Beginning this year, Northern California school kids are going to get a better education, thanks to $2.5 million in new, mostly permanent, state funding given to UC Davis this fall. This boosted effort to involve UC Davis in K-12 education is expected to help more educationally disadvantaged students throughout the region become eligible for college, points out Carol Wall, vice chancellor for student affairs. What's new for UC Davis, however, is going beyond the 70 middle schools, junior and senior high schools that the campus's Early Academic Outreach Program already reaches to work with the elementary schools for the first time. That's when both children and their parents are still excited about education and time exists to plant the ambition to go to college, Wall points out. "Almost all 9-year-olds can tell you what they want to be when they grow up, and half of those jobs require a college education," she said. "But the children don't know how to get from here to there. This program creates a pathway and guides them through." UC Davis' $2.5 million increase in outreach funding comes from a $38.5 million allocation for public-education outreach from the state Legislature to the University of California, with a requirement that almost all of the money be matched at the school-district level. UC Davis will also be raising private funds to supplement the state monies. In response to affirmative-action changes The funding was given in response to a statewide UC outreach task force that outlined what the state of California needed to do to boost college-going rates among African Americans, Hispanics and other underrepresented minorities. The task force, in turn, was an outcome of the 1995 regents' decision to eliminate race, ethnicity and gender from admissions considerations. This year, much of the new outreach money will be spent on a partnership with Sacramento schools to develop an educational prototype that can be extended to other K-12 schools in the region. The Sacramento partnership was created in the summer of 1997 when UC Davis, along with California State University, Sacramento, and the Los Rios Community College District, announced a collaborative effort with two inner-city high schools, Grant and Sacramento, and their feeder elementary and junior-high schools. Multi-pronged plan The plan seeks to expand the schools' mentoring, tutoring and college prep programs; strengthen teacher training; augment and better focus educational research; and, ultimately, to boost college attendance. The money will allow UC Davis to not only offer direct help in the Sacramento schools for this generation's students but to fund faculty research into issues surrounding K-12 public education for long-term improvements. "It's important to note that all of these efforts involve the collaborative development of programs with the teachers and administrators in the schools," Wall said. She added that California schools are experiencing a special time in history when "the need and the resources are coming together at the same time." The outreach effort depends on the strategic plans by seasoned faculty and staff members in math, history, science, the arts and writing who have expertise in improving K-12 curriculum and teaching. The Division of Education and Student Affairs' Early Academic Outreach Program are heavily involved. Subject-matter emphasis At the heart of the Division of Education's involvement is its work on the "subject-matter projects" delivered through the Cooperative Research and Extension Services for Schools (CRESS) in history and cultures, writing, the arts, science and mathematics. According to Jon Sandoval, acting director of the division and a professor of education, the increase in funding will allow more professional staff to be added in the subject-matter areas. The idea, he said, is to amplify and extend the work being done with low-performing schools throughout the region as well as with the partnership schools in Sacramento. The central focus of the work is to improve the curriculum content and help the schools meet state and national standards. "There are tremendous challenges in these schools that teachers should not have to face alone,"Sandoval said. Another UC Davis faculty member who is already involved in the partnership through the subject-matter projects is physics professor Wendell Potter, who shares principal investigator status for the Sacramento-area Science Project with two Sacramento State faculty members. He's been working directly with K-12 teachers since 1985. "Most of our work over the years has been with schools and teachers whose students have not traditionally done that well or shown up in college," Potter said. A key to improving the teaching is allowing the teachers time to collaborate, said Potter, who will be working on site at Kit Carsen Middle School this fall. "What's very exciting about Kit Carsen is that the teachers already act like a team and they really want to improve the learning for these kids," he said. "What the teachers need at these schools is the opportunity to work together to develop new lessons and coordinate their programs." Besides working with teachers and children, UC Davis will be working with parents, an idea that came out of the statewide outreach task force, according to Leslie Campbell, senior associate director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach Services at UC Davis. Parent involvement coincides with getting information about preparing for college to students in elementary school. "We want to start earlier when we see parents are more influential and involved with the schools," Campbell said. Families already involved Campbell's office has been busy. A family gathering was held earlier this month at Land Park in Sacramento, and a Family Action Support Network has been created by a group of parents who will advise Early Academic Outreach staff as well as promote the idea of college education among their own and other children in their schools, Campbell said. In addition, families whose children are involved with Upward Bound, Talent Search and Early Academic Outreach programs will be invited to UC Davis in April for a conference on preparing their children academically for college, financing college, motivation and school support. Early Academic Outreach staff have other plans, including bringing 50-60 students from the partnership schools to campus next summer for special activities. In addition, the plans call for creating technology camps and increasing the number of Outdoor Adventures environmental rafting excursions for underprivileged teens. In addition, Campbell wants to take advantage of the summer National Youth Sports Program, which brings 300 at-risk kids to campus for five weeks. The children, mostly sixth- to eighth-graders, spend their time learning a new sport, improving their social skills and getting enrichment in science and math. "We're planning to work with our new research findings to build up the academic portion of the program," Campbell said. Her staff also plans to borrow the best ideas on educational outreach coming from sister UC campuses. Other plans for educational outreach, according to Vice Chancellor Wall, include: Providing juniors and seniors in high school with intensive test preparation, and Creating academic enrichment opportunities in middle schools, junior-high and high schools for those students who appear to have academic potential through Saturday academies, summer programs and college-student tutors. Student Affair's Learning Skills Center, under the leadership of Rick West, will develop and coordinate these efforts.