The highlight of the past year, however, was the Long Beach College Promise, signed by the leaders from the city’s three education institutions — Christopher J. Steinhauser, LBUSD superintendent; Eloy Oakley, Long Beach City College president; and F. King Alexander, CSULB president.

It is a commitment to provide a world-class education, from preschool to graduate school, with the promise that all entering LBUSD students will have the opportunity of a college education, including a tuition-free semester at LBCC beginning in 2011.

The driving force behind the Long Beach Promise is the Seamless Education program, an initiative that facilitates the city’s education process, successfully transitioning students from pre-Kindergarten through Long Beach Unified, then to LBCC and CSULB.

With Seamless Education, students and their parents know what they need to do to graduate from high school, and educators at LBCC and CSULB know where these students left off as they enter their institutions. It’s an approach that involves the entire community, from parents and students, teachers and administrators, and support from the local business community.

“Seamless Education has completely rewritten roles and responsibilities in all three institutions,” says Judy Seal, Executive Director of the Long Beach Education Foundation, the not-for-profit organization that coordinates community involvement for LBUSD programs. Seal manages the Seamless Education program, whose structure includes an executive committee of Steinhauser, Oakley, and Alexander, and a Leadership Council and active committees of education and community leaders including Dr. Henry C. Fung, associate dean of the CSULB College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and past president of the Foundation, as well as Mike Murray, director of government and external affairs for Verizon and the Foundation’s current president.

“We meet monthly — sometimes twice a month — and we come up with new approaches,” says Seal, a Long Beach native and graduate of all three institutions. “We find out who’s not achieving at the level that is going to help them succeed and graduate from high school, and make sure resources go there.”

Parents are a key part the program’s success, and communication is imperative. “Parents know by the time a student is in sixth grade, this is what it’s going to take to graduate,” says Seal. “We’re committed to getting your student there; we just want to let you know that this a joint partnership and we need your help.”

LBUSD has set a target high-school graduation rate of 90% by 2013, an increase from 80% in 2007. It’s an ambitious goal that is reflected in equally ambitious programs at the higher education institutions.

Seal points to Oakley as a visionary in providing students with resources to succeed. “He looked at what students are coming in with from Long Beach Unified, and put in student success initiatives. He’s turned parts of the campus into tutoring centers, and the library into an intensive learning center, to make sure students have everything they need to get through LBCC — whether it’s a certificate program, matriculation into one of the universities, or into employment.”

At CSULB, seamless education can be seen in the advisement program for incoming students, where they not only receive detailed advising at the start of their first semester, but also for their second and third. This handson approach ensures all students remain on the right track, taking courses in the correct sequence with the proper prerequisites.

“Some CSULB students are prepared to begin as a freshmen or as transfer students and some are not — and there is all this in between,” says Fung, who has been teaching at the university for more than 40 years and has seen students enter from all different areas. “If they’re not prepared to take upper division classes because of lack of preparation or insufficient preparation, that extends their time from admission to graduation, and we want to keep that within a reasonable time period. That’s why we work with the district and work with LBCC to be sure we’re all on the same track.”

Other examples of Seamless Education can be seen at the earliest age levels, where the city’s Early Care and Education Committee provides parents of future LBUSD students with information on school readiness and early childhood development at its yearly Kindergarten Festivals.

And at the K-12 level, the school district selects textbooks for its math series curriculum with input from CSULB professors. Throughout the city, the education community is taking on the responsibility of ensuring a world-class education for every student.

Seamless Education began nearly thirty years ago, when former Long Beach mayor, Dr. Beverly O’Neill, was at LBCC and found herself in informal conversations on student life with her counterparts at CSULB.

After O’Neill became LBCC president, and with a new district superintendent and university president, the three leaders began meeting quarterly, communicating on issues and interests they shared, such as the changing demographics of Long Beach and how students matriculate after they begin Kindergarten.

“So that was the start, it was very informal but very informative,” says O’Neill, who began her career as a teacher with LBUSD and is a product of the Long Beach schools, from K-12 through her masters from CSULB. “The conversations had transitioned into articulation programs (ensuring courses and curriculum flow) between classes, faculty, LBCC and the university. It was articulating classes so students would have a seamless education.”

The program was formalized in 1994 with the creation of the Long Beach Education Partnership and O’Neill as mayor. The partnership brought together all three institutions to address student achievement during the economic downturn of the time, that included the loss of jobs in the aerospace industry and shipyard closures.

Today, Seamless Education has grown into an award-winning program where its strengths of communication, collaboration, and advisement can be seen throughout the education system. But why has Seamless Education worked as well as it has?

Both O’Neill and Fung point to an answer that is unique to Long Beach — it is a city with one school district, one community college, and one state university — where one will find leaders at all three institutions who are products of the education system itself.

Fung credits this close community as the reason there is the flexibility and adaptability to address key issues at key times. “We not only have the three education systems, but many of the people involved are graduates or alums. We know each other personally and can really talk about what we perceive as challenges,” says Fung. “You can speak honestly and openly, come to a consensus and find a solution.”

The Long Beach Education Partnership now looks ahead to new Seamless Education initiatives, that include taking the program into local businesses. “We’re almost there,” says Murray, of extending the program into the community. “That’s the goal, for seamless education to include the step of getting into the workplace so it’s integrated with the three institutions.”

And the support is already there. The Foundation has long received funding and volunteer support from Verizon and Boeing, among others. “Everybody I’ve asked to be involved in the Foundation from the business community has said yes,” says Murray. “Noone has ever said no.”

It adds up to Long Beach becoming one of the best places to receive an education. For O’Neill, those initial conversations have made an impact on a level she never could have imagined. “It’s so good for everyone and good for the students,” she says. “This coordination of effort, work, and philosophy — it’s turned out to be something that strengthens the city in the long run.”



One of the best places to see Seamless Education in action is at the CSULB College of Engineering. In 2001, Lily Gossage, director of engineering recruitment and retention, created Women Engineers@the Beach, a day of activities that introduces young women to careers in engineering. Women currently comprise less than 10 percent of working engineers, a field that needs to attract new talent as baby boomers retire.

The program brings together 300 students from grades 7 – 12 and community college every year, and has even launched Engineering Girls@the Beach, an offshoot program for girls in grades 4 – 6.

Both programs reinforce classroom learning and create a path for student achievement from the school district through CSULB. Neither program receives state funding, and both are supported by local engineering companies — businesses that have a stake in encouraging students to pursue engineering careers.

“The lack of engineers is greatly due in part to both the turnover rate of older retiring engineers, as well as shortage of high-performing American students,” says Gossage. “The industry is looking to support institutions that strive to produce more engineering graduates.”

Dr. Forouzan Golshani, Dean of the College of Engineering, serves on the Seamless Education Leadership Council and is committed to the college being an effective partner. “Our comprehensive set of plans for attracting a much larger number of young women into engineering, and enabling them to succeed, are the centerpieces of our recruitment and retention efforts,” he says.

Gossage emphasizes that efforts to interest women in engineering must begin early and continue throughout students’ academic lives. “We cannot afford to wait for our young girls to realize that there is a great career awaiting them,” she says. “We have to be vigorous in the messages we send out — that engineering is a most suitable career for women — they just don’t realize it yet.”