Kori Smith

Associate Director of Articulation

and Academic Services

University System of Maryland

Tuesday April 1, 2014

Session ID: TE.2092.0

Session Agenda

I. Environmental and Policy Influences

II. Recent initiatives/legislation with significant Impact on Articulation and Transfer for Community College Students

A. Maryland Higher Education Commission’s (MHEC) Associates Degree Award for Pre-Transfer Students (ADAPTS) initiative

-Background and Intent-Goals-Development of ARTSYS-RT tool-Timeline-The Numbers-Evaluation – Strengths and Stumbling Blocks

B. Maryland Senate Bill 740 “The College Readiness and Completion Act”

-Aspects that directly impact Transfer Students-Time Sensitive Priorities-ARTSYS

a. Evaluation and Analysisb. Review and Enhancement Activitiesc. Current State of the System

III. Future Considerations

Completion Initiative Overarching Goal

Commission on Access, Admissions & Success: College Completion AgendaCollege Board

Increase the number of 25 to 34 year olds who hold an associate’s degree or higher to 55%

Complete College America (CCA)http://www.completecollege.org/

Significantly increase the number of Americans with a college degree or credential of value and close attainment gaps for traditionally underrepresented populations

Complete to CompeteNational Governor’s Association (NGA)

Increase the number of students in the United States who complete college degrees and certificates and improve the productivity of the country’s higher education institutions

Higher Education Productivity AgendaLumina Foundation for Education

Increase percentage of Americans with high quality degrees and credentials to 60% by 2025 through tying public funding to degree completion, reinvesting savings, and educating in more affordable ways

National Completion Agenda

Completion Initiative Overarching Goal

Maryland’s Completion Goal (set by Gov. Martin O’Malley)

By 2025:At least 55% of Maryland residents ages 25-64 will hold an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree

Maryland 2013 State Plan for Postsecondary Education

Goal 23: Maryland will achieve a system of postsecondary education that advances the education goals of all by promoting and supporting access, affordability and completion.

State Completion Agenda

A handful of four-year institutions had already created partnerships with community colleges to work on Reverse Transfer Efforts.

The University System of Maryland had developed the ARTSYS system, which was well-established as an advising tool for Maryland’s community college students, with the system having an web presence since 1993.

Institutional Initiatives

• 2011

April – Completion partnerships and initiatives including reverse transfer discussed at the USM Transfer Professionals Day Program

September - USM conducts meeting to form workgroup to learn of reverse transfer initiative pilot programs by USM institutions

Two manual processes were employed for the pilot institutions where the four-year institution initiated contact with the students.

Lessons learned: Many students did not send final transcript with degree posted.

Labor-intensive nature of “high touch” manual process would not be conducive to statewide participation.

• 2011 November - MHEC hosts 1st meeting to discuss a statewide reverse transfer system

MHEC ADAPTS Initiative is formally introduced to representatives from the different segments of Maryland higher educationIntent of Maryland’s reverse transfer initiative:

1.) “advances the State’s efforts to reach its college completion goals,”2.)“equitably awards degrees for students who have earned them, thus providing students with a credential that improves their employment options.”

-Maryland ADAPTS Grant Program, A Statewide Reverse Transfer Project: Request For Proposals

1. 100% of all Maryland Community Colleges, 100% of all Maryland public four-year institutions and at least 50% of Maryland independent non-profit four-year institutions will participate in the award of reverse transfer associate’s degrees by March 2015.

2. At least 70% of all eligible Maryland community college students will receive and associate’s degree post transfer

3. Stakeholders will demonstrate increased understanding of college completion issues as indicate by the development of institutions and statewide transfer and articulation polices that remove potential barriers and challenges to reverse transfer.

• 2011

November

ARTSYS-RT introduced as tool to assist institutions with processing student transcript information through automation.

Given the importance of providing incentives for participation - an automated, “lights out” process for the four-year institutions was developed: ARTSYS-RT©

Modifications to the existing ARTSYS© on-line articulation system, coupled with the use of the EDI transcripts provided the means to automate much of the process for both the two-year and four-year institutions.

• 2012

February – MHEC Hosts 2nd meeting to follow up on status of ADAPTS

April – First Community College Trained on ARTSYS-RT

August – six out of 15 Maryland Community Colleges trained on ARTSYS-RT

September – MHEC is awarded $500,000 grant from USA Funds and the Lumina Foundation for “Credit When It’s Due: Recognizing the Value of the Quality Associate Degree” to support ADAPTS initiative

October – 1st run of transcript information with ARTSYS-RT

December – Towson University Hosts convenes meeting with their ARTSYS-RT partners to discuss their efforts and observations using the ARTSYS-RT system to process student transcript information

• 2013

August – Nine community colleges trained on ARTSYS-RT system

October – MHEC issues a Request For Proposals for grants awards to fund activities contributing to ADAPTS initiative

December – Grant review committee evaluates the 15 proposals submitted by both two and four year institutions.

