Purpose

The Round Table represents a joint commitment of executive leaders across California’s education ecosystem to work together on issues that shape student access, success, and career advancement.


We operate with the understanding that lifelong learning — and the scaffolding of earning and learning over time — is now the norm. Our work accelerates efforts to ensure that every learner can navigate educational and career pathways with confidence and opportunity.

Goal

The Round Table - with the ICC as its administrative and programmatic arm - aims to bolster Californians’ confidence in postsecondary attainment as a pathway to individual and community prosperity. We promote a shared sense of responsibility for student success across all education segments.

Guiding Principals

Our work is anchored in the following principles:

  • Intersegmental Impact: We focus on issues that affect all educational segments.

  • Collaboration: We encourage and facilitate joint engagement in key policy conversations and programs that advance regional collaborations tied to student success and career advancement.

  • Unique Contribution: We focus where we can make a distinctive, complementary impact alongside other state-level intersegmental venues.

  • Equity of Opportunity: We commit to enhancing equitable access and outcomes for today’s learners.

  • Evidence-Based Action: We rely on field evidence to set priorities and guide decisions.

 

The Round Table places responsibility for achieving its goal on the ICC. As such, the ICC is responsible for:

Fostering collaboration within California’s educational community at all levels through conducting activities and supporting strategies that link the public schools, community colleges, and baccalaureate-granting colleges and universities. The outcome is to ensure a coherent, high-quality educational experience for each learner – kindergarten through post-graduate programs.

2025-2028 Priorities

Every three years, the Round Table sets action priorities based on its guiding principles. For 2025-2028, we will:

  • Reestablish the Round Table’s position as a vital venue for strengthening relationships among the segments’ executive leaders.

  • Promote collaborations that advance a shared, public narrative about the value of postsecondary attainment for both individuals and communities.

  • Enhance policy alignment by helping educational sectors find common ground on complex issues and inform thoughtful policy development and implementation.

  • Leverage major programmatic efforts to build a culture of postsecondary purpose, attainment, and belonging - beginning in the middle grades.

  • Support regional intersegmental initiatives that strengthen educational and career pathways and address the pandemic’s lasting effects on learner readiness and economic mobility.