The Inland Empire has one of the lowest college-going rates in the country, and a 2016 equity study at Norco College revealed that veterans were not enrolling or completing at the same rate as other populations at the college. The MAP project began in 2017 as a blue-sky idea–a strategy to eliminate the equity gap by increasing veteran access to higher education and equitable completion once enrolled. Credit for military training was seen as the best strategy used to achieve those goals. The project was initially supported by $2M legislative appropriation. $1.75M was dedicated to the construction of a new Veterans Resource Center that would serve the college and regional veterans, and $250K was designated to fund Phase 1 design and development of a database that would optimize credit for prior learning. The funding was made possible by California Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes, District 60, and the California Latino Legislative Caucus.
In 2018, Phase 2 saw the expansion of MAP to the Inland Empire-Desert Regional Consortium (IEDRC) colleges. The IEDRC serves as a regional framework to communicate, coordinate, collaborate, promote and plan career and technical education, and workforce and economic development in the Inland Empire/Desert Region. Phase 2 development and implementation was led by Norco College and dubbed Project 16: Awarding Veterans the CTE Credit They Deserve, under the Strong Workforce Regional Projects for Round 2. Together 9 colleges: Barstow, Chaffey, Copper Mountain, Crafton Hills, Moreno Valley, Mt. San Jacinto, Norco, Palo Verde, Riverside City, San Bernardino Valley, and Victor Valley started uploading course catalogs to MAP so they could match their CTE courses to military training. The funding provided by Project 16 supported the hiring of a regional project lead and significant new MAP functionality.
Phase 3 began January 1, 2022 and is supported by a $2 million allocation sponsored by Assembly member Sabrina Cervantes, District 60, and the California Latino Legislative Caucus. The goal of Phase 3 is to begin scaling MAP statewide and thereby provide the statutory solution called for in California AB 1786 (2018), which requires the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to establish an system to expand the awarding of credit for prior learning at California Community Colleges.
Phase 4 of the MAP initiative is planned to begin in late 2023. The defining goal is to scale statewide, support all forms of CPL, and expand to serve the CSUs, UCs, and beyond. A Phase 4 funding request was included in the CCC Chancellor’s 2022-2023 Budget Request to the Governor. Because the platform development, maintenance, support, and training is provided to colleges at no cost, the Initiative depends on state and federal funding for operations.
A key strategy of the Initiative is to continue to providing all services and CPL advocacy at no cost to member colleges–and thus eliminate any potential financial barriers that might prevent colleges from doing the hard work of awarding credit for prior learning to our veterans and adult learners.
Phase 5 launched in mid 2024 through integration with the Chancellor’s Office and designation as a Vision 2030 demonstration project. This phase is supported by dedicated Chancellor’s Office resources making it possible for all 116 California Community Colleges to implement MAP and receive no-cost professional development and CPL support. The funding enables three key expansions: development of MAP 3.0 platform features, support for multi-college faculty workgroups developing statewide credit recommendations, and collaborative opportunities with other Vision 2030 demonstration projects.
Building on the previous phases’ focus on veterans and CTE, Phase 5 broadens the scope to serve working adults and apprentices while maintaining the initiative’s founding commitment to providing all services at no cost to member colleges. This ensures financial barriers don’t prevent institutions from awarding credit for prior learning to veterans and adult learners.
“A solution is long overdue…and is now starting to emerge. Colleges are beginning to learn together and work together to maximize CPL for their students. We know CPL has a transformative impact on equitable access and completion rates, and it’s heartening to see a community of colleges rallying to give our veterans and adult learners all the credit the deserve.”
– Dr. Samuel Lee, Chief Ambassador of the California MAP initiative
