policy solutions to the issues that affect our most vulnerable students to that our innovations can be scaled and sustained at all of our institutions across the state. Together, we will rise to meet the demand for more baccalaureate graduates by 2030.
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