ACHIEVING THE DREAM 40 COMMUNITY COLLEGES COUNT MOVING THE NEEDLE TO IMPROVE STUDENT SUCCESS

Transcription

1 ACHIEVING THE DREAM COMMUNITY COLLEGES COUNT MOVING THE NEEDLE TO IMPROVE STUDENT SUCCESS

2 OUR NATION NEEDS A BETTER EDUCATED WORKFORCE AND COMMUNITY COLLEGES ARE WIDELY RECOGNIZED AS THE LINCHPIN IN ADDRESSING THIS CHALLENGE. CAROL LINCOLN, ACHIEVING THE DREAM SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT IN THE UNITED STATES, MOST COLLEGE STUDENTS ATTEND COMMUNITY COLLEGE. IN WASHINGTON, SIX OUT OF TEN STUDENTS ATTEND COMMUNITY COLLEGE. COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGES PROVIDE CRITICAL HIGHER EDUCATION ACCESS FOR THE MAJORITY OF STUDENTS IN OUR STATE. STUDENTS WHO ATTEND COMMUNITY COLLEGES SAY THEY ARE MORE AFFORDABLE, CLOSER TO HOME, PROVIDE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS, AND OFFER DEGREES AND CERTIFICATES CLOSELY ALIGNED TO EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES. ACHIEVING THE DREAM: COMMUNITY COLLEGES COUNT IS AN INITIATIVE THAT HELPS THOUSANDS OF LOW-INCOME WASHINGTON STUDENTS SUCCEED AND GRADUATE EACH YEAR. The guiding principle of Achieving the Dream is that, in order to significantly improve student success, community colleges must promote and sustain institutional change and use student achievement data to guide the changes. College Spark Washington supports sixteen Washington community and technical colleges participating in Achieving the Dream in order to help more low-income students earn their degrees. Moving the Needle to Improve Student Success highlights the outstanding efforts of four Washington colleges that have earned Leader College status. These colleges are increasing student success and completion outcomes and have sustained this progress for three years. Leaders, faculty, and staff at these colleges have worked tirelessly to promote student achievement on their campuses. As you read on, you will learn about each college s five-year initiative to help significantly more students on their campus succeed. Each of the four colleges developed their own set of interventions, based on their student data and the culture of their campus. Most of the interventions highlighted have been taken to scale and the data provided are at the institutional level. Moving the Needle to Improve Student Success also describes lessons learned by College Spark Washington that we hope will be useful to college leaders, faculty, funders, and policy leaders interested in supporting, growing, and sustaining improvements at community colleges in service of student success.

