Arkansas Completion Innovation Challenge

Transcription

1 Arkansas Completion Innovation Challenge Office of Governor Mike Beebe in partnership with the Arkansas Department of Higher Education May 17, 2011

2 Proposal Narrative Statements All proposals are required to include an implementation plan addressing one or two of the Innovation Challenge focus areas. Applicants will outline their state s implementation plan, how the proposal was developed and how the work aligns with state labor needs. States will provide explanations of the capacity and authority of their leadership teams and timelines of process benchmarks for implementing work. The narrative portions of the proposal will also explain how the state will leverage its existing work to improve college completion. Applicants must address all of the following points. Visuals are welcome. 1) State s college completion goals. Maximum length: 250 words Describe the state s existing college completion goals. Arkansas must act boldly to raise the educational level of its citizens. The state ranks at or near the bottom on every measure of post-secondary attainment despite the fact that postsecondary enrollment has increased by over 40% in the last decade, including a 72% increase in two-year college enrollment. 150,000 Arkansas Public Colleges & Universities 146, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,530 Unduplicated Headcount 133,381 90,

3 Along with this explosive enrollment growth, certificate and degree production has grown, although it falls short of larger increases seen across the country. Currently, 18% of two-year students complete any award within three years and only 32% of four-year students seeking a baccalaureate degree complete within six years. 1 Few Arkansas students graduate and fewer still complete if they are members of a minority group. Postsecondary Certificates & Degrees: Adults With Bachelor's Degrees or Higher (2008) 27% 29% 25% 27% 17% 17% 19% 20% 13% 14% 12% 9% U.S. SREB AR All White Black Hispanic Key stakeholders have worked diligently to increase educational attainment and have established increasing the college completion rate as a top priority. In terms of economic needs and demographic trends in the state, we know that there are too few educated citizens at all levels and in all regions of the state. Governor Mike Beebe used his 2011 State of the State Address to establish the state s college completion goals. He said that we have a steep hill to climb when it comes to higher education and that our woefully low rates of degree completion must change if we are to truly claim educational success....we can and must double the number of college graduates in Arkansas by 2025 if we are to stay competitive. 1 Arkansas Department of Higher Education database

4 2) State s work to achieve its college completion goals. Maximum length: 750 words How does the state plan to achieve its state-, state system-, and campus-level goals? How do system and campus-level completion goals align with the statewide goals? What specific steps have already been taken, and what are the anticipated critical next steps? How is data collection embedded into a higher education accountability system? How have the state and its implementation partners demonstrated success in prioritizing and achieving measurable progress in improving college completion? The stage is set for Arkansas to accomplish great things, but we are just beginning. In order to double the number of graduates by 2025, the system goal is to improve certificate/degree completion by 5% annually; each institution is aligned with this goal through a 5% annual increase of certificates/degrees. The Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) will coordinate efforts to achieve the state s completion goal through its work with the Governor s Office, members of the General Assembly, two- and four-year institutions, the Association of Two-Year Colleges (AATYC), other key agencies, and thought partners. Each of these critical partners will assist in implementing plans and establishing courses of action throughout the state. Led by the Governor s Office, the state has had nationally renowned success in pre-k and K-12 reform and is now poised to focus on all things higher education and the success of college students. Arkansans have worked hard over the past two decades setting the stage for the current focus on student success. The state established generous needs-based scholarships, held college tuition relatively affordable levels, and ensured all residents had access to at least one college within a 30-mile drive from home. As a result, Arkansas s college going rate has increased 15 percentage points (48% to 63%) since Applying CCA s metrics, we observed that during the five academic years from to , associate degree completion increased 11.4%, bachelor degree completion increased 8.9%, and certificate completion increased a phenomenal 148.1% an overall increase in award attainment of 22.7% primarily attributed to improved access and increased enrollment. In addition to enrollment growth, the state has benefitted from college student success legislation and policy passed from During this time period, efforts focused primarily on performance funding, time-to-degree and accelerated learning, and developmental education. Performance Funding. Based on legislation, Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board (AHECB) established that general revenue funding for higher education would be partially based on institutional performance. The higher education formula distributed all new funding for student semester credit hours by designating 90% for student enrollment and 10% for students who completed the semester.

