Strengthening Your Campus’ Culture of Completion: Stories, Strategies and Tools from

Project Finish Line

Washington Student Services Commission Pre Conference SessionApril 27, 2017

Green River College North Seattle College Seattle Central College South Seattle CollegeSonia Servantes Aimee Brown

Alice MellingAriana Cantu

Bo LeongWilliam Spence

Becca AbelesErin BarzenJulius LloydMegan Nord

Private Consultant

Puget Sound Educational

Service DistrictWalla Walla

Community CollegeMaureen Pettitt Hilary Loeb Kristi Wellington-

Baker

Pre Conference Agenda• Introductions• Project Finish Line overview• Collaboration Exercise• Creating an Equity Praxis for Completion• Rotating small group discussions and debrief• Communications Tool• Questions and Answers, Closure and Evaluation

Introductions• Three rounds—three minutes each

1. What is your name?2. Where do you work?3. How do you support student completion?4. What do you hope to learn this afternoon?

Data Sources: WA OSPI student level database, WA SBCTC data warehouseAll data provided to CCER by WA ERDC

Project Finish Line Overview

Data Sources: WA OSPI student level database, WA SBCTC data warehouseAll data provided to CCER by WA ERDC

Completing a Degree or Transferring to a 4-Year College within Three Years

Completion Coaches at Seattle Colleges and Green River

Community College

• Walla Walla Community College award winning model• Reengagement of “potential completers”• Changes to infrastructure, policies and practices

• Gates Foundation funding for one coach/campus with college match

• Goal of return on investment=69 FTE students/Completion Coach

Completion Coaches at Seattle Colleges and Green

River CollegeResults Year Two

8,016

3,809

2,193

-

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

Students Identified forCompletion Coaching

Students Responding toCompletion Outreach Efforts

Students Agreeing to Workwith Completion Coaches

Completion Coaches at Seattle Colleges and Green

River CollegeResults Year Two

230 91

1,009

1,330

1,147

-

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

Completes aShort TermCertificate

Completes aCertificate (not

short-term)

Earns a Two-Yearor a BA Degree

Total CredentialsCompleted

Total UniqueStudent

Completions

Puget Sound Coalition Learning

Community

• Expert counsel in adult learning design• Co-designed by college representatives• Topics: Racial Equity, Student Self-Efficacy, Measuring

Effectiveness, Scaling and Sustainability• Stipends for groups of represented personnel at all Coalition

Colleges

• Collaboration with Dr. Rob Johnstone of National Center for Inquiry & Improvement

• External evaluation led by Professor Bob Hughes• Changes in infrastructure, policies, practices aimed at

supporting completion

Data Sources: WA OSPI student level database, WA SBCTC data warehouseAll data provided to CCER by WA ERDC

Creating an Equity Praxis for Completion

Collaboration Exercise• Please divide yourselves into eight groups• Sharing our experience

Data Sources: WA OSPI student level database, WA SBCTC data warehouseAll data provided to CCER by WA ERDC

Small Group Discussions

Completion

Completion Coaching

101

Getting started in building a

completion culture

Supporting students encountering

financial barriers

Engaging with campus and

community partners

Small Group DiscussionGetting started in building a completion culture: Erin Barzen, South Seattle College, Naina Eshwar, Seattle Central College, Alice Melling, North Seattle College, Maureen Pettitt, Independent Consultant

Supporting students encountering financial barriers: Bo Leong, Seattle Central College, Julius