3 THE FIRST COHORT OF COLLEGES Six colleges joined Achieving the Dream in 6 and were awarded grants from College Spark Washington. Big Bend Community College Highline Community College Renton Technical College Seattle Central Community College Tacoma Community College Yakima Valley Community College Colleges convened teams of faculty, staff, and administrators to collect and review data and identify achievement gaps. The teams examined which courses, processes, and practices could be improved to help close these gaps. They developed strategies and continually assessed the impact of their strategies in order to scale and sustain the successful interventions. Each college team received customized support from Achieving the Dream coaches who assisted with the implementation of data-informed programs and policies that build institutional commitment to student success. USING DATA TO DRIVE DECISIONS As a result of the initiative s focus on data-driven decisions to guide student success, colleges assessed impact early, discarded strategies that didn t work, and expanded what did. THE RESULT During the five-year grant, the colleges shifted from a period of innovation (with nearly interventions during the first three years of the initiative) to a more refined focus on 26 interventions. The most successful were faculty-led and focused on changing teaching and learning strategies in the classroom and sharing these teaching methods across departments. They had a positive impact, served larger numbers of students, and could be sustained beyond the grant. Interventions that were abandoned due to disappointing results included optional out-of-class programs that garnered low participation rates; overbroad strategies that didn t produce tangible results, like resource fairs; and interventions that were developed with insufficient faculty input. What We Learned about Scaling and Sustaining Institutional Change Colleges that made the most progress toward promoting and sustaining institutional change exhibited the following characteristics: COMMITMENT The colleges senior leadership led the way by making student success a clear, visible, and frequently referenced priority. They participated actively on the initiative leadership team, and elevated the practice of sharing student data widely and using the data to make important decisions. ACTING BOLD Colleges that had the greatest success had leaders willing to examine the status quo. They ended late registration or made orientation mandatory when the data showed it would increase student success. ELEVATING THE ROLE OF DATA Institutional research staff became skilled at presenting data in ways that answer questions of importance to faculty and staff and move people to action. Colleges that made the most progress brought institutional research into strategic planning discussions, reviewed student outcome data regularly, and institutionalized the practice of using student data to guide policy and budgeting decisions. PRIORITIZING FACULTY ENGAGEMENT Many of the interventions that were ultimately abandoned were discontinued because of faculty resistance. Over time, colleges got better at involving all faculty and staff in designing interventions, which resulted in smarter supports and more buy-in. Successful colleges created champions willing to examine data and advance innovation. THINKING BIG PICTURE Colleges that were most successful redesigned programs and practices at scale. They implemented course redesigns, instead of attempting to expand small pilot projects serving - students. Colleges that made this transition earliest saw the greatest impact on student success. CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL INTERVENTIONS Well-defined and -developed faculty professional development opportunities delivered by skilled professionals or respected colleagues Course redesigns that increase the relevance of the curriculum and embed institutional resources into the courses Multidisciplinary, integrated assignments Advising, orientation programs, and student success courses that are well-designed and mandatory for all students or for students who place below college-level in multiple disciplines Dedicated supports that help students nearing the end of Adult Basic Education or English language courses transition to college-level courses Mandatory or credit-bearing tutoring or study groups Learn about strategies getting positive results by visiting our Intervention Explorer at THE ABILITY TO EFFECTIVELY USE DATA IS IMPERATIVE IF COLLEGES ARE TO KNOW THAT THEIR FOCUS ON STUDENT SUCCESS IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE. MICHELLE ANDREAS, STATE BOARD FOR COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGES

4 H I G H L I N E C O M M U N I T Y C O L L E G E Highline Community College, located 17 miles south of Seattle, serves nearly 18, students and offers certificates in over professional technical programs, and associate degrees, as well as two-year transfer degrees. The college s values of social justice, global equity, and multiculturalism permeate all major initiatives, as well as the daily work of faculty and staff. Through data analysis, the Highline Data Team determined that, among the students who were most likely to drop out or to fail key college-level courses, many were placed in the developmental English course just below college level English 91. Faculty had the opportunity to examine the raw data and develop interventions that aligned with their own classroom teaching experience, says Jeff Wagnitz, Vice-President for Academic Affairs. Achieving the Dream gave us the opportunity to work with other faculty and academic advisors to learn and understand why students drop out, adds faculty member Lisa Bernhagen. With support from the academic advisors, English faculty revised the curriculum in developmental English. Interventions included integrating writing assignments focused on career and academic goals, embedding advising into the class, and embedding opportunities for students to connect with each other and advisors during class. Highline s math faculty also used data to improve the developmental math sequence, reducing a three-level developmental math sequence to a twolevel sequence for non-science and technology (STEM) majors. The curriculum included real-world math applications and math skills that prepare students for college-level math. Early data show student satisfaction with and completion of the shorter developmental math sequence has increased substantially. OUR DATA REVEAL HOW POWERFULLY RETENTION AND COURSE COMPLETION INCREASE WHEN WE DEEPEN STUDENT LEARNING USING HIGH-CHALLENGE, HIGH-SUPPORT INSTRUCTION WITH OUTCOMES THAT MEASURE FOR COLLEGE READINESS. LISA BERNHAGEN, ENGLISH FACULTY, HIGHLINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION PASS RATES FOR LOW-INCOME STUDENTS Between 7 and 11, the developmental math pass rates increased nearly percent. Between 8 and 11, the developmental English retention rates increased nearly percent ACHIEVING THE DREAM: PRINCIPLES OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE USE OF EVIDENCE TO IMPROVE PROGRAMS & SERVICES Following the implementation of the interventions in development, Highline faculty launched an accelerated English 91, the data showed that second- to third-quarter learning program that simultaneously places students into retention of the students increased 15 percent at the a combined developmental and college-level English class. college. But it also showed that only four out of ten Faculty create a scaffold of support for students as they students who take developmental English enroll in and master the college English material. Early results indicate pass college-level English as a next step. After further that nearly eight out of ten students in accelerated English data analysis, best practices research, and professional 1 pass college-level English, and 92 percent are retained. MATH 91 7 PASS RATE MATH PASS RATE REVISED ENGLISH 91 8 RETENTION RATE REVISED ENGLISH RETENTION RATE

