San Diego Continuing Education
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| Motto | To provide ongoing learning opportunities, preparing diverse individuals for career advancement, a college education, or enriched lives through good health and personal fulfillment. |
|---|---|
| Type | Public continuing education |
| Established | 1914 |
| Endowment | $ 60.5 million |
| President | Carlos O. Turner Cortez, Ph.D. |
Academic staff | 446 |
Administrative staff | 245 |
| Students | 40,000+ |
| Location | San Diego, California, United States |
| Campus | Urban, 6 main campuses citywide covering 23 acres (0.09 km2) |
| Colors | Bright Green, Light Blue and Yellow |
| Website | |
San Diego Continuing Education (SDCE) is a public, non-credit educational institution in San Diego, California. It is part of the San Diego Community College District along with three two-year community colleges: San Diego City, San Diego Mesa and San Diego Miramar colleges. It is administered by the San Diego Community College District. With full accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, SDCE is the nation’s largest separately-accredited non-credit continuing education institution.
SDCE offers noncredit career technical education; adult basic education and basic college preparation; life enrichment programs; general interest fee-based community education classes; and customized contract training classes designed for the business sector. Continuing Education serves approximately 40,000 students per year through its six campuses: CE at Mesa College, Cesar Chavez, the Educational Cultural Complex (ECC), Mid-City, North City and West City; it also conducts programming at various other off-campus sites throughout San Diego, and at specialized locations at San Diego Mesa College and San Diego Miramar College. SDCE is diverse: it is co-educational, multi-generational and multi-ethnic. It has a semester-based academic calendar with an added summer session as a regular part of its offerings.
History
Continuing education in San Diego began in 1914 when the Board of Education of the San Diego City Schools authorized free night classes for adults in areas such as elementary and secondary basic skills and citizenship instruction. After World War II, adult high school classes were offered to returning veterans. In 1970 a separate community college district was established under a local governing board. In the mid-1970s, more than 100,000 adults were enrolled including Southeast Asian refugees—this gave rise to the large English as a Second Language (ESL) program that is the largest program in SDCE. Today, SDCE is the largest institution of its kind in the nation with a wide and varied curriculum.