The Campaign for College Opportunity announced their 2023 Champions of Higher Education and out of California’s 116 community colleges, Long Beach City College (LBCC) has been ranked fifth in the state for the number of students to earn Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADTs).

“LBCC is very proud of this significant benchmark achievement,” said Vivian Malauulu, Long Beach Community College District Board of Trustees President. “The number of students earning ADTs at LBCC is an important measure of our success in providing programs that are relevant to our students’ academic needs. It is wonderful to hear that we are among the top five in the state, but it is even more important that we are helping our students achieve their educational goals faster and saving them money through the ADT pathway.”

“This is an incredible accomplishment for the LBCC community – our faculty, staff, and our students,” said Dr. Mike Muñoz, LBCC Superintendent-President. “Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that we have created an environment and curriculum that prepares our students for a lifetime of success. For the majority of our students, the next step on that path is to matriculate to a four-year university and LBCC is committed to facilitating a seamless transition by encouraging them to take the Associate Degree for Transfer route.”

At an award ceremony in November, The Campaign for College Opportunity celebrated LBCC and the following California community colleges for being ranked in the top five for total Associate Degrees for Transfer:

• Bakersfield College
• East Los Angeles College
• Mt. San Antonio College
• Pasadena City College

For students who attend community college on their path to earning a four-year degree, it is generally intended that students complete their transfer to a four-year university after the first two years of their journey. However, the roadmap to successful transfer was often unclear for many students, causing that time to be significantly prolonged, and causing many more to abandon their goal. With the urging of Campaign for College Opportunity, the California state legislature took action. In 2010, California passed Senate Bill 1440 (Padilla), which instructed California community colleges to develop ADTs, creating a clear pathway to transfer eligibility.

Earning the Associate Degree for Transfer provides a number of benefits for LBCC students planning to transfer to the Cal State University (CSU) system, such as:

• Guaranteed admission into a university within the CSU system with a “similar” major (no guarantee to a specific campus)
• Earn an Associate Degree for completing transfer requirements
• Grants priority consideration when applying to impacted majors and/or campuses
• Guarantees a 60 (LBCC) 60 (CSU) unit pathway to CSU graduation
• Those who earn the ADT, transfer to the CSU with junior status
• ADT degree holders from LBCC earn their Bachelor’s Degrees nearly twice as fast from CSUs

Since its implementation, the number of California students earning ADTs has continued to increase and was more than 11% higher in the 2021-22 academic year than it was in 2015-16. More importantly, due largely to the implementation of ADTs, students that successfully transfer are now increasingly more likely to do so within the expected two years of enrollment. In the 2015-16 academic year, only 21% of students transferred within two years, but in the 2021-22 academic year, California has seen this number increase to 31%.