5 R E N T O N T E C H N I C A L C O L L E G E Renton Technical College (RTC), established during World War II, is located almost miles south of Seattle. It serves nearly 12, students, with three out of four enrolled in workforce training programs and nearly percent of students enrolled in basic education programs. Renton implemented Reading Apprenticeship (RA), a nationally recognized professional development program that teaches reading in the context of a program of study and trains faculty to use group and individualized reading strategies to increase students reading comprehension. First quarter retention rates are 42 percent higher for students enrolled in courses taught by RA trained faculty. Renton uses RA in both adult education and professional technical classrooms to engage students by teaching new approaches to reading discipline- specific texts. For example, the nursing program, pharmacy tech, and administrative office management are three programs that use RA. More than 125 faculty use RA, representing 64 percent of the College s faculty. There is a broad-based energy around reading, sharing of reading routines, and an eagerness to try new ways of modeling for students what we expert readers do, says faculty member Michele Lesmeister. Michele started using RA in 8 after trying many other unsuccessful reading strategies with her Adult Basic Education (ABE) students. Since apprenticeship training is an important part of RTC s mission, she found the concept of reading apprenticeship compelling and a good fit for her students. Student success data supported her thinking, with her students meeting their learning goals in one-third of the expected time. As faculty learned about Michele s success using RA, colleagues began participating in on-campus professional development, which included in-class modeling and coaching, as well as attending a RA training at WestEd. As campus demand escalated for RA professional development, Michele collaborated with WestEd to create a -hour online course for Renton Technical College faculty. WHEN INSTITUTIONS PICK STUDENT SUCCESS STRATEGIES, THEY NEED TO LOOK BEYOND THE NEAR TERM TO THE LONG TERM AND FIGURE OUT IF THEY CAN KEEP THE STRATEGIES GOING. YOU CAN ONLY SURVIVE ON GRANT FUNDING FOR SO LONG. MARTY HEILSTEDT, VICE-PRESIDENT OF INSTRUCTION, RENTON TECHNICAL COLLEGE YEARLY PERSISTENCE RATES Renton leaders credit the RA Program with increasing student persistence and completion rates by 18 percent across the campus ACHIEVING THE DREAM: PRINCIPLES OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE COMMITTED LEADERSHIP During the five-year Achieving the Dream initiative, numerous leadership changes occurred at Renton Technical people at the right place and time, adds Marty. My job distributed leadership model. It s all about having the right College that could have threatened the momentum and was to identify the right people like Michele make sure stability of the Achieving the Dream work. Marty Heilstedt, they had the resources and support they needed to be Vice-President of Instruction, credits the college s successful, and then get out of their way. EARNED A DEGREE OR REMAINED ENROLLED 7-8 EARNED A DEGREE OR REMAINED ENROLLED -11

