UC Davis today has more than 100 different programs linking students, faculty and staff with schoolchildren-part of an outreach effort to public schools that mushroomed with expanded partnerships and a heavy campus investment in 1999. A recently completed inventory has found that virtually every school and division on campus is involved in school outreach. The programs range from science-teacher training in the Division of Biological Sciences, to ArtsBridge art education in the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, to an Animal Ambassadors program in the School of Veterinary Medicine. The concerted campus effort, funded by nearly $3 million annually from the Legislature, focuses on helping students competitively qualify for admission to the university by improving curriculum and college preparation in their schools. The programs have emerged as the UC campuses aim to maintain diversity after the use of race, ethnicity and gender in admissions was abolished by the Board of Regents in 1997. While some programs-such as the highly successful Early Academic Outreach Program in more than 80 area schools-have been in existence for decades, a good number have begun in the last year as departments, schools and divisions have embraced the mission of reaching out to schoolchildren. The lynchpin of campus outreach-and the largest new effort-was the creation last summer of the Office of School/University Partnerships, a rapidly expanding operation that serves as the primary link between the campus and those schools that can most benefit from university expertise. "Our unit represents a conduit for interested members of the university community to become effectively engaged with our partnership schools," said Robert Rodden, a former Davis school principal and teacher hired by the campus last fall to manage partnership efforts with Sacramento City Unified Schools. "We are in a position not only to facilitate outreach for other campus units, but to take an idea and help it be most effective in schools. We are making sure the resources of the campus are directed to schools in a way that they can best use them." The first formal school partnership, with Sacramento High School, was announced by the campus in the fall of 1997 as a cost-effective way to provide intensive help and improvement in student achievement. Over the past year, that concept has taken off to involve literally thousands of students. The School/University Partnerships Office in the past six months has entered into formal agreements with four of the largest school systems in the region: Sacramento City Unified, Stockton Unified, Elk Grove Unified and the Grant Joint Union High and Del Paso Heights Elementary districts in north Sacramento. The bulk of the campus work focuses on some of the Sacramento region's poorer neighborhoods, inside classrooms at schools where children have seldom entertained thoughts of college. "UC Davis has proven that we are truly more than just a bunch of minorities attending school in the middle of the ghetto with no chance at success," said Khurram Abbas, a student at Grant High School in Sacramento, where the campus last month announced an enhanced, intensive partnership. "What UC Davis has provided us is the challenge to advance in life. They've taught us how an education will help us achieve our dreams." More added this coming year More school districts, identified by their low college-going rates, will be added over the coming year in partnerships tailored to specific district needs by the School/University Partnerships office. "I am delighted to see the collaboration between UC Davis and our partnership schools," said Yvonne Marsh, assistant vice chancellor for enrollment services. "It is my hope that our school/university partnerships will enable us to expand our outreach work and create new ways to improve college eligibility rates." The partnership office, headquartered on campus in the South Silo, is managed by Daniel Roy. Partnership directions are guided by a steering committee chaired by Carol Wall, vice chancellor for student affairs, and a newly created faculty committee chaired by Jon Sandoval, interim director of the Division of Education. Since July, Roy has been responsible for building the program and has hired eight staff members so far. The staff includes school-district site coordinators who will divide their time between the campus and school sites, in some cases positions funded jointly by the campus and the school districts themselves. "We are building an infrastructure so we can be responsive to both the campus and to the schools," Roy said. "Our work is school-centered. Our goal is to develop high achieving schools. The only way to bring about this kind of change is to have an on-site presence." With assistance from Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach Services, and the Division of Education, the partnership program aims to help partnership schools make changes in curriculum, in college counseling, in teacher development and preparation. Given the high rate of turnover among teachers and administrators in urban public schools, the university is hoping to permanently influence and improve school structure so that changes in staffing won't divert progress in college preparation. "We are working to change schools, and that's going to create a ripple effect," said Simone Brown, site manager for the Grant and Del Paso district partnerships. "This is long term. All future students coming into these schools will benefit, not just the students who are there today." All students can succeed Another philosophy embraced by the partnership program: "We assume that all students can succeed," Roy said. "We oppose a system of tracking students." To avoid tracking students, a cycle that often begins in junior high school when high-achieving students are separated from others in the college preparation process, the campus is starting early-in the fourth grade-when all students have a chance to move toward college. Reservation for College is a unique curriculum developed on campus and unveiled last June that provides college guidance from fourth grade through high school. Students who enter the program as 10-year-olds will have classroom lessons on the importance of higher education, and will continue on the path to college through high school, with guidance from the Early Academic Outreach Program. Reservation for College is closely associated with EAOP and also aims to involve parents and families who sign a contract promising to help their children through the process. And teachers are instructed on the curriculum and provided sets of workbooks. Grant to defray fees Children at two partnership elementary schools in Sacramento-Fairbanks and Father Keith B. Kenny-have a guarantee that if they complete Reservation for College and are admitted to UC Davis, they will have a grant to defray undergraduate fees. This promise was made possible by a $1 million campus endowment that could grow with corporate sponsorships to include grants for children at more schools. Although it will be in some cases years before the campus can effectively measure results from its outreach efforts (the first students in the Reservation for College program won't be ready to apply to college until 2007), the partnership concept has already received wide recognition and bipartisan praise from the lawmakers who provide the bulk of the financial support. "I urge UC Davis not to abandon this generation," said state Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento. "This is the kind of work we need from the universities to make a difference, to turn around drop-out rates in communities where children haven't had a chance to go to college." Assemblyman Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, pledged his continued support for legislative funding for UC outreach programs. "These children will be able to compete for admission with everyone else. They will be prepared. That's the way it should be." In the coming year, the School/University Partnerships office hopes to be able to respond to funding proposals from campus units seeking to enhance existing school-outreach programs or to start new programs. "We have assembled a group of people who work every day in the K-12 environment. We understand what they need, and how UC Davis can be meaningful to them," Rodden said. "We should be used as a potential resource to help units define what they can offer that would be of use to schools."