Connecting Education Policy with Experience

Facilitating Seamless Transitions

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Connecting Education Policy with Experience

A trusted resource for information, data, education policy analysis and research and is instrumental in helping to increase college preparation, access and success.

Special focus on underserved populations, especially low-income students, students of color, and first-generation college students.

First-rate policy research capability and robust advocacy agenda to drive change in policy and practices that support college success

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Excelencia in Education aims to accelerate higher education success for Latino students by providing data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latino students and by promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic achievement.

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The College Completion Agenda

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Goal: Increase the proportion of young Americans earning a postsecondary degree or credential to 55 percent by 2025

Tools• State Policy Guide• Progress Report

Purpose: To provide reliable, measurable information that tracks our collective progress, as well as policymaking strategies each state can use to help reach our destination

10 Recommendations

1. Voluntary Preschool Education Available To Low-Income Families

2. Improve Middle School and High School Counseling

3. Implement the Best-Research Based Dropout Prevention Programs

4. Align K-12 System With International Standards And College

Admissions

5. Improve Teacher Quality and Focus on Recruitment And Retention

6. Clarify and Simplify the Admissions Process

7. Need-Based Grant Aid; Simplifying the Financial Aid

8. Keep College Affordable

9. Dramatically Increase College Retention Rates

10.Postsecondary Opportunities as Essential Element of Adult Education

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Working toward the goal of 55 percent by 2025

The College Completion Agenda

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Without properly consulting with the institutions that award the baccalaureate degree, the transfer process can never function in a way that supports the nation’s need for an educated citizenry — in particular, a citizenry that authentically represents the diversity of this nation.

Current Landscape



55% by 2025

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High School Graduation Rate

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AP Examination Students

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College Remediation Rate

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Immediate Enrollment Rate

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Graduation Rates (2-Year Institutions)

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Graduation Rates (4-Year Institutions)

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June 8, 2011

Community Colleges: Fast Facts



Community Colleges

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•Community colleges are the largest postsecondary education segment and its share of the undergraduate population is likely to increase.

•Community college students want to transfer: Surveys indicatethat at least 50 percent and perhaps as many as 80 percent of allincoming community college students seek to transfer and earn a bachelor’s degree.

•Community colleges attract students from underserved groups in greater numbers than four-year colleges and universities.

•Community colleges cost less to attend than four-year institutions.

Student Demographics (2007-2008)

• Average age: 28

• Median age: 23

• 21 or younger: 39%

• 22–39: 45%

• 40 or older: 15%

• First generation to attend college: 42%

• Single parents: 13%

• Non-U.S. citizens: 6%

• Veterans: 3%

• Students with disabilities: 12%NCES. (2009). 2007–08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08) [AACC analysis]

Student Demographics (fall 2008)

• Women: 58%

• Men: 42%

• Minorities: 45%

• Black: 13%

• Hispanic: 16%

• Asian/Pacific Islander: 6%

• Native American: 1%

NCES. (2008). IPEDS Fall Enrollment Survey. [AACC analysis]

Community College Students as % of Undergraduates (fall 2008)

• All U.S. undergraduates: 44%

• First-time freshmen: 43%

• Native American: 55%

• Asian/Pacific Islander: 45%

• Black: 44%

• Hispanic: 52% NCE. (2008). IPEDS Fall Enrollment Survey. [AACC analysis]

Employment Status (2007–2008)

• Full-time students

– employed full time: 21%

– employed part time: 59%

• Part-time students

– employed full time: 40%

– employed part time: 47%

NCES. (2009). 2007–08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08) [AACC analysis]

Average Annual Tuition and Fees (2010–2011)

• Community colleges (public, in district): $2,713

• 4-year colleges (public, in state): $7,605

College Board. (2010). Trends in College Pricing: 2010

Transfer Rate

• Annual transfer rate: 22 percent

• When transfer rates are included in graduation rate analyses, community colleges have completion rate of 40%

NCES. (2008). IPEDS Fall Enrollment Survey. [AACC analysis] & Mullin, C. M. (2010, November). Just how similar? Community colleges and the for-profit sector (Policy Brief 2010-04PBL). Washington, DC: American Association of Community Colleges.

Group Activity #1



Group Activity #1

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1.Do you know your feeder high schools/institutions?

2.What does your institution currently do to facilitate the transfer process for community college students?

3.What percentages of students currently transfer to/or from your institution?

4.What top 3 issues limit the ability of community college students to transfer to/ or from your institution?

Group Activity #2



Group Activity #2

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1. What is the environment/leadership for establishing partnerships or seamless transfer pathways at your institution?

2. Using the top 3 issues identified, how would you mitigate these issues to allow more students to transfer?

3. What resources would be needed to implement this program?

Group Activity #3



Group Activity #2

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1. How do you know if your transfer efforts are effective?

2. What measures would you use?

3. Are your transfer efforts replicable and/or scalable?

Improving Student Transfers from

High School to Community Colleges



Community College Strategies for Transfer Success

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Link Curricula to High School: Community colleges should link their curricula more closely to those of local high schools. One of the best ways community colleges can encourage greater student effort in high school is to show how courses required in high school develop skills for college-level work.

Communicate Success: Community colleges should do a more effective job of communicating the success of their graduates. Community colleges have not been especially effective in communicating this to high school students.

Offer Check-Ups: Community colleges should offer academic “check-ups” to high school students.

Help Counselors Counsel: The introduction of diagnostic academic data will strengthen the role of high school counselors.

Improving Student Transfers from

Community Colleges to Four-Year Institutions:

Community Colleges




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• Establish transfer to a four-year institution as a high institutional priority.

• Ensure that transfer is perceived by students as expected and attainable.

• Offer a rigorous curriculum for all students that includes writing, critical thinking, mathematics, and the sciences.

• Provide high quality instruction, including innovative and research-based pedagogies.

• Coordinate collaboration between faculty at community college and the university at the discipline level to facilitate the student pathway.

• Provide accurate and appropriate information to students on transfer opportunities, support, and resources.


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• Develop intensive academic support programs based on models of “academic excellence” (e.g., academic counseling, peer tutoring, and reciprocal learning techniques).

• Create an environment of belonging in which students feel stimulated to achieve at high academic levels.

• Establish strong community and family linkages that foster intellectual stimulating, secure, and culturally rich environments for students on and off campus.

• Engage students no later than the first term at a community college to develop an academic plan of action for successful transfer.


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•Reinforce on-going commitment of faculty from two-year and four-year institutions working in partnership to identify the essential academic preparation needed to help students make the transition from a community college to a four-year institution.

•Invest institutional resources for counselors and other student support personnel at two-year and four-year institutions. They are the critical gatekeepers of information about transfer.

Improving Student Transfers from Community Colleges to Four-Year

Institutions:Four-Year Institutions



Leadership & Commitment

Strategies for Success

Outreach and Preparation


Admission and Enrollment


Financial Aid


Student and Academic Affairs


Examples of Excelencia and Growing What Works Database



Resources on Facilitating Seamless Transitions




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www.edexcelencia.org


www.aacc.nche.edu

Thank You!!!



Young Men of Color: I Am Change

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Linking Research with Practice: For School Counselors

Recommendations #2, #3 and #5

Journal series, DVD and web access

• Promote awareness of the barriers that hinder young men of color’ college and career aspirations.

• Provide school counselors and community partners with specific interventions and strategies to implement the Eight Components of College and Career Readiness Counseling.

• Use a collection of stories, commentaries, artwork, and essays from adult leaders and youth writers offering guidance and inspiration in working with young men of color.

DRAFT

http://advocacy.collegeboard.org

Documents

Connecting Education Policy with Experience