6 T A C O M A C O M M U N I T Y C O L L E G E For more than years, Tacoma Community College (TCC) has provided transfer education, workforce training, and adult basic skills for nearly 15, students each year, nearly percent of whom are full-time. While the first two years of Achieving the Dream were spent developing 26 different interventions, college leaders soon realized the power of less, not more. We quickly stopped focusing on discrete interventions. Instead we focused on how interventions worked together systemically to support student success, says Tim Stokes, Executive Vice-President for Academic Affairs. TCC developed a comprehensive advising model, Declared and Prepared, that guides student engagement from college admission to the declaration of a major. It is composed of a constellation of interventions intended to increase student success. Of particular note is the software tool, Advisor Dashboard, that contains an educational plan and early alert functions, and HD 1, TCC s mandatory student success course. The Advisor Dashboard enables advisors to monitor student progress, collect critical student data in one venue, and deliver timely advising to students who need it most. TCC s student success course is required for all students who place two or more levels below college-level in English, math or reading. The fall-to-fall retention rate for HD 1 participating students is 26 percent higher than non-participating students. TCC developed a Pathway to Completion framework which includes a group of interventions that provides everyone at the college faculty, staff, and students with a common roadmap for student success and certificate/degree completion. Pathway to Completion allows the college to organize and measure student progression, facilitating the college s use of data to advance student success. ACHIEVING THE DREAM: PRINCIPLES OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE I KNEW I WOULD EVENTUALLY GET A DEGREE, BUT I DIDN T KNOW HOW MY GOALS WOULD CHANGE. I NOW HAVE A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW I FIT INTO MY COMMUNITY AND CAN MAKE IT A BETTER PLACE. AMY MCCOY, TCC STUDENT CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP Examining their data helped TCC leaders realize they had an achievement gap. The students who were entering didn t look like the students who were graduating, says Tim. Between 8 and, TCC saw nearly a 25 percent reduction in the gap between developmental math completion rates of white and African American students BROAD ENGAGEMENT With encouragement from Achieving the Dream leaders, TCC created the Lower Completion Course List of low completion/high enrollment gatekeeper courses. This list identified all courses with less than an percent successful completion rate. Although the college s intent was to identify and assist courses with low completion rates, some faculty felt the list was punitive. TCC formed a faculty task force to review the list, its intention, and use. The task force recommended the creation of a Successful Course Completion Dashboard which reports every course s completion rate. With the creation of the dashboard, faculty and staff had access to every course and its completion rate. We worked to move the data down into the organization so that data-informed decisions can be made at every level of the college. Data is the province of all faculty and staff, not just upper administration, says Scott Marsh, Director of Institutional Effectiveness. AFRICAN AMERICAN 8 COMPLETION RATE FOR DEVELOPMENTAL MATH WHITE 8 COMPLETION RATE FOR DEVELOPMENTAL MATH AFRICAN AMERICAN COMPLETION RATE FOR DEVELOPMENTAL MATH WHITE COMPLETION RATE FOR DEVELOPMENTAL MATH

7 YAKIMA VALLEY C O M M U N I T Y C O L L E G E Yakima Valley Community College (YVCC), founded in 1928, is one of the oldest two-year colleges in Washington. Located in Eastern Washington, the college serves nearly 11, students, more than half of whom are Latino. The college offers programs in adult basic education, English as a Second Language, lower- division arts and sciences, professional and technical education, and community services. During its tenure as an Achieving the Dream college, YVCC implemented a multi-year overhaul of its student orientation. Through surveys, focus groups, and assessment meetings, YVCC leaders identified advising as a significant barrier to student success: advising was not required; it was not clear to students which advisor they should see; and different programs had distinct academic requirements that needed to be communicated to students. In order to strategize how to best serve incoming students, YVCC sent a team of faculty, staff and administrators to the National Academic Advising Summer Institute and charged this group with redesigning the process of advising and registration for incoming students. While initial feedback to YVCC s new system was positive, college leaders attended an Achieving the Dream institute and learned how eliminating late registration could bolster student success. Beginning with the fall 7 entering class, YVCC did away with registration after the first day of class. Data showed no drop in enrollments and retention rates increased to over percent for entering students. All entering first-time, full-time students also are required to attend the New Student Orientation before the start of the quarter, which increased first-quarter retention 6 percent. Most recently, YVCC implemented mandatory advising for students on academic early warning and the mandatory orientation was reconfigured to be more interactive and personalized. AFTER EXAMINING THE DATA AND BEST PRACTICE RESEARCH, NEW STUDENT ORIENTATION WAS TRANSFORMED INTO A MORE INTERACTIVE, PERSONALIZED LEARNING EXPERIENCE AND 92 OF PARTICIPATING STUDENTS SAID THEY WOULD RECOMMEND IT TO THEIR PEERS. LESLIE BLACKABY, DEAN OF STUDENT SERVICES, YAKIMA VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE FIRST-QUARTER RETENTION RATES First-quarter retention rates rose 6 percent (from 75.8 percent Fall 4 into Winter 5) to.1 percent (Fall 9 into Winter ) for Yakima Valley students. 76 ACHIEVING THE DREAM: PRINCIPLES OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE SYSTEMIC INSTITUTIONAL IMPROVEMENT Through Achieving the Dream, the college developed its college s mission. The college also created a 45-member research capacity and created a culture of data-driven Institutional Effectiveness Team, comprised of individuals decision-making. YVCC s Office of Institutional Effectiveness representing all aspects of the college. The Team regularly was created and charged with coordinating the collection, analyzes data, reviews best practices, and suggests actions analysis, and dissemination of data in support of the the college should engage in to increase student success. REMAINED ENROLLED FALL 5 REMAINED ENROLLED WINTER