• 2014

February – MHEC funds 12 of 15 proposals at a maximum level of $25,000 each

Associate

Degrees

Awarded

through the

ADAPTS

Initiative:

The

Numbers

Completion Innovation Challenge Grant - Complete College America

ADAPTS Project Outcomes as of September 2013

Community College

# Students Identified as

Potentially Eligible for RT - AA

# Degrees Awarded as of Sept

2013

Allegany College of Maryland 834 0

Anne Arundel Community College 432 26

Carroll Community College 7 2

Chesapeake College 100 9

Community College of Baltimore County 514 117

Garrett College 9 9

Harford Community College 123 23

Howard Community College 107 45

Montgomery College 183 149

Prince George's Community College 175 0

Wor-Wic Community College 325 72

Total 2,809 452

Source: MACC Survey of Community Colleges (September 2013 and MHEC ADAPTS Mini-Grant Recipient Final Reports (August

2013)

Notes:

1. Allegany identified 108 students who were degree-eligible but degrees had not yet been awarded at time of this report.

2. PGCC has not made any degree awards at time of this report but was in process of making determinations.

3. Remaining Community Colleges did not respond to MACC survey or were not ADAPTS Mini Grant Award Recipients.

Initiative was able to build on practices and findings that emerged from reverse transfer initiatives by individual institutions established prior to the creation of ADAPTS

Institutions were empowered to identify initial partners and given flexibility to initially work with a limited group of schools

ARTSYS-RT allows for a “lights-out” process to send transcript information which calls for limited to no manpower in order for four-year institutions to participate.

Institutions must ARTSYS participate in order to use ARTSYS-RT

Some community colleges do not currently have the IT infrastructure to process transcript information outside of a manual method.

Promotional campaign has not yet been established to notify students to this opportunity.

• Sponsored by State Senators Pinksy, Madalenoand Currie

• Passed into law during Maryland’s 2013 Legislative Session

• “Kitchen Sink” Bill: Includes mandates for every level of student education.

Aspects of SB 740 that Directly Impact

Maryland’s Transfer Students:

Develop and implement a statewide transfer agreement whereby at least 60 credits of the AA or AS is transferable towards a bachelor’s degree.

Develop and implement a statewide reverse transfer agreement

Degree plan filed by transfer student with at least 45 credits during the first semester at the institution

Each public senior higher education shall dedicate a portion of institutional financial aid to provide financial assistance to resident undergraduate students that transfer with an associate’s degree from a community college in the state.

Review Maryland’s academic course articulation data system and academic course transferability (ARTSYS) to:

1.) Determine whether improvements to the transparency and user friendly functionality of ARTSYS can be can be conducted in a timely manner.

2.) Determine whether there is an alternative articulation data system available and if so, what would be the cost and schedule of implementation of the alternative system3.) Analyze any gaps and deficiencies in the articulation of academic course equivalencies amongst segments of higher education4.) Provide recommendations to establish a course articulation system that is transparent and user-friendly for students and administrators at institutions of higher education5.) Provide recommendations on how to maximize degree credit transferability in a cost and time efficient manner.

With so many mandates that are to be addressed by Maryland’s public segments of higher education, how was the top priority determined?

Due Dates.

ARTSYS portion had the earliest date for the submission of report – December 1, 2013.

MHEC Staff lead by the Acting Assist Secretary of Higher Education

Conducted surveys of other states will articulation systems.

MHEC Student Transfer Advisory Council

Conducted an analysis of gaps deficiencies and provided recommendations to MHEC’s Student Advisory Council.

Maryland Higher Education Commission/Student Transfer Advisory Council will recommend that the ARTSYS system remain as the articulation system for the state.

New system implementation would be cost-prohibitive

Manpower time needed to establish a new database of course evaluations would be daunting for individual institutions.

ARTSYS Enhancement Project was initially view as a two-part process

Part I: Aesthetics and Navigation Enhancements

Part II: Course Date Review and “Clean-Up”

Previous version of ARTSYS will run parallel with newer version until a significant of amount of the course data review work has been completed by participating institutions

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Communication

Institutional representatives need to have multiple opportunities to discuss implementation of these initiatives.

Measures of Effectiveness

There must be clear and realistic measures in order for policy stakeholders to best understand the effectiveness of an initiative

Thank you for your time!

Kori Smith

Associate Director of Articulation and Academic Services

University System of Maryland

3300 Metzerott Road

Adelphi, MD 20783-1690

ksmith@usmd.edu