Impact

About Impact

Overview of UCCI's Impact

UCCI assists California high schools with the development and implementation of integrated curriculum–courses uniting academic study with Career Technical Education (CTE), to help prepare students for success in college, career and life.

While funding for the initiative sunset in 2019, the course catalog and associated resources remain available for schools and districts to adopt and implement. UCCI programming is organized and supported locally by the host institution. 

UCCI’s first program, the UCCI Institutes, launched in 2010, with funding provided by the CTE Pathways Initiative (SB 70), which addressed the need for greater CTE representation across the A-G subject areas. Since then, UCCI has:

  • Hosted 35 UCCI Institutes, training 1,476 educators and administrators throughout California in how to develop integrated A-G courses;

  • Led diverse and highly-talented teams of teachers in developing 76 fully integrated A-G courses that contextualize academic work through career exploration; those courses are now offered at more than 600 California high schools, and they are available–for free–to anyone who wants to teach them;

  • Launched programs beyond the UCCI Institutes, including the UCCI Teacher Exchange, which has now supported just shy of 300 teachers statewide in teaching a UCCI course for the first time;

  • Administered two grant programs to grow the instructional resources for UCCI courses; and

  • Garnered attention from well beyond California’s borders: 22 UCCI courses made up the founding curriculum for Boston-area STEAM-focused public schools, and school districts in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Oregon have expressed interest in teaching UCCI courses.

Developing Teacher Leaders

Since 2010, UCCI conducted 35 UCCI Institutes and 45 UCCI Teacher Exchanges, helping an overall total 1,476 educators learn about, create, and prepare to teach integrated courses.

In addition to facilitating teacher learning and collaboration, UCCI also trained 288 educators to serve in paid leadership roles at UCCI Institutes, Teacher Exchanges, and Conferences:

  • 165 UCCI Course Design Team Facilitators

  • 66 UCCI Course Content Advisors

  • 45 UCCI Teacher Exchange Leaders

  • 12 Certified UCCI Facilitators

In fact, 20% of UCCI participants advanced to facilitate course design teams or provided expert content guidance at UCCI Institutes, or to lead curriculum development at a Teacher Exchange.

Enriching High School Education

  • 76 UCCI courses have been created by academic and CTE teachers

  • 33 UCCI courses have UC-honors designation

  • Over 600 institutions in California offer UCCI courses

  • More than 510,000 students in California have access to UCCI courses, which help students enrolled in CTE pathways complete the A-G courses they need for freshman admission to UC and CSU campuses.

Types of Institutions Offering UCCI Courses

  • 70.7%  Public, comprehensive high schools

  • 11.1%  Public, charter schools

  • 9.3%    Public, alternative and continuation high schools

  • 5.3%    CTE / Linked Learning Centers and Regional Occupational Programs (ROP)

  • 3.6%    Private high schools 

California Grown, Nationally Influential

While UCCI’s mission is to expand access to integrated curriculum so that all California high school students can better prepare for college and careers, UCCI’s work has gotten noticed far beyond the state’s borders. As schools throughout the country work to update their courses to align with the Common Core State Standards, many are looking to UC’s own UCCI Initiative as a model of collaborative leadership in curriculum design:

  • The Boston-area STEAM Studio Education Foundation, whose board of directors includes faculty from MIT, chose 15 UCCI courses as the founding curriculum for a STEAM-innovation school that opened in September 2017, with plans to open 19 more STEAM schools over the next five years.

  • Members of the Connecticut Council on Education Reform invited UCCI staff to present at a 2017 conference in Connecticut, with the goal of getting Connecticut high schools to offer UCCI courses. 

"I've gained more from this institute in regards to curriculum development than any other program I've been associated with in my 12 years of teaching."

Aaron Lemos, Spring 2013 UCCI Institute Participant

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