5 Time-to-Degree/Accelerated Learning. Several legislative and policy advancements have occurred supporting accelerated student progress including requirements for baccalaureate degree plans for students; the creation of concurrent enrollment and AP course guidelines; creation of a core curriculum among two- and four-year programs; the development of online course transfer cross-walk tools for students; the establishment of transfer policies enabling two-year students to move seamlessly into four-year institutions; and the ongoing expansion of financial aid and scholarship funds. Developmental Education. A 2008 Legislative Task Force Report, Access to Success: Increasing Arkansas s College Graduates Promotes Economic Development, included recommendations for improving developmental education outcomes through assessment and placement; clarifying exit standards for developmental education courses; and encouraging institutions to adopt innovative alternatives to traditional developmental courses. This foundation for student success was fine-tuned with Arkansas s participation in Complete College America (CCA). As a result of CCA s support and technical assistance, the Governor and members of the General Assembly made it clear that college completion is a top priority through the passage of the following legislative package in 2011: Act 899 of 2011 directed the AHECB to set minimum criteria to allow simultaneous enrollment in college-level and remedial courses. Act 1184 of 2011 required that students with a high school diploma or GED who score below a federally-determined ability-to-benefit score be encouraged to seek basic skills instruction through other entities and only be enrolled in specific college programs until basic skills proficiency has been demonstrated. Act 747 of 2011 set the maximum number of credit hours for an associate s degree at 60 and 120 for the baccalaureate degree. Act 1203 of 2011 established separate institutional need and outcome components for the funding formula. By 2018, the outcome component will comprise 25% of the total. Existing and new state general revenue appropriations will be subject to recalculation based on performance outcomes. Based on what is known from Arkansas data and national research/policy studies, important next steps are detailed in Section 4. ADHE Data System Arkansas s data and accountability system is excellent. The state has benefitted from a central unit record system since the 1980s making it a leader in data quality nationally. ADHE s data

6 includes student demographics, course and program enrollment and completion, student grades in courses, student retention by semester, student credit attainment as well as thousands of other performance indicators. 3) State s use of metrics. Maximum length: 500 words Describe how the applicant s state-level and, if relevant, campus-level Common Completion Metrics were used to inform this proposal. Describe how the state is currently using and will continue to use the Common Completion Metrics. See attachments for state and institutional common completion metrics. Institutional metrics are submitted only for those institutions participating in this initiative. During the past year, CCA s common completion metrics have been an important driver of Arkansas s higher education policy and practice discussions. The metrics have altered the way higher education partners view the state s successes and challenges by shining a spotlight the most significant challenge the unacceptably low number of students who enter college and never complete an award. This concern has moved the entire state from a focus on access and enrollment to a focus on student achievement and graduation. The CCA metrics have been invaluable in providing a common understanding of higher education performance an understanding which translated into action during the 2011 legislative session. By highlighting achievement gaps among student demographics, the failure rate of developmental students, the unnecessary length of many degree programs, and the high number of credits that students accumulate prior to graduation (or dropping out), Governor Beebe, the General Assembly and higher education leaders prioritized the types of activities contained in this proposal. While the common completion metrics have been widely publicized on a state level, attention to individual institutional performance has not been as strong. There is a need to push institutional results and engage college faculty and staff in deep discussions regarding solutions to their particular campus issues. Campus leaders have become more aware of the necessity of informative data with the advent of the new performance-based funding formula (Act 1203 of 2011). All benchmarks established in Section 6 of this proposal were developed by considering current state and institutional outcomes and a strategic view of where we need to be in the future. The common completion metrics are being used today and will be used for the duration of the grant; undoubtedly they will be used beyond the grant to gauge the success of these efforts. Ultimately, the intent of all proposed activities is to demonstrate success and to serve as catalyst for change on campuses and statewide. The activities proposed in this application and the ongoing CCA-driven data analysis will

