Welcome to the Sacramento K-16 Collaborative

The Sacramento K-16 Collaborative launched in 2022 as part of the California Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program. The Collaborative is committed to advancing educational equity and workforce opportunities by strengthening college and career pathways across California’s Capital Region through an multi-county partnership between K-12 County Offices of Education and districts, higher education institutions, and employers.

A skilled workforce is key to continuing California’s hallmark economy, however the current rate of educational attainment in California is not sufficient in meeting the growing workforce needs. It is essential to develop equitable opportunities for all Californians to secure high-quality jobs that drive a thriving economy. We need to establish streamlined education and training pathways to prepare our residents for high demand jobs.”

—Regional K-16 Education Collaborative Grant Program

Our Purpose

With student success as its core objective, the Collaborative is focused on achieving these specific outcomes:

Share data across regional education providers more effectively.

Expand dual enrollment opportunities for students across the region’s education ecosystem.

Support high priority student populations (students of color, low-income, first-generation, rural, and adult learners) across the region’s education ecosystem.

Expand transfer pathways to create more seamless transitions for students between institutions.

Expand education pathways into healthcare, engineering, and computing.

Our success in achieving these outcomes will advance four of the Recovery with Equity recommendations made by the Governor’s Council for Post-Secondary Education:

Eliminating information gaps between K-12 and higher education providers is paramount to increasing cohesion and efficiencies across the education spectrum. Our efforts will define and implement new processes and the systems change needed to close current information gaps, adopting best practice as outlined in the California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI), part of California’s Cradle-to-Career Data System.

Our Purpose

With student success as its core objective, the Collaborative is focused on achieving these specific outcomes:

Share data across regional education providers more effectively.

Expand dual enrollment opportunities for students across the region’s education ecosystem.

Support high priority student populations (students of color, low-income, first-generation, rural, and adult learners) across the region’s education ecosystem.

Expand transfer pathways to create more seamless transitions for students between institutions.

Expand education pathways into healthcare, engineering, and computing.

Our success in achieving these outcomes will advance four of the Recovery with Equity recommendations made by the Governor’s Council for Post-Secondary Education:

Our Collaborative

The Sacramento region has a strong track record of advancing educational equity and economic development and a history of impactful collaboration between individual K-12, higher education, and employer partners. That said, the important work of nurturing students, communities, and careers has often lacked the framework for collaboration and buy-in necessary for long-term, sustainable progress across the education-to-employment ecosystem.

An $18.1 million award from the California Regional K-16 Collaboratives Grant Program aligns the region’s partners and stakeholders across our educational ecosystem like never before, making it possible to streamline equitable pathways from high school to postsecondary education and into the workforce. These resources provide new and unparalleled capacity to impact countless lives across our region’s eight-county geography by propelling and integrating strategies that identify, solve, and dissolve system-wide barriers that too often deter students of color, low-income, rural, first-generation, and adult learners.

The statewide K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program aims to help California’s economy address long-standing social and economic inequities in higher education and workforce participation, while also helping recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is made possible by a $250 million appropriation to the Department of General Services (DGS) in the Budget Act of 2021.

The statewide program spans July 2022 to June 2026. The Sacramento K-16 Collaborative’s equity and pathway work, and the profound impact it promises, will extend far beyond that timeframe.

Our Region

The Sacramento K-16 Collaborative is a partnership between higher education (UC, CSU, and community colleges), K-12 County Offices of Education, individual districts and schools, employers, and community organizations. Twelve distinct regions across California are eligible to participate in the K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program. The Sacramento region is one of nine awarded funding during Phase 1.

Our impact area includes:

This eight-county impact area aligns with the Sacramento Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF) region and has strong ties to Sacramento’s CERF Collaborative led by Valley Vision.

Our Partners

Capitol Impact serves as the Collaborative’s hub and backbone organization. The Los Rios Community College District is the lead grant applicant and fiscal agent. Third Plateau supports the Collaborative with strategic counsel and facilitation.

A Message from Sacramento K-16 Collaborative Chair Dave Gordon

I am thrilled that the Sacramento region is one of nine across the state of California to be awarded funding from Phase 1 of the K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program.

It’s a big, bold, complex endeavor, but the resources are in hand, the vision is clear, thousands of compassionate and dedicated partners are on board, and our collective enthusiasm is paramount. That enthusiasm is certain to fuel real and meaningful impact because we know that life-altering work requires us to keep a sharp focus on our ambitious goals and we are prepared to overcome any challenge that gets in the way of reaching them.

The $18.1 million award from the California Regional K-16 Collaboratives Grant Program makes strategic alignment possible across the region’s entire educational ecosystem like never before. I’ve worked inside the region’s education landscape for many years and can attest to the fact that this initiative is different.

The resources bring us the opportunity to strengthen education-to-workforce pathways in ways that ensure education, technical or trade, and workforce programs work in partnership to address the income, racial, and gender inequalities in education and employment.

As chair of this endeavor, I am committed to reaching every one of our goals that will lead to the lasting transformation of our education system in ways that makes learning accessible for every student for a sustained vibrant and thriving region. There is much to do but we are positioned to get it done.