Publications

ICAS publications fall into two primary categories. Documents intended to promote increased student readiness for California public higher education—ICAS competency statements—and documents intended to promote more seamless transfer from California community colleges to California State University and University of California campuses.

The document “Academic Literacy: A Statement of Competencies Expected of Students Entering California's Public Colleges and Universities” will be of special interest to the general reader for the picture it paints of the knowledge, habits of mind, and values that prepare a person to be successful in California public higher education.

Those interested in issues regarding transfer will be especially interested in documents related to the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC). IGETC is a pattern of courses that a student can take in a California community college that allows them to transfer to a CSU or UC campus with lower division general education requirements complete. This has been an enormous boon to students who once had to juggle the GE requirements of multiple campuses in while in ignorance of the campus they would be accepted to and actually attend. The publication “Partial Certification of the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC After Transfer)” will be of special interest to those who wonder how student in the natural sciences—which often require very high numbers of lower division courses, leaving less room in student class schedules for general education courses—can still take advantage of the flexibility and ease of academic planning that IGETC facilitates.

ICAS Higher Education Brochure April 2010 (PDF)
This brochure draws attention to the importance of higher education for training California's workforce. It talks about alarming funding trends and underscores the importance of every dollar invested in training and educating California's students.

ESL Students in California Public Higher Education Spring 2006 (PDF)
The increasing number of immigrant students in the United States has become an evermore prominent topic among educators. Perhaps nowhere are the challenges posed by these ESL students’ special needs more prevalent than in California where nearly 40% of all K-12 students and an increasing number of postsecondary students are language minority learners. Many ESL learners have ESL problems that lead to special challenges when they need to use academic English in college and university classes. There is a critical need for California colleges and universities to find effective ways of educating the rapidly growing population of learners who speak a language other than English at home. ESL Students in California Public Higher Education seeks to address these needs by giving educators insight and practical tools that can be used to reach these ESL students so that California’s faculty can ensure that these students have the best possible chance at succeeding in an educational institution and the world beyond.