7 continue to inform ADHE staff and help policymakers strategize on how best to coordinate with our 33 institutions of higher education (IHE). The continued focus on CCA s metrics, especially in the area of completions, will help promote future attention on the state s key weaknesses, including developmental education and time-to-degree. ADHE is hopeful that by starting with the cultivation of rich data, which informs discussions among leaders of state systems including K-12 and workforce services, we will be able to drive actionable strategies and make forward progress. 4) Proposed plan for implementing initiatives in one or two of the Innovation Challenge focus areas. Maximum length: 1700 words Describe the structure of the plan and how it addresses one or two of the focus areas. Describe how the state will implement this plan and the implementation timeline. Describe the leadership team that will drive the plan s implementation and how the composition of this team reflects the proposed work. Describe the role that institutions and state system boards will play in implementing the proposed work. Arkansas wants to capitalize on this tremendous opportunity to change the way we deliver higher education. Nine colleges and universities (5 four-year and 4 two-year institutions) will participate in the proposed initiative and will address two of CCA s focus areas: Transforming remediation. Reducing time-to-degree and accelerating success. Remediation will be transformed by redesigning the delivery of developmental math, reading and English. A reduction in time-to-degree and accelerating success will be accomplished through the following activities: Redesigning developmental math, English, and reading. Accelerating select career-technical (CTE) certificate programs so that high-school students can complete 50% of an associate s degree and earn a marketable credential through dual enrollment at Secondary Career Centers located on two-year college campuses. Systemically adopting the use of Prior Learning Assessments (PLA) to award college credit for students knowledge and experiences. Two-year and four-year colleges will undertake varying aspects, which are depicted in the chart below.

8 CCA Grant Arkansas Pilot Programs/Activities 4-Year Universities 2-Year Colleges* Math Redesign English/ Reading Redesign Prior Learning Assessment Math Redesign Career- Technical Program Acceleration Prior Learning Assessment *Activities for two-year colleges do not include redesign of English/reading due to maximum grant award and the state s priorities regarding early completion for high school students. Strategy 1: Transform developmental education to accelerate student advancement. This strategy emerges from a body of research suggesting that time is the enemy for developmental education students: the longer students are engaged in developmental education coursework, the less likely they are to advance. 2 As Tom Bailey notes, developmental education is not very effective in promoting academic advancement, in part because many students do not finish their required developmental course sequences. 3 As shown below, few Arkansas developmental students complete any type of college award. 2Nate Johnson, Three Policies to Reduce Time-to-Degree. HCM Strategists, for Complete College America (February 2011). %20Nate%20Johnson.pdf 3Bailey, 2009

9 60% 50% Arkansas Graduation Rates (2011) 50.3% 40% 30% 31.2% 37.8% 20% 19.8% 14.6% 19.9% 10% 0% 2-Year Colleges 4-Year Universities All Students Not Remediated Any Remediation Given the high percentages of Arkansas students who require developmental education, an emphasis on streamlining and accelerating students progress through developmental education and into college-level courses is necessary to improve retention and success rates. Strategies 1.1 and 1.2 described below will change the face of developmental math education in the participating institutions by incorporating the following criteria into course delivery. Modular Delivery Individualized to Students Needs and Program Requirements Mastery-Based Technology-Driven Faculty-Facilitated in a Non-Lecture Format

10 Strategy 1.1: Redesign developmental math courses for career-technical programs at two-year colleges. Degree-seeking students in Arkansas who are assessed and do not score comparable to an ACT of 19 of higher must enroll in a developmental program. This policy applies to all associate of applied science (AAS) degrees and many technical certificates (as determined by the institution). Almost without exception, developmental math programs begin with arithmetic and end with intermediate algebra. Intermediate algebra or a comparable course is the highest level of math required for an AAS. AR Public Colleges 3-Year Graduation Rates (2008 Cohort) Not Remediated 31.2% Math 12.9% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% ADHE proposes to establish a mastery-based, modularized course for the AAS degree and technical certificates with a math requirement. This course, called Technical Math, will replace the sequence of traditional developmental education math courses. Career-technical students who are assessed to need developmental math will enroll in Technical Math as a co-requisite to major courses in which contextualized mathematics concepts are embedded. Faculty from each career-technical program area will work with college math faculty to identify appropriate modules within the entire Technical Math sequence that must be mastered in order for a student to be successful in his/her area of major study. It is expected that the number of required modules to complete/master Technical Math will vary with each program of study. Technical Math will be designed as one course that can be molded in dozens of different ways depending on students needs and modules required by the major.

