Download or read book Building a Culture of Evidence for Community College Student Success written by Thomas Brock and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can community colleges make better use of data to improve student outcomes? That's the fundamental idea behind "Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count," a bold initiative launched in 2003 by Lumina Foundation for Education to help community college students succeed--particularly, low-income students and students of color, who have traditionally faced the most barriers to success. This report, a co-production of MDRC and the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Columbia University's Teachers College, describes Achieving the Dream's attempt to build this "culture of evidence" at the first 27 community colleges that joined the initiative. After little more than a year, every college has made some progress toward that goal; many have developed new programs for struggling students; and six colleges already show signs of institutionalizing evidence-based decision-making and planning. This report reflects only the first year of implementation of a four-year initiative. The report also presents data on average institutional performance on selected student outcomes prior to the start of the initiative. Later on in the evaluation, these data will be used as a baseline against which changes in student achievement will be measured. The key findings are: (1) As expected, institutional measures reveal low rates of success at baseline; (2) The colleges embraced the goal of building a culture of evidence; (3) Nearly half of the colleges used data analysis to identify problems to address on their campuses; (4) Colleges implemented a wide array of strategies to improve student success; and (5) Six colleges showed signs of institutionalizing a culture of evidence after only one year; however most other colleges evinced signs of progress. Chapter 1 of this report describes the history and design of the initiative, its "theory of action," the participating Round 1 colleges, and the evaluation methodology. Chapter 2 presents findings on how students are faring at the colleges at baseline, before the colleges had begun making changes in their culture or operations. Chapter 3 describes the efforts the colleges are making to build a "culture of evidence" that gathers, analyzes, and uses data to inform decision-making. Chapter 4 examines how college presidents and other individuals responsible for Achieving the Dream on each campus are working to engage faculty and other members of the community in the initiative. Chapter 5 describes the major programmatic strategies that colleges have chosen to improve academic outcomes for students. Chapter 6 concludes with an assessment of progress to date and of the efforts that the colleges are making to institutionalize and sustain the initiative. The following are appended: (1) Supplementary Tables for Chapter 2: Characteristics of Round 1 Colleges, Academic Year 2004-2005; (2) Achieving the Dream Data Decisions and Definitions of Derived Variables; and (3) Supplementary Tables for Chapter 5: Strategies Implemented at Round 1 Colleges as of Spring 2006. (Contains 23 tables and 6 figures.) [This report was written with Bethany Miller and Christian Geckeler.].

Download or read book Building a Culture of Evidence for Community College Student Success written by Thomas Brock and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Student Success in the Community College written by Terry U. O'Banion and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For much of the twentieth century, the definition of success for most community colleges revolved around student retention and graduation. This definition no longer works—if it ever did. In Student Success in the Community College: What Really Works? respected community college leaders, researchers, and innovators argue that student success is about redesigning community colleges in a manner that is consistent with each college’s mission, goals, student population, and resources. Concluding that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to increasing student success, chapter authors analyze national, state, and regional efforts to increase student success; identify principles institutions can use to frame student success initiatives; and outline specific actions community colleges can take to increase student—and institutional—success. Student Success in the Community College: What Really Works? also provides concrete examples of effective student success initiatives in a variety of community college settings.

Download or read book Building a Culture of Evidence in Student Affairs written by Marguerite McGann Culp and published by Naspa-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. This book was released on 2012 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Redesigning America s Community Colleges written by Thomas R. Bailey and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-09 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, 1,200 community colleges enroll over ten million students each year—nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates. Yet fewer than 40 percent of entrants complete an undergraduate degree within six years. This fact has put pressure on community colleges to improve academic outcomes for their students. Redesigning America’s Community Colleges is a concise, evidence-based guide for educational leaders whose institutions typically receive short shrift in academic and policy discussions. It makes a compelling case that two-year colleges can substantially increase their rates of student success, if they are willing to rethink the ways in which they organize programs of study, support services, and instruction. Community colleges were originally designed to expand college enrollments at low cost, not to maximize completion of high-quality programs of study. The result was a cafeteria-style model in which students pick courses from a bewildering array of choices, with little guidance. The authors urge administrators and faculty to reject this traditional model in favor of “guided pathways”—clearer, more educationally coherent programs of study that simplify students’ choices without limiting their options and that enable them to complete credentials and advance to further education and the labor market more quickly and at less cost. Distilling a wealth of data amassed from the Community College Research Center (Teachers College, Columbia University), Redesigning America’s Community Colleges offers a fundamental redesign of the way two-year colleges operate, stressing the integration of services and instruction into more clearly structured programs of study that support every student’s goals.