8 LOOKING AHEAD Each of the colleges highlighted in Moving the Needle to Support Student Success achieved impressive results for students through their data-driven, campus-specific interventions. Leaders at these colleges know that institutional change takes time, and while student supports, such as tutoring or advising are important, they are not sufficient. Game-changing interventions are those that happen in the classroom, build student momentum toward college completion, and involve faculty at the core. As Washington s ten new Achieving the Dream colleges plan their interventions, there is an opportunity to develop faculty-led efforts that cross departments and disciplines. Many of the early initiative colleges implemented interventions that help to successfully move students through remedial courses and improve ACHIEVING THE DREAM first-year retention rates. While this is a worthy and significant accomplishment, new initiative colleges will be expected to implement strategies that help students transition from remedial to college-level courses and build measurable momentum toward their degrees and certificates. PHASE II COLLEGES AWARDED GRANTS IN 11 Bellingham Technical College Clover Park Technical College Edmonds Community College Everett Community College Grays Harbor College Lower Columbia College Northwest Indian College Skagit Valley College Spokane Falls Community College Whatcom Community College WASHINGTON STATE COMMUNITY & TECHNICAL COLLEGES Pierce College Grays Harbor College Bellingham Technical College Skagit Valley College Whatcom Community College Everett Community College Edmonds Community College Seattle Central Community College Renton Technical College Highline Community College Tacoma Community College Clover Park Technical College Northwest Indian College Yakima Valley Community College Spokane Falls Community College Big Bend Community College College Spark Washington funds programs across Washington state that help low-income students become college-ready and earn their degrees. College Spark began supporting access to higher education in 1978 by managing student loan programs. In 4, the loan operations were sold and an endowment created to support its grant-making mission. PARTNERS Achieving the Dream, Inc. is a national nonprofit that is dedicated to helping more community college students, particularly low-income students and students of color, stay in school and earn a college certificate or degree. Conceived as an initiative in 4 by the Lumina Foundation and seven founding partner organizations, today, Achieving the Dream includes more than institutions, coaches and advisors, and 15 state policy teams working throughout 32 states and the District of Columbia. COLLEGE SPARK BOARD OF TRUSTEES Dr. K. J. (Gus) Kravas, Chair Dr. Brian Benzel Dr. Kim Bobby Chio Flores Bob Gilb Trevor L.T. Greene Dr. Jean Hernandez Denny Hurtado Faith Li Pettis Steven C. Pumphrey Christie Querna Chris Reykdal John Rose Dr. Deborah J. Wilds CONTACT US College Spark Washington 1 Queen Anne Avenue N., Suite 2 Seattle, WA info@collegespark.org Lower Columbia College Phase I grant recipients, 5 years Phase II grant recipients, 4 years Participating without grant funding College Spark Washington supports sixteen Washington community and technical colleges participating in Achieving the Dream in order to help more low-income students earn their degrees. The State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) is responsible for administering the Community and Technical College Act and providing leadership and coordination for Washington s public system of 34 community and technical colleges. The SBCTC is governed by a nine-member board appointed by the Governor. FOLLOW US!

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