Assembly Bill 928, the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act of 2021, proposes making the transfer process from two to four-year institutions clear by creating consistent and readily understandable pathways.
With 116 community colleges across the state of California, students are faced with figuring out what courses and curriculum they must pursue in order to be prepared to transfer to a four-year institution, including those in the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) systems. Community college students, particularly student of color and low-income students, often face barriers to successful application and transfer.
California Assemblyman Marc Berman and the Campaign for College Opportunity (CCO), announced the introduction of Assembly Bill (AB) 928, which proposes to transform the transfer process by simplifying and strengthening the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) pathway to foster equitable access.
ADT, sometimes called Degree with a Guarantee, guarantees priority admission to a California State institution for those students who meet the minimum eligibility requirements. There are additional requirements for STEM majors. As of October 2020, over 280,000 have earned an ADT. Those individuals accrue an average of six fewer credit units, which accounted for over $12 million in savings in 2018-19.
CCO was integrally involved in the bill that created ADT, which was established a decade ago and has proven to be successful when utilized, but the transfer rates remain low. Only 35% of Latinx students transfer to a four-year institution within four years and just 5% of African American students.
“Students across the state have conflicting and confusing information about what general education is necessary is necessary to transfer. One of the challenges is there are multiple general education pathways,” said Jessie Ryan, executive vice president of CCO. “One of the things that AB 928 will do is create a singular general education pathway.
“AB 928 would charge the CSU and the University of California with coming together and developing a singular general education pathway so we’re taking the guesswork out of student transfer pathways and providing students with a clear roadmap to transfer,” she added.
