Mission Up 19.9% : Enrollment at Valley’s 2-Year Colleges Gains

Led by Mission College in San Fernando, enrollment at Valley community colleges and other campuses of the Los Angeles district continued to surge, according to data released Friday.

Spring semester enrollment was 10.3% above last year’s spring figure, bringing enrollment in the nine-campus system to 96,000.

Mission College led the three Valley campuses in enrollment gains, with an increase of 19.9%. Valley College in Van Nuys had a 10.3% gain and Pierce College in Woodland Hills posted a 5.6% increase.

Last fall, the two-year colleges posted an 11% gain in attendance, ending a precipitous four-year slide in enrollment.

Los Angeles Community College District administrators credit the enrollment increase partly to the introduction of the Project for Adult College Education, or PACE. PACE students take 12 units of college work each semester by attending one evening class a week, watching a weekly two-hour lecture on the Los Angeles Unified School District’s television station and attending eight consecutive Saturday classes.

A spokesman for the district said last year’s staff restructuring, which placed more instructors in high-demand disciplines such as English, math, computer science and business, helped to attract more students to the schools.

“For the moment, it looks like we’ve made all the right moves,” district spokesman Norman Schneider said.