Download or read book Comprehensive Reform for Student Success written by Nan L. Maxwell and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-01-19 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community colleges face pressure to “do more with less” that have prompted many college leaders to consider fundamental changes to the ways they have typically done business. Because piecemeal solutions have not often been effective or efficient, colleges are moving far beyond discreet “programs” or “interventions,” and are attempting to implement comprehensive reform efforts. This volume conceptualizes comprehensive reform as being marked by: a focus on student success; a theory of change that ties programmatic components together in an intentional and cohesive package, implemented at multiple levels throughout the college and touching the majority of students; and a culture of evidence that uses data to continuously assess programs and processes against student success. Presenting original analyses that describe the rationale for comprehensive reform, this volume examines the challenges involved in implementing, evaluating, and sustaining those efforts. This is the 176th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

Download or read book Creating a Data Informed Culture in Community Colleges written by Brad C. Phillips and published by Harvard Education Press. This book was released on 2020-10-08 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brad C. Phillips and Jordan E. Horowitz offer a research-based model and actionable approach for using data strategically at community colleges to increase completion rates as well as other metrics linked to student success. They draw from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics to show how leaders and administrators can build good habits for engaging with data constructively. At the core of their approach is a strategic effort to help administrators and faculty identify leading indicators that they can affect and monitor before student failure occurs. The book also helps educators make better use of common sources of data, clarify problems to be solved, match research-based interventions to problems, and evaluate results. The authors incorporate strategies for college personnel to engage with data more effectively by integrating student stories into presentations and embedding these discussions into existing meetings and routines. Three case studies from Long Beach City College, Southwestern College, and Odessa College further illustrate how this approach was implemented as part of comprehensive reform efforts. Based on two decades of experience working with colleges across the country, Creating a Data-Informed Culture in Community Colleges promises to be a valuable contribution to the ongoing conversation about information use in education to improve student outcomes.

Download or read book Promising and High Impact Practices Student Success Programs in the Community College Context written by Gloria Crisp and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-09-21 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With calls for community colleges to play a greater role in increasing college completion, promising or high-impact practices (HIPs) are receiving attention as means to foster persistence, degree completion, and other desired academic outcomes. These include learning communities, orientation, first-year seminars, and supplemental instruction, among many others. This volume explores the latest research on: how student success program research is conceptualized and operationalized, evidence for ways in which interventions foster positive student outcomes, critical inquiry of how students themselves experience them, and challenges and guidance regarding program design, implementation and evaluation. This is the 175th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

Download or read book Moving Ahead with Institutional Change written by Alexander K. Mayer and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each year, millions of Americans enroll in community colleges, seeking to develop the skills necessary to pursue a career or to transfer to a four-year institution. Community colleges serve large proportions of nontraditional, low-income, and minority students, and they are designed to provide access to a postsecondary education at a low or relatively affordable cost. Yet for most students who enter these institutions, academic success remains elusive. In 2004, Lumina Foundation and a group of partner organizations--the American Association of Community Colleges; the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas; the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Columbia University; Jobs for the Future; MDC, Inc.; MDRC; and Public Agenda--launched Achieving the Dream, a bold, multiyear national initiative aimed at improving student outcomes in community colleges, particularly among low-income students and students of color. The partner organizations were selected to help Lumina design and operate Achieving the Dream, which set out to foster fundamental changes in the culture and operations of community colleges. Lumina and the founding partners sought to spur a process of institutional change through monetary and professional supports from the initiative, combined with colleges' own investments. This process centered on building a "culture of evidence"--one in which colleges routinely use evidence to help their students succeed academically. The partners theorized that undertaking broad-based institutional efforts would ultimately lead to improvements in student outcomes. Twenty-six colleges (called the "Round 1" colleges) were the first to join the initiative in 2004. In 2011, MDRC, in partnership with CCRC, published "Turning the Tide: Five Years of Achieving the Dream in Community Colleges". That report described the implementation of the initiative and trends in student outcomes among these 26 colleges from 2004 through 2009. This report, the final publication from MDRC and CCRC on the Round 1 colleges, builds on "Turning the Tide" in two ways. First, it extends the analyses of institution-wide outcomes to students who were entering the Round 1 institutions during the latter period of the colleges' five-year implementation grants, when institutions were expected to have more fully implemented many of their Achieving the Dream initiatives. Second, the report explores variation in student outcome trends at Round 1 colleges and reanalyzes the implementation data in order to inform other institutions that are undertaking reforms. This report is a retrospective study of Achieving the Dream as it was implemented between 2004 and 2009 at the first 26 colleges to participate, rather than an assessment of the initiative's direct impact on its student outcomes or current activities and programs. Indeed, the initiative now includes nearly 200 participating colleges. Overall, this report finds that average institution-wide trends in student outcomes remained relatively stable during the period of study, including during the prolonged recession that began in the United States in late 2007. Three colleges, however, stood out for gains on multiple indicators of student success. The practices of these institutions suggest possible lessons for community college practitioners, in addition to new directions for research. In particular: (1) Each college focused on specific student subgroups, and each coordinated multiple reform efforts around their chosen subgroup; (2) In later years, after gaining experience with the initial subgroups, each college expanded its new practices in order to reach larger groups of students and faculty. Targeted professional development for faculty and staff involved in the work supported this focus; and (3) One college used its reaccreditation process to help coordinate its reform efforts and to work toward establishing a common set of goals. This report concludes by discussing the lessons gleaned from the experiences of Round 1 colleges with Achieving the Dream. A section on additional analysis is appended. [This report was written with Donna Chan and Phoebe Richman. See ED516014, for "Turning the Tide: Five Years of Achieving the Dream in Community Colleges".].

Download or read book Institutional Research and the Culture of Evidence at Community Colleges Report No 1 in the Culture of Evidence Series written by Vanessa Smith Morest and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report presents findings from a study conducted by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) on how well prepared today's community colleges are in moving toward the greater use of data and research to improve student success. Data for the study were drawn from two major sources: first, an e-mail survey of college administrators responsible for institutional research (IR), and, second, case studies of 28 community colleges. The study aimed to learn how much IR capacity community colleges have in terms of IR staff size and facility with research methods, how IR is utilized by different actors within colleges, and what barriers exist that impede the development of IR analysis that would benefit college decision making. The study finds that community colleges wanting to expand the role of IR face several challenges in terms of resources, data collection, and institutional priorities. It also suggests that college leadership is a key component in making the necessary investment in IR capacity and in promoting changes in organizational practice that are required to embrace a strategy for using data to improve institutional performance.

Download or read book Student Success in Community Colleges written by Deborah J. Boroch and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-02-22 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Student Success in Community Colleges As more and more underprepared students enroll in college, basic skills education is an increasing concern for all higher education institutions. Student Success in Community Colleges offers education leaders, administrators, faculty, and staff an essential resource for helping these students succeed and advance in college. By applying the book's self-assessment instrument, colleges can pinpoint how their current activities align with the most effective proven practices. Once the gaps are identified, community college leaders can determine the best strategic direction for improvement. Drawing on a broad knowledge base and illustrative examples from the most current literature, the authors cover organizational, administrative, and instructional practices; program components; student support services and strategies; and professional learning and development. Designed to help engage community college leadership and practitioners in addressing the practices, structures, and obstacles that enhance or impede the success of basic skills students, the book's strategies can be tailored to various institutional levels, showing how to unite faculty, staff, and administrators in a cooperative effort to effect institutional change. Finally, Student Success in Community Colleges reveals how investing in a comprehensive basic skills infrastructure can be a financially sustainable model for the institution as well as substantially beneficial to students and society. "This is a most unusual and valuable book; it is packed with careful analysis and practical suggestions for improving basic skills programs in community colleges. Compiled by a team of practicing professionals in teaching, administration, and research, it is knowledgeable about what has been done and imaginative and practical about what can be done to improve the access and success of community college students." K. Patricia Cross, professor of higher education, emerita, University of California, Berkeley "For its first hundred years the community college was committed primarily to access; in its second hundred years the commitment has changed dramatically to success. This book provides the best road map to date on how community colleges can reach that goal." Terry O'Banion, president emeritus, League for Innovation, and director, Community College Leadership Program, Walden University "This guide is the most comprehensive source of information about all facets of basic skills or developmental education. It will be invaluable not just to community college educators across the nation, but also to those in high schools and four-year colleges who share similar problems." W. Norton Grubb, David Gardner Chair in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley

Download or read book Paths to Persistence written by Thomas Raymond Bailey and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Working With Students in Community Colleges written by Lisa S. Kelsay and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-03 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Co-published with This timely volume addresses the urgent need for new strategies and better ways to serve community colleges’ present and future students at a time of rapid diversification, not just racially and ethnically, but including such groups as the undocumented, international students, older adult learners and veterans, all of whom come with varied levels of academic and technical skillsThe contributing researchers, higher education faculty, college presidents, and community college administrators provide thorough understanding of student groups who have received scant attention in the higher education literature. They address the often unconscious barriers to access our institutions have erected and describe emerging strategies, frameworks, and pilot projects that can ease students’ transition into college and through the maze of the college experience to completion. They offer advice on organizational culture, on defining institutional outcomes, on aligning shifting demographics with the multiple missions of the community college, on strengthening the collaboration of student and academic affairs to leverage their respective roles and resources, and on engaging with the opportunities afforded by technology.Divided into three parts – understanding today’s community college campuses; supporting today’s community college learners; and specialized populations and communities – this book offers a vision and solutions that should inform the work of faculty, administrators, presidents, and board members.

Download or read book Building a Culture of Evidence in Community Colleges written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across the education sector, calls for accountability and results and for greater transparency in the reporting of student outcomes have been increasing. While this pressure began two decades ago in K-12 education, community colleges are now also paying closer attention to how they can and should use data on student outcomes to drive better results. Some creative and entrepreneurial community colleges are taking a hard look at how they can create and sustain an internal culture of evidence-based practice. Building a Culture of Evidence in Community Colleges, prepared with funding from the MetLife Foundation, looks at four colleges that are national leaders in using institutional research strategically and for improvement: City College of San Francisco; Community College of Baltimore County; Indian River Community College; and LaGuardia Community College. All four of these leading colleges have received or been finalists for the MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence Award. The pioneering efforts of these schools in the use of student data for identifying problems and potential solutions provide a rich source of expertise on what it takes to build an institution-wide culture of evidence-based decision making. They also illustrate how community colleges can make routine the use of data to identify strengths and weaknesses, pinpoint areas for improvement, and assess the impact on students of new programs and innovations. The experiences of these institutions also suggest changes in state and community college system policies that can enable significantly more institutions to follow their lead.

Download or read book Collaborating to Create Change written by Monica Reid Kerrigan and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Launched in 2003, "Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count" is a multiyear national initiative designed to improve educational outcomes for community college students, particularly students of color and low-income students. Supported by Lumina Foundation for Education and other funders, the initiative has grown to include 98 community colleges and 4 universities in 22 states. This report describes one community college's participation in Achieving the Dream. Along with 26 other colleges that were the first to enter the initiative, El Paso Community College (EPCC) joined Achieving the Dream in the summer of 2004 (colleges have joined the initiative through competitive selection in five rounds, the last of which started in summer 2009). In accord with the design of the Achieving the Dream initiative, EPCC has over the past five years implemented a number of interventions aimed at boosting student success, most of which focus on two interrelated goals. The first goal is to help prospective students improve their readiness for college so that when they do start college at EPCC, they can avoid enrollment in developmental courses and begin immediately taking credit-bearing, college-level offerings. The second goal is to help entering EPCC students who are required to take developmental courses to successfully complete that coursework in a much shorter period of time. The Achieving the Dream initiative is based on a five step improvement process--(1) commit to change; (2) use data to prioritize actions; (3) engage stakeholders; (4) implement, evaluate, improve; and (5) establish a culture of continuous improvement. This report uses that framework to discuss EPCC's participation in the initiative. The authors focus a good deal of attention on how EPCC faculty and staff and especially stakeholders outside the college became involved with these efforts, because the development of strong working relationships among El Paso educators both within and outside the community college is central in understanding the progress EPCC has made over the past several years. In a final section, they sketch out lessons learned by key individuals involved in EPCC's Achieving the Dream work. These lessons may have relevance for other colleges considering similar plans for increasing student success. (Contains 4 figures and 2 footnotes.).

Download or read book Community College Student Success written by Vanessa Smith Morest and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2012-12-19 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Student Success: From Board Rooms to Classrooms analyzes the emerging body of scholarly research on student success in an accessible and readable way that community college leaders will find both interesting and relevant. To further illustrate the connections between research and practice, case studies are drawn from community colleges that are engaging in reform. Morest offers a three-pronged approach for community college leaders seeking to improve the success of their students. First, community college leaders need to look around at the technological transformation that has occurred in other service sectors and import some of these ideas to student services. Second, community college leaders need to explicitly socialize their students to become college students and to bond with their community college. Finally, improving the quality of teaching is particularly important with regard to developmental education, where students are attempting to master material that they have ostensibly been taught in the past.

Download or read book Cornerstones for Community College Success Mystudentsuccesslab written by Robert M. Sherfield and published by Prentice Hall. This book was released on 2012-07-27 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Orientation, Introduction to College, and College Seminar courses. This book is written especially for community college students. While it follows in the tradition of theCornerstonefranchise, the content, examples, and exercises are specifically dedicated to the interests, challenges and needs of the community college student. Cornerstones for Community College Success includes all the traditional subjects found in student success courses, but goes above and beyond the average book. A wide variety of academic skills is presented, as well as chapters designed to guide students of all ages and backgrounds including creating a successful future, introducing college culture, and planning for transition. Extensive coverage of Information Literacy and Emotional Intelligence is included. A comprehensive Transfer guide and "Four Year Success Plan" are provided. Every chapter has an inspirational story written by community college graduates that tell how their experiences changed their lives. Exercises that promote critical thinking, problem solving and decision making are interwoven throughout.