Bridging the Gaps through CrossSystem Education Partnerships: Principles of Practice from Long Beach and the Salinas Valley - Brief

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob

Bridging the Gaps through Cross-System Education Partnerships presents five principles of practice drawn from Long Beach and Salinas Valley teams working under the Bridging the Gap (BtG) initiative. The brief explains how cross-system education partnerships support smoother transitions for first-generation, low-income, and students of color as K-12, community colleges, and CSU policies evolve. It outlines strategies including keeping students and equity at the center, using data to surface barriers, engaging leaders, strengthening institutional connections, and institutionalizing sustainable work.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time1 h 6 min

AccessFree to download

Five Principles of Practice

Keep student goals and equity implications at the center

Share and use data to identify successes and barriers

Engage and support leaders at the top and in the middle

Work across institutions to improve connections and coherence

Work within each institution to institutionalize and sustain the work

Initiative Focus and Partnership Approach

Target populations and cross-system regional structure

Proposed priority practices and systemic change emphasis

Community of practice and support providers

The BtG Teams

Shared traits and key differences in benefits and challenges

Bridging the Gaps through CrossSystem Education Partnerships: Principles of Practice from Long Beach and the Salinas Valley June 2019 Thad Nodine Kathy Reeves Bracco Laura Jaeger A Series of Briefs from Bridging the Gap (BtG) This brief is part of a series that also includes Bridging the Gaps for Students in Long Beach: Cross-System Efforts to Institutionalize Dual Enrollment and Bridging the Gaps for Students in the Salinas Valley: Cross-System Efforts to Increase College Readiness. The collaborationsin Long Beach and the Salinas Valley were implemented through Bridging the Gap (BtG), an initiative funded by The James Irvine Foundation. In 2016, two cross-system education partnerships in California—in Long Beach and the Salinas Valley—joined Bridging the Gap (BtG), an initiative funded by The James Irvine Foundation to smooth transitions for students from high school to postsecondary education. As the BtG initiative unfolded, policy reforms at the state and system levels began to transform curricularand assessment practices in the K-12 schools, basic skills and developmental education at the California Community Colleges (CCC), and remedial and general education at the California State University (CSU) .1 Due to these and other reforms within the systems, working across systems increasingly became an immediate and practical need for those seeking to improve student transitions from high school to postsecondary education. During BtG, the partners adapted to the reforms within their own systems and worked with those in the other systems to understand the impacts on their practices. Their efforts testify to the importance of and challenges inherent in working across systems to support students’ educational and career goals from high school to and through college. This brief describes five learnings, or principles of practice (see BtG Principles of Practice), drawn from the work of the Long Beach and Salinas Valley teams. The brief is intended for those interested in strengthening or developing a crosssystem education partnership in their communities. Because cross-system work is so dependent on the context and history of partnering institutions, we illustrate the principles through examples of the partners’ work, and we provide a series of questions (see Appendix A: Reflection Questions) for use in adapting BtG Principles of Practice 1. Keep students, their educational goals, and related equity implications at the center 2. Share and use data to identify successes and barriers and to build engagement 3. Engage and support leaders at the top and in the middle 4. Work across institutions to improve connections and create coherence for students 5. Work within each institution to institutionalize and sustain the work 1 The K-12 schools were continuing the implementation of new state standards and assessments and adapting to a new accountability system that includes a college and career readiness indicator. The CCCs were revamping basic skills education under AB 705 (Irwin, 2017) and implementing a Guided Pathways initiative, as well as several other reforms. The CSU was implementing Graduation Initiative 2025 and transforming development education and general education under the Chancellor’s Office’s Executive Orders 1100 and 1110. Bridging the Gaps through Cross-System Education Partnerships: Principles of Practice from Long Beach and the Salinas Valley EDUCATION INSIGHTS CENTER AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO 2 the principles to different institutional and regional contexts. First, however, we introduce the initiative and its partners. In seeking to improve transitions from high school to postsecondary education, the BtG initiative from the outset focused on first-generation college students, students of color, and lowincome students in California, since these populations face substantial barriers in reaching their educational goals. The initiative adopted a cross-system approach wi

FAQs

What problem does the BtG initiative address for students?

It targets barriers in transitions from high school to postsecondary education, with emphasis on first-generation college students, students of color, and low-income students in California.

What are the five principles of practice described in the brief?

They include centering students and equity, using shared data, engaging leaders at top and middle levels, improving cross-institution connections, and institutionalizing and sustaining the work within each institution.

How does the brief recommend partnerships adapt as education reforms occur?

Partners adjust their plans and refine objectives as they work within and across institutions, using the community of practice model supported by BtG facilitation, documentation, and evaluative support.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob