The local P-16 Council is comprised of local education, business, and community leaders who represent the key stakeholders in education. These leaders come together, committed to increase dramatically the success rates among all students--preschool to college--with a particular focus on low-income and minority students. They share a willingness to step out of their institutional roles to speak out on behalf of high student achievement and to mount comprehensive and coordinated institutional efforts to close the achievement gap in their communities.

Through the efforts of the San Luis Obispo County P-16 Council, a grant from the Alliance for Regional Collaboration to Heighten Educational Success (ARCHES) has been received. These funds were granted through a competitive grant allocation process to develop a regional collaborative. ARCHES is a recently formed statewide alliance sponsored by the California Academic Partnership Program (CAPP), a program administered by the California State University, and the California Education Round Table Intersegmental Coordinating Committee (ICC). ARCHES is financially supported through resources from CAPP, ICC, California Engaging Latino Communities in Education (ENLACE), and the University of California. The purpose of ARCHES is to promote, support, and develop policies that advocate for a regional collaborative strategy to improve student achievement and close the achievement gap among groups of students.

For more information on ARCHES, their web site is: http://www.arches-cal.org/

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O'Connell, has developed a P-16 Council at the State level. For more information, the web site is: http://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/pc