11 Strategy 1.2: Redesign the entire developmental math sequence as well as college-level math courses for non-stem majors at four-year colleges. Participating institutions in this proposal have determined that College Algebra should no longer be the default math requirement for non-stem (science/technology/engineering/math) majors. Instead, four-year institutions will adopt a common non-stem math course that will meet AHECB state minimum core requirements and require non-stem majors to take Quantitative Reasoning (QR). For students seeking a STEM-related baccalaureate, College Algebra will remain the required math course, because it serves as the pre-requisite for all higher-level math courses relevant to STEM majors. AR Public Universities 6-Year Graduation Rates (2005 Cohort) Not Remediated 50.3% Math 18.5% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% The developmental math sequence will be redesigned to accommodate all non-stem and STEM majors and accelerate time-to-degree. STEM majors will be required to master all modules through an Intermediate Algebra level in order to be prepared for College Algebra; however, non-stem majors will only be required to master those modules that have the greatest relevancy for preparation for their required math course, QR. Faculty teaching non-stem college math will work with developmental education faculty to identify appropriate modules that must be mastered in order for a student to be successful in QR. Upon mastery of required non-stem developmental math modules, students will have the requisite math skills to succeed in QR. Strategy 1.3: All developmental English and reading courses will be redesigned for baccalaureate-seeking students. Arkansas students seeking a baccalaureate who are assessed and do not score comparable to

12 an ACT of 19 or higher in English and/or reading must enroll in a developmental program of study. Just as developmental math has served as a barrier for degree completion, so have developmental English and reading for many students (see table below). AR Public Universities 6-Year Graduation Rates (2005 Cohort) Not Remediated 50.3% English* 15.7% Reading* 16.4% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% The proposed redesign of English and reading is twofold: All lowest-level developmental English and reading courses will be combined into one lower-level language course, and all upper-level English and reading courses will be combined into one upper-level language course. This will reduce the number of courses required for students who are placed into developmental English and reading courses. Students in the upper-level developmental language course will be mainstreamed in English Composition I as a co-requisite. The upper-level developmental language course will be taught in tandem with English Composition I in a learning community format. Strategy 2: Enable high-school students to earn one-year technical certificates through a dual-enrollment prior to high school graduation. Two-year colleges with secondary career centers propose to develop program pathways that will allow students to earn certificates of proficiency and technical certificates while still in high school. Coursework that cannot be completed on-site through seat-time at the secondary career center, due to the time restrictions of the high school clock, will be offered through alternative delivery methods such as online learning. Students who need supplemental

13 instruction in math, English, and/or reading to be college-ready for an associate s degree will be required to complete an ACT Prep Academy that is endorsed by the Arkansas Works program. The end result of this redesign will be high school students who graduate with a marketable credential and the first year of an associate s degree completed. Moreover, those who complete the program will be able to bypass developmental courses because of their enrollment in the ACT Prep Academy. Finally, as an added benefit, regular-status college students can earn certificates and degrees in shorter periods of time because courses redesigned for alternative delivery methods will be accessible to them as well. Strategy 3: Adopt Learning Assessments to award college credit for students prior learning and work experiences. Participating Arkansas institutions will develop a systematic way of evaluating students experiences that will earn credit. Technical assistance and training will be provided for institutional representatives in the evaluation of student portfolios. Additionally, the AHECB will enact policy that encourages institutions to engage in systematic prior learning assessment. Implementation Plan and Timeline The proposed plan and timeline (below) will be directed by ADHE through a project manager who will work with the nine participating institutions described in Section 7 of this application.

