K-16 Regional Education Collaborative

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K-16 Education Collaboratives

Serving the State of California

A $54M Regional Investment in California's Future

As the University of California's institutional lead in the three Northern California K-16 Regional Education Collaboratives, our division at UC Davis has enabled our partners to secure $54 million in funding to strengthen occupational pathways from Sacramento to the Oregon border. This funding empowers a network of K-12 school districts, California State Universities, California Community Colleges, and UC Davis units to advance workforce opportunities and supports local economies.
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K-16 Grant Program

UC Davis is the UC partner in 3 Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives, taking new steps to invest in our students and serve the state of California
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Making a Collective Impact

Bringing together a group of partners with differing missions but all working on the same goal is complex. UC Davis will be utilizing a Collective Impact framework to enhance its participation in this grant.

News

UC Davis Leads Education and Workforce Alignment Across Northern California

A new report from Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) highlights UC Davis’ leadership in strengthening connections between education systems and workforce opportunities across Northern California. Through the work of Inclusive Excellence staff, UC Davis has led the university’s participation in the statewide K–16 Education Collaborative, coordinating partnerships across the Sacramento region, North State and Redwood Coast. This work brings together K–12 schools, community colleges, universities and industry partners to create clearer, more aligned pathways from education to high-demand careers including health care, education and engineering. The report finds that intentional coordination across these partners is helping address long-standing gaps between education systems. By mapping transitions, improving data sharing and expanding dual enrollment opportunities, the collaboratives are making it easier for students to move successfully from one stage of their education to the next. UC Davis’ unique role across three regions has helped align efforts at scale, supporting nearly 900,000 students across 22 counties, including rural and tribal communities. Together, these partnerships are building a more connected and responsive education ecosystem that supports student success, strengthens workforce development and advances economic mobility. Read the full report: https://edpolicyinca.org/publications/k-16-partnerships

K-16 Collaborative Announces Major Expansion

The region’s most ambitious education-to-career pipeline initiative is accelerating — and UC Davis is a big part of it.

The Sacramento K-16 Collaborative recently announced significant expansion of its regional data partnership: what began on October 8, 2024 with five founding institutions now is growing to include ten additional partners (pending final authorization), bringing the total to 15 institutions collectively serving more than 220,000 students across the Capital Region.

Preserving Local Voices: UC Davis Students Illuminate a Hidden Black Community

UC Davis students are uncovering hidden stories from Yolo County’s past, highlighting a little-known Black community in Woodland that thrived in the mid-1800s through the early 1900s. Through research led by Associate Professor Cecilia Tsu and a team of undergraduate and graduate students, the project documented the lives of formerly enslaved individuals and their descendants, preserving photographs, maps, court records, and personal histories.

What does this mean for UC Davis?

Together, the grants represent $54 million in funding to these regions, with funding split among many partners, including K-12 school districts, CSUs, Community Colleges, and UCs. UC Davis received approximately $3M, and is dedicating that funding to projects that might be scaled up, to filling gaps, and to other strategic investments. Some of the programs explicitly funded by the grant are listed at left.

However, this is a great opportunity for many programs at UC Davis to develop and strengthen relationships in these regions with intersegmental partners. We are engaging with projects that have existing synergies or ongoing plans to build out in this region or with target populations where partnerships add value to their offerings.

The framework of the K-16 Collaboratives is incentivizing us to think inter-segmentally, to focus on equity, and to address accelerated pathways that respond to California’s workforce needs. It’s exciting but also complex and ambiguous. As we proceed, we will want to ensure that we connect with key stakeholders in a community-minded way. 

 

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