K-16 Regional Education Collaborative

Healthcare

Students at a classroom table wearing purple gloves, examining specimens

Preparing the next generation of physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and public health leaders through early career exploration, dual enrollment, mentorship, and hands-on experiences.

Read about the Avenue M Pathway for Healthcare Careers

Read about Fostering the Future

Read about a Future Physician

Engineering / Computing

Two smiling staff behind a navy booth table in a gymnasium

Connecting students with engineering education through regional partnerships, experiential learning, and pathways aligned with Northern California’s growing technology workforce.

Read about Avenue E

Education and Teaching

Three students presenting in classroom to seated classmates, large screen behind (photo)

Supporting teachers and students through classroom resources, college readiness programs, and projects that strengthen civic and academic learning.

Read about Middle Eastern History in K-12 Classrooms

Exploring Regional History in K-12 Classrooms

"Every person of every background comes together to learn about their future. That gives me so much hope to pursue my own goals and dreams." — K-14 student participant

4000+

Attendees (students, parents, teachers, counselors and community members) at annual college going conference, 2022-2026 cumulative

200

Students Recruited for Avenue M Healthcare Pathway

75%

of Avenue M 4-year transfers went on to UC Davis

40

paid summer healthcare internship opportunities secured

100%

fall-to-spring persistence among participants in AvenueE Transfer Bridge

120

Annual attendance of K-12 students at Freedom Schools Summer Experience at UC Davis

Become an Aggie

UC Davis STEM Portal

Additional Offerings and Programs

Creating a Pipeline for Healthcare Careers

by Sarah Colwell
June 24, 2026

When Julia Lee volunteered with the Fostering the Future program as a UC Davis undergraduate student, she saw it as an opportunity to give back.

Years earlier when she was in high school, Lee attended a summer educational program that introduced her to health care careers and allowed her to shadow professionals in a hospital setting. The experience helped transform a general interest in medicine into a clear career goal.

A group of students observes a demonstration, focused on a yellow mechanical device.

UC Davis Leads Education and Workforce Alignment Across Northern California

by Sarah Colwell
March 30, 2026

A new report from Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) highlights UC Davis’ leadership in strengthening connections between education systems and workforce opportunities across Northern California. Through the work of Inclusive Excellence staff, UC Davis has led the university’s participation in the statewide K–16 Education Collaborative, coordinating partnerships across the Sacramento region, North State and Redwood Coast. This work brings together K–12 schools, community colleges, universities and industry partners to create clearer, more aligned pathways from education to high-demand careers including health care, education and engineering. The report finds that intentional coordination across these partners is helping address long-standing gaps between education systems. By mapping transitions, improving data sharing and expanding dual enrollment opportunities, the collaboratives are making it easier for students to move successfully from one stage of their education to the next. UC Davis’ unique role across three regions has helped align efforts at scale, supporting nearly 900,000 students across 22 counties, including rural and tribal communities. Together, these partnerships are building a more connected and responsive education ecosystem that supports student success, strengthens workforce development and advances economic mobility. Read the full report: https://edpolicyinca.org/publications/k-16-partnerships

Chancellor May sits on stage in front of crowd of middle school and high school students seated at round tables wearing bright green tshirts. Ebony Lewis is at podium talking to crowd.

K-16 Collaborative Announces Major Expansion

by Sarah Colwell
December 09, 2025

The region’s most ambitious education-to-career pipeline initiative is accelerating — and UC Davis is a big part of it.

The Sacramento K-16 Collaborative recently announced significant expansion of its regional data partnership: what began on October 8, 2024 with five founding institutions now is growing to include ten additional partners (pending final authorization), bringing the total to 15 institutions collectively serving more than 220,000 students across the Capital Region.

What this means for UC Davis

As the grant-funded phase of the K-16 Collaboratives comes to a close, UC Davis’s role is shifting from implementation to reflection, relationship-building, and longer-term stewardship of the work. Across the three regions, the grants represent $54 million in funding distributed among many partners, including K-12 school districts, California State Universities, community colleges, and UCs. UC Davis received approximately $3 million, supporting projects that helped scale promising work, fill gaps, and pilot strategies with potential for longer-term institutionalization. Some of the programs directly supported by this funding are listed at left.

Just as importantly, this work created opportunities for UC Davis programs to deepen relationships with intersegmental partners across the regions. We are now focused on identifying where those relationships can continue to add value, especially where existing synergies, shared goals, or target populations make continued collaboration worthwhile.

The K-16 Collaborative has also challenged us to think across segments, center equity, and support accelerated pathways that respond to California’s workforce needs. At this stage, the emphasis is on thoughtful transition planning, preserving relationships, and connecting with key stakeholders in ways that are collaborative, community-minded, and responsive to local context.

Learn more about the UC Davis Project

What is Collective Impact? Read the scholarship ->

Research and Evaluation Partner

The California Education Lab in the UC Davis School of Education has been an important partner in helping UC Davis understand and assess the work of the K-16 Collaboratives. The Lab supported evaluation, survey development, dissemination, and implementation of the Warm Hand-Offs Framework, bringing a research lens to the collaborative’s ongoing learning and assessment. They also helped ground this work in the PACE report Improving College Readiness, which identifies aspirations and beliefs, academic preparation, knowledge and information, and fortitude and resilience as key predictors of educational attainment.

Read the Improving College Readiness report ->