14 Summer Assemble Steering Committee 2. Assign Project Director 3. Distribute funds to participating institutions 4. Secure Coaches, Technical Assistance Providers, and Evaluator Spring/Summer Provide faculty/staff with professional development and technical assistance 2. Purchase CTE software products 3. Contract for developmental course software procured 4. Redesign all curricula 5. Conduct initial process audit Fall Assign Campus Facilitators 2. Assemble institution teams 3. Adopt accountability and continuous improvement processes 4. Begin coaching/ technical assistance on campuses Fall 2012 and Beyond 1. Enroll students in redesigned DE /CTE programs 2. Collect progress and outcome data 3. Report progress and outcome results to institutions and CCA Project Management Roles and Responsibilities A Steering Committee will meet quarterly with representation from ADHE, each partnering institution, the Governor s Office, AATYC, and other partnering entities to review progress and engage in strategic decision-making for the initiative. ADHE will direct the initiative and be responsible for fiscal management, performance management and reporting, and overall project direction in coordination with the Steering Committee. An ADHE Project Manager will be employed for the duration of the grant after which ADHE staff will be responsible for all reports and data submissions. Each partnering college will assemble teams of faculty/staff to implement the project and technical assistance and

15 evaluation expertise will be leveraged to support the initiative. The Project Manager will coordinate/implement all aspects of the grant activities including the development of (1) an Accountability Protocol that ensures colleges are meeting milestones and progressing towards deliverables and outcomes and (2) a Continuous Improvement Protocol to ensure that colleges have a data-driven feedback loop. Nine campus Project Coordinators will oversee project activities on-site, organize campus faculty/staff to implement strategies and evaluate activities. Each partnering institution will provide release time/stipends to faculty and staff to plan and implement the proposed strategies. Significant technical assistance resources will be leveraged to assist institutions throughout the planning and implementation phases. A team of technical assistance coaches will be procured to facilitate sessions with each institution and peer-learning among institutions. Immediately upon receipt of the grant, ADHE will procure a third-party evaluator to help facilitate the continuous improvement process in partnership with the Project Manager.

16 5) Description of how the state s plan advances the goals of the other focus areas and how this plan will integrate with and accelerate the state s larger completion goals. Maximum length: 1200 words Describe how use of these funds will leverage progress in the state. Describe why funding for the selected Innovation Challenge focus area(s) is critical to creating measurable increases in completion in the state. Describe how the proposed work will improve completion given the challenges and barriers the state faces. Describe how the proposed work responds to the needs of the state s labor market. Describe how the proposed work addresses racial and socioeconomic completion gaps in the state. Describe the state s prior success in this area and how this plan builds upon previous and existing work. Time is the enemy for time-pressured and resource-constrained students. In Arkansas, the average time to complete a certificate or degree is astounding: 1-year certificate 3.9 years for full-time students, 5.9 years for part-time students; Associate degree 5.4 years for full-time students, 6.9 years for part-time students; Baccalaureate degree 5.2 year, 6.9 years for part-time students. 4 After extensive review of Arkansas s Common Completion Metrics and discussions with all key higher education stakeholders, it is agreed that the design and delivery of developmental education and excessive time-to-degree must be addressed for state completion goals to be achieved. There is certainty that these factors are primary contributors to our stubbornly low completion rates. Leveraging State Progress through Developmental Education Arkansas students seeking a baccalaureate who are assessed and do not score comparable to an ACT of 19 or higher in math must enroll in a developmental program. Based on this statewide cut-score, Arkansas s student population has a tremendous need for remediation. Overall, 76% of two-year college students and 39% of four-year college students take at least one remedial course. 5 When tracking cohorts of Arkansas s college students, 72.6% of twoyear students and 45% of four-year students remediated in at least one subject drop out within two years. 6 Even more alarming is the 91% of non-traditional students who are not college-ready. Unfortunately, these students are currently required to engage in basic skills remediation that can require dozens of credit hours, the payment of full tuition, and lengthy spans of time, but does not count toward graduation credits. In addition to these issues of time and money, the relevance of developmental courses is lost on many developmental students who fail to see the connection with their chosen courses of 4 Arkansas Department of Higher Education database 5Ibid 6Ibid

