Preparing Your School District for Partnership

What Partnership Means

Districts that have entered into partnership have established a formal data-sharing agreement with the California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI). The formal data-sharing agreement makes it possible for school districts to securely upload student transcript data into CaliforniaColleges.edu.

Students and educators in Partner Districts get access to Partner Accounts. A Partner Account allows students and educators to use all of the tools available on CaliforniaColleges.edu.

Overview of CaliforniaColleges.edu Accounts

Which Districts Are Eligible For Partnership?

  • We partner with California’s public school districts and County Offices of Education that serve high school students.
  • We partner with public Charter schools at the organizational level, which means that we partner with the legal entity – as defined by the federal IRS Employee Identification Number (EIN) – that manages contracts, employment, and data for a charter system

Benefits of Partnership

During the CaliforniaColleges.edu implementation process, our Technical Assistance team will help align your school district’s “a-g” course list with the University of California Office of the President’s Course Management Portal (CMP) and establish secure methods for matching Statewide Student Identifiers (SSIDs) when transmitting student transcript data across educational systems. At the end of implementation, you can expect the following outcomes:

Educators will be able to…

Students will be able to…

  • View CSU and UC eligibility by student and across a school or district. 
  • See enrolled and historical coursework for students.
  • Track student applications to the UC, CSU, and California Community College systems. 
  • See the status of students’ financial aid applications.
  • Track completion of AB 2015-compliant financial aid lessons.
  • Filter reports by race, ethnicity, or special population to address equity gaps. 
  • Use Caseloads to easily assign students to their respective counselor or teacher. 
  • Receive targeted support to ensure consistent alignment with the CMP.
  • Plan high school courses and track grades using real-time, pre-populated coursework via CaliforniaColleges.edu’s Academic Planner.
  • View their eligibility for the UC or CSU in an easy-to-interpret, color-coded grid. 
  • Launch and track the status of their applications to UCs, CSUs, and California Community Colleges. 
  • Launch and track the status of their financial aid applications.
  • Migrate pre-verified “a-g” coursework and grades into their Cal State Apply applications.

Technical Requirements for Partnership

Student transcript data is required for certain tools on CaliforniaColleges.edu, such as the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) Eligibility Tools, as well as to import students’ verified “a-g” coursework and grades into Cal State Apply.

For these tools to function properly, “a-g” coursework in your school district’s Student Information System (SIS) must be aligned with the UC Office of the President’s Course Management Portal (CMP). Formerly known as UC Doorways, the CMP is the “source of truth” database used by admissions officers at all CSU and UC campuses to verify students’ “a-g” coursework.

When a school district decides to enter into partnership, they must agree to participate in a mandatory “a-g” alignment process. As the state’s official provider for “a-g” course alignment, CCGI will provide your school district free technical assistance to ensure the highest alignment rate possible with the CMP. This process ensures that students get credit for their completed “a-g” courses in the CSU and UC Eligibility Tools and when they apply to a CSU or UC.

Sample Course List from the Course Management Portal
Sample “a-g” course list from the UC Office of the President’s Course Management Portal.

What Technical Assistance Involves

Transcript Testing

We work with school districts to ensure transcript data is accurately reflected in CaliforniaColleges.edu’s transcript-informed tools.

Course Data Integrity

We support your team in aligning your “a-g” courses with the CMP. 

One-on-One and Group CMP Meetings

We offer tiered support to ensure that we meet your school district where you are and provide the right level of support.

Partnership and Onboarding Process

If your school district meets the above criteria, CCGI will support you throughout the onboarding process described below.

1Intent to Partner & Pre-Partnership Meeting
School district submits the Intent to Partner form and attends a Pre-Partnership Meeting. 
2Contracting
CCGI sends a data-sharing agreement in the form of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The school district must also confirm that a notification has gone out to parents informing them of the agreement. 
3Data Testing & Go Live
Once the MOU is fully executed and the parent notification deadline has passed, transcript testing occurs. Once testing has completed, your school district’s data goes live on CaliforniaColleges.edu.

Ongoing Implementation Support

Once your school district’s data has gone live on CaliforniaColleges.edu, your district will continue to receive ongoing implementation support to ensure that educators in your district are able to access and use all the tools available on the platform with students. We do this by providing you with ongoing individual user support and year-round training opportunities.

Year-Round District Support

Individual User Support

Our Engagement & Implementation team is available to support you each step of the way. Districts will have dedicated CCGI Points-of-Contact that are on-hand to assist them with everything from implementation planning to training on an as-needed basis.

Our User Support team is here to help address individual user requests and issues, including:

  • Account requests (educators, students, and parents) 
  • General troubleshooting 
  • Resetting passwords 
  • Launching college and financial aid applications
  • Career assessments 
  • Educator dashboard reports 
  • Academic Planner 
  • My Plan: College, Career, and Major lists

Questions?