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Review of National Best Practices: Redesigning
Community Colleges For Completion
Jim JacobsMacomb Community College
Colorado Community College SummitOctober 24, 2011
Part One
Why Is This Important: The National Context
The Community College Paradox
Never before have community colleges enjoyed such an important role as major institutions in American post-secondary education
Never before have community colleges been called up to deal with major American problems of competitiveness and economic security
Never before have community colleges been held accountable to the success of students who are often the hardest to serve
White House SummitOctober 5, 2010
Specific recognition of community colleges as important national institutions
Indicates the importance of community colleges in many parts of American society
Reflects the increasing role of foundations and private support of community colleges in advocating change
Reaffirms the mission of the community college as important to national economic future
Community Colleges Have New Supporters
Community colleges are viewed as fundamental to the solution of major problems of America
Increasing federal initiatives to promote the community college
Foundations are interested in supporting student success initiatives
Foundations Provide Leadership
Foundations are interested in supporting student success initiatives
Current Foundation initiatives to support community colleges student success: Achieving the Dream
Breaking Through
Complete College America
Completion by Design
Getting Past Go
Shifting Gears
What is Achieving the Dream?
Multi-year national initiative More than 100 institutions, in 22 states, serving 1 million
students
Goal: Incremental improvement within, not compared to other institutions
Active involvement of faculty, staff and administrators as well as others within college community
Focus: Institution-wide commitment to student success Special focus on students of color and low-income students Success = 5 specific goals
Achieving the Dream Goals
Successful completion of remedial developmental instruction and advance to credit–bearing courses
Successful completion of initial college-level courses in subjects such as English and Math
Complete courses taken with a C or better
Term-to-term persistence
Completion of a certificate or associate’s degree
Breaking Through Initiative
Multi-year national initiative 32 colleges in 18 states
Two State-level networks of colleges Michigan - connects dislocated workers to postsecondary
education North Carolina - connects out-of-school youth to GED’s and
college
Goal: Strengthen the efforts of Community Colleges in helping low-literacy adults prepare for and succeed in occupational and technical degree programs
Focus: Concentrate on strategies that create more effective pathways through pre-college and degree-level programs
The Breaking Through Model
Four main strategies:
Reorganize and Realign Colleges
Accelerate Learning
Assure an Economic Payoff
Provide Comprehensive Support
Part II
Redesigning For Completion: What Have We Learned?
Various Student Success Strategies
Placement testing Developmental acceleration Contextualization & innovative math pedagogy Non-academic support Program and instructional structure Online learning Organizational improvement (establishment in
programs of study)
An overarching theme
When evaluated, these reforms generally have positive but modest effects: Difficult to bring to scale Not large enough to effect institutional performance
To substantially improve: developmental education online & face-to-face pedagogy support provision
. . . the whole institution needs to be engaged and focused on improving student outcomes
Completion By Design Areas of Opportunity
#1: Complexity & Structure #2: Faculty Engagement #3: Academic Alignment & Assessment #4: Continuous Improvement
Complexity & Structure
People make bad choices in unduly complex environments
College can seem complex and confusing to students, due to: A bewildering array of options Unnecessary bureaucracy
Many students fail to get established in a program and are confused about requirements and prerequisites
Complexity & Structure
Recommendation: Simplify the structures and bureaucracies that students must navigate
Align developmental material, placement tests, & college-level curriculum
Streamline & contextualize developmental education with student’s program of choice (requires program-choice advisement)
Allow fast-track options
Faculty Engagement
Substantial organizational improvement requires strong employee involvement
In community colleges, student success goals can be hampered by: lack of faculty/staff engagement large part-time workforce organizational silos
Faculty Engagement
Organizations with strong employee involvement in reform: Ensure employees have deep understanding of goals
and methods of reform Empower employees as part of reform Encourage staff to work in cross-functional teams Create challenging yet meaningful goals Present evidence of successes
Alignment and Assessment
In K-12, schools effective with disadvantaged students have “instructional program coherence:” Well-coordinated, “rationalized” curriculum Common instructional framework Clearly defined learning outcomes Integrated assessments & academic supports
Colleges do not put strong emphasis on these
Academic Alignment and Assessment
Recommendation: Faculty work together to craft learning outcomes. Process would: Help faculty from different disciplines communicate
and align expectations for reading, writing & math Help part-time instructors understand course goals Help students understand program goals &
requirements Help clarify college readiness standards
Continuous Improvement
Practices of high-performance organizations: Strong leadership
Customer focus
Functional alignment
Process improvement
Use of measurement for improvement
Employee involvement
Training and professional development
External linkages
Continuous Improvement
Recommendations: Involve faculty & mid-level administrators in
measuring outcomes, setting goals, identifying gaps, and making changes
To support process, re-think committee structures, professional development strategies, and incentives
Empower Faculty and Staff to Design/Implement Innovations at Scale
CONNECTIONFrom interest to enrollment
ENTRYFrom enrollment to entry into
program of study
PROGRESSFrom program entry to 75% of
program requirements completed
COMPLETIONFrom program completion to credential of value for further education and (for CTE) labor
market advancement
College readiness prep for hs students
Early testingStrategic dual enrollment“Bridges” from ABE to collegeRecruitment materials with
program streams clearly mapped out
Program offerings / requirements clearly mapped out
Consistent messages to new students
Prescribed course sequence with required 3-credit college success course
Dev ed contextualized to program streams
Course learning outcomes/assessments tied to program outcomes
Students required to declare major
Students required to keep up-to-date program completion plan
Revamped program review process to ensure that programs prepare for further education and career advancement
Transfer agreements with universities that ensure junior standing
Regular review of program learning outcomes by employers
Survey of recent grads for suggestion of way to improve programs
Continuous Improvement
What is the capability of the college to answer these questions?
To what extent do faculty and administrators use data and information to guide their activities?
What is the strategy for professional development and what goals or principles guide that strategy?
Can you tell if efforts or reforms have been successful?
Conclusion
A completion agenda is more than process—content and goals, such as obtaining careers, matter
It does take effort and organizational resources on an institutional scale
Leadership and vision must guide the efforts
Questions