17 study. This issue is a principal concern for students who may not actually need all of the content they are learning in development education courses for their chosen majors. At most institutions there are shortfalls in capacity and expertise to drive innovation. Furthermore, the under-utilization and lack of familiarity with new technologies among instructors hinders adoption of new models. This proposal will provide critical funds (release time and stipends) to faculty/staff coupled with significant technical assistance for the planning and implementation of new developmental education models leading to accelerated student progress and increased completion rates. Leveraging State Progress by Reducing Time-to-Degree Arkansas leaders know that to double our completion numbers we must think creatively about how we engage and advance students in higher education. We can no longer focus solely on students in the traditional pipeline. In this proposal, our efforts to reduce time-to-degree focus on improving the integration of high school vocational education with college career-technical education, and fast-tracking adults with who have gained valuable knowledge and skills prior to entering college. Enable high-school students to earn one-year technical certificates through a dualenrollment prior to high school graduation. Over the past decade, 13 area vocational-technical high schools have been relocated to twoyear college campuses in the state. As a result, the state has reduced duplicate CTE programming and enabled high school students to earn college credit in CTE programs of study through dual enrollment. The arrangement is so successful that high school CTE students enrolled in college-level programs earn tens of thousands of student semester credit hour credits annually. The system is not without challenges, however. One principal challenge is that traditional college CTE programs are delivered so that high school students cannot attend enough hours during the school day to earn a college award. There is an excellent opportunity to improve the integration of high school vocational programs and college careertechnical education leading to an increase in college completions. In order to increase the number of college completers through this program, it is paramount that programs popular with dually-enrolled high school students be redesigned and accelerated using technology so that seat-time in the traditional class is not a barrier to earning an award. Furthermore, reduced seat time models will expedite the time-tocompletion for regular traditional and non-traditional college students as well. The end result of this redesign will be high school students who graduate with a marketable credential and the first year of an associate s degree completed. Moreover, those who complete the program will be able to bypass developmental courses because of their enrollment in the aforementioned ACT Prep Academy.

18 And while the physical integration of vocational-technical high schools with postsecondary institutions has been tremendously successful, the innovation could be improved with a strategic investment in the policies and practices that facilitate student transitions. This proposal will provide critical funds (release time and stipends) to faculty/staff plus technical assistance for the planning and implementation of this strategy. Prior Learning Assessment and Credit Arkansas s non-traditional adult enrollment comprises 35% the total. In order to increase the state s number of college completers, adult students have to be effectively integrated and supported. Many adult students enter college with unrecognized learning from the military, the workplace, or continuing education courses/programs. Without an effective mechanism for crediting prior knowledge, the result for many adult students is wasted time and money. At the state-level, we have never fully grappled with the issue of PLAs. There is a lack of uniformity at institutions throughout the state in terms of how prior learning credit is awarded. Some institutions award credit very loosely and others are restrictive allowing Advanced Placement (AP) and CLEP credit only. The only reference to PLAs in AHECB policy is to restrict the number of hours that can be awarded (30 credit hours toward an associate or baccalaureate degree); there is no guidance on how to award or interpret PLA credits. Nonetheless, the return on PLAs can be sizable for institutions and the state. According to the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), students who earn credit through its PLAs are 7% more likely to complete a degree than those who do not. Our proposal will seek to address the issue of uniformity among institutions by generating a uniform process among participating institutions as well as the dearth of state policy on the subject. The state s completion goals cannot be accomplished unless IHEs provide adults with an expedient, cost-effective road to college credentials. This proposal will provide critical funds to ADHE to provide statewide technical assistance and training of college staff on prior learning assessment (PLA). It will also provide technical assistance and support to ADHE staff in its efforts to institutionalize PLA through AHECB policy. These efforts should produce measurable improvements in the number of courses that returning adults must take in order to complete a college credential.

