Tri-Valley Educational Collaborative (TEC)
Expanding Middle College/Dual Enrollment Opportunities
Grant Opportunity: California Career Pathways Trust (CCPT), Round 2: TEC will apply for up to $6 million
of $250 million in available for large-scale innovative regional funding to implement three additional career
pathways – Public Safety/Legal, Networking and Software and Systems Development – to effectively
prepare Tri-Valley high school students for high-growth, high-skill, high-wage jobs and to strengthen all 15
existing career pathways through the implementation of a robust video conferencing infrastructure, and
New Pathway: Public Safety/Legal - the Public Safety/Legal Pathway will prepare students for careers in
law enforcement and other public safety and legal professions, including police officers, dispatchers,
corrections officers, forensic laboratory technicians, cybersecurity analysts and military leadership. This
pathway includes the development of a public safety program at Alameda County Sherriff’s Office Regional
Training Center and a dual-enrollment program that allows students to gain credit for public safety classes
at Las Positas Community College and high school graduation credits simultaneously.
Need for the Public Safety/Legal Pathway: The public safety sector is poised to experience substantial
growth over the next decade. Of special note is the growth in cybersecurity jobs (careers that span both
proposed pathways). According to Burning Glass, a nationally recognized labor market intelligence leader,
cybersecurity jobs account for nearly 10 percent of all IT jobs nationally, with a growth rate of 74 percent
between 2007 and 2013 (over twice as fast as all IT jobs combined). Again, career pathways that prepares
students for such careers have been noted as a workforce concern, although California’s Commission on
Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) indicates in their 2014 “Building a Public Safety Career
Pipeline Program Guide Update” that the POST task group School Programs Committee (SPC) identified
that “career pipeline programs and collaboration with local school districts is one of the most effective ways
to prepare future applicants.”
New Pathway: Networking: The Networking Pathway will prepare students for careers that involve network
analysis, planning and implementation, including the design, installation, maintenance and management of
network systems.
New Pathway: Software and Systems Development: This pathway readies students for occupations
related to computer science that involve the design, development, implementation, maintenance and
management of systems that rely on software for operations. Both the Networking and Software and
Systems Development pathways include coursework at students’ high schools and at Las Positas
Community College.
Need for Networking and Software and Systems Development Pathways: According to both employer
and labor market data, the need for information technology professionals in the region –the Tri-Valley area
of the East Bay (a region immediately northeast of Silicon Valley, centered around the cities San Ramon,
Danville, Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton) is increasing, while the pool of qualified applicants has not
kept pace. According to the 2013 Environmental Scan: ICT Information & Communications Technologies
Demand and Supply Issues and Opportunities in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area report released by
the San Francisco Bay Center of Excellence, Mid-Pacific ICT Center and the Bay Area Community College
Tri-Valley Educational Collaborative (TEC)
Expanding Middle College/Dual Enrollment Opportunities
Consortium, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector is the “largest and most
important industry cluster in the greater San Francisco Bay region” (p. 7). Inadequate enrollment in and
limited availability of ICT pathways, particularly those that result in software and systems development
careers for participating students, has been noted as a workforce concern in the 2013 environmental scan.
An Innovative Approach to Pathway Implementation: Grant funding will be used for professional
development, articulation and collaboration efforts, the addition of classes to create the three new pathways,
and for equipment to create an innovative telepresence infrastructure for collaboration and instructional
activities. The proposed Middle College and Dual Enrollment strategies will expand and enhance learning
opportunities for all students, including pathway students that are 1st generation college-bound, disengaged,
or underrepresented, and will allow students to obtain a high school diploma and college credits
simultaneously. Starting in the fall of 2015, our Middle College Program will allow eleventh grade students
to take classes on Las Positas Community College’s campus, giving them the opportunity to experience
college coursework in a college setting while receiving both college and high school credit. Dual
Enrollment allows students across grade levels to take classes on any campus within the Tri-Valley
Educational Collaborative (TEC), thus expanding access and affording students the opportunity to earn
college and high school credit while still on a high school campus. Innovatively combining the Middle
College and Dual Enrollment strategies removes barriers many students face in attaining post-secondary
degrees, including costs, transportation, transition difficulties due to a lack of curriculum alignment and
potentially uncoordinated support services. The innovative use of telepresence technology throughout the
Tri-Valley will allow students to participate in any pathway, regardless of where classes are being taught,
and to access a broad range of work-based learning that might otherwise be inaccessible.
The Proposed Partnership Includes:
Las Positas College
Livermore USD
Tri-Valley Regional Occupational Program
Sandia National Laboratories
Alameda County Sheriff’s Department
Regional Workforce Investment Boards
(Alameda WIB and Contra Costa WIB)
Growth Sector, workforce intermediary
Dublin USD
Pleasanton USD
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
California Commission on Peace Officer Standards
and Training (POST)
Regional engineering employers
(small, mid-size and large)
Regional information technology employers
Local educational foundations
Project Objectives: Build career pathway partnerships that prepare Tri-Valley students for today’s job
market.
1) Promote a strategic, systemic approach preparing students and meeting local labor market needs
simultaneously through a partnership of regional employers, Las Positas Community College, TriValley Regional Occupational Program (TVROP), and the three unified K-12 districts;
2) Encourage students, at each level of education, to pursue dual credit and CTE opportunities, through
career orientation, experiential learning, work-based learning, job shadowing and work experience;
Tri-Valley Educational Collaborative (TEC)
Expanding Middle College/Dual Enrollment Opportunities
3) Prepare students with key core competencies in math and English through best practices, including
accelerated, project-based, and articulated learning opportunities;
4) Develop and expand community college career and educational pathways in Public Service and ICT
Networking through requested funding.
Benefits of Participation to Employer Partners: Participating in the proposed project gives employers “a
seat at the table,” thus allowing them to have input specific to academic, workplace and industry-wide
competencies that are required for employee success. Through this input, rigorous education can be
provided that not only allows students to gain both high school and college credit, but also prepares them
for real-world workplace needs. This preparation, in turn, reduces training time and costly staff turnovers.
The proposed project also provides employers an opportunity to interact with prospective employees to
assess technical skill levels, work ethics, communication skills, leadership skills and other key factors to
employee success prior to the hiring process. These opportunities may include on-the-job training,
mentoring, speaking engagements and/or the provision of other work-based learning opportunities.
Additionally, partner employers will receive positive recognition for their dedication to education.
What is Expected of Employer Partners? At this point in the process, all employer partners are asked to
provide a letter of commitment that details their support for the project. This letter should include:
 Specific information regarding the need for either information communications technology or public
safety/legal professionals (e.g. current vacancies, length of time required to fill positions).
 A specific commitment to providing work-based learning for pathway participants (e.g. student
and/or staff mentoring, field trips, guest speaking, internship opportunities and the like)
 A dollar figure indicating the value of involvement. This figure should be an in-kind amount that
quantifies for your staff members’ time, monetary donations, material donations, field trip facility
use, etc.
Please provide a letter of commitment no later than Friday, January 30, 2015 for inclusion in the grant
application package. Letters may be addressed to:
Amy Robbins, Director of Curriculum and Special Projects
Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District
685 E. Jack London Blvd
Livermore, CA 94551
Should the proposal be selected for funding, employer partners will be asked to:
 Participate in quarterly planning sessions to articulate employees’ needs and outline how partners
can further support the implementation of this project, enhancing student and staff learning
opportunities further preparing students for future success.
 Provide feedback as to project implementation progress, successes and challenges.
 Provide project-related data for inclusion in quarterly grant reports (e.g. the number and hours of
employee mentors.)