19 6) Benchmarks against which the state will evaluate its progress against this plan. Maximum length: 350 words Provide ambitious and realistic 3-month, 6-month, 12-month, 18-month, 24-month and 36-month benchmarks for the proposed activities. Provide a three-year outline for sustaining work that explains how the proposed actions will continue to improve completion rates beyond the grant period. Describe the implementation team s plan and process for assessing which changes in state- and campus-level metrics are attributable to work implemented through the Innovation Challenge. The following CCA metrics are directly related to proposed activities and will be used as benchmarks for the duration of the grant and beyond. Strategy Progress Metrics Outcome metrics Developmental Education Redesign Early Awards Prior Learning Assessment Remediation success Success in first-year courses in same subject Degree Credit Accumulation Degree Credit Accumulation Graduation rates Time-to-degree Graduation rates Time-to-degree Graduation rates Time-to-degree Progress Metrics Year One of the grant will be used by ADHE and participating institutions to plan and design all proposed activities. Progress metrics initially will be captured following the fall semester of Year Two. Progress Metrics Baseline 18Mos 24Mos 36Mos Ambitious Realistic Ambitious Realistic Ambitious Realistic Remediation success Math 57.0% 75.0% 62.0% 75.0% 67.0% 75.0% 75.0% English/Reading 73.7% 85.0% 75.7% 85.0% 77..0% 85.0% 80.0% Success in first-year courses/ same subj. Math 39.0% % 44.0% 65.0% 55.0% English 65.6% % 70.0% 80.0% 75.0% Note: A progress metric, Degree Credit Accumulation, will be added that differs from CCA s metrics. It will capture average number of credits toward a degree that students have earned at the conclusion of each semester of enrollment. A baseline will be completed prior to implementation, if the proposal is awarded.

20 Outcome Metrics Outcome metrics will be captured after Year Two and beyond. Outcome Metrics Time-to-Degree (full-time students in years) Baseline Ambitious Realistic Certificate Associate Bachelors Graduation Rates (full-time students) Associate full-time 13.6% 20 % 17% Certificate full-time 37.6% 45% 41% Bachelor full-time 38.4% 45% 41% Part-time student data will be collected, analyzed, and reported to institutions as part of the continuous improvement cycle; however, they are not included in this proposal for accountability purposes. After activities are established with the assistance of grant funds, sustainability will not be a concern. Continued implementation will not incur additional costs and positive results will continue beyond 36 months. An external evaluator will employ a comparison group strategy to assess change attributable to proposed activities.

21 7) State s proposal development process. Maximum length: 250 words What institutions, agencies and individuals does the state intend to collaborate with in the proposed plan? Describe the roles and input of these collaborators in the development of this proposal. ADHE is pleased to submit this application to CCA s Completion Innovation Challenge (CIC) in partnership with Governor Mike Beebe. The following nine two- and four-year institutions are partnering to implement the proposed strategies: Two-year institutions: Arkansas Northeastern College, Arkansas State University- Beebe, North Arkansas College, Southern Arkansas University-Tech. Four-year institutions: Arkansas State University-Jonesboro, Arkansas Tech University, University of Arkansas-Little Rock, University of Central Arkansas, University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. A planning committee was assembled to prepare this application that included representatives from the Governor s Office, the Association of Two-Year Colleges, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Arkansas Department of Career Education, University of Arkansas-Little Rock, College of the Ouachitas, Southern Arkansas University Tech, Pulaski Technical College, Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, and the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. This group will continue to serve as the Steering Committee along with representatives from the participating institutions. Informational sessions were held in which all public colleges/universities in the state with potential proposal strategies were discussed and the final approach was selected. The final list of participating institutions was selected based on the following criteria: Number of students enrolled in developmental education. Initiative approach aligned with college priorities. Campus is the site of a secondary career center (two-year colleges only). All aforementioned institutions and groups will continue to collaborate and participate in the planning and implementation of proposed grant activities. It is anticipated that additional Steering Committee members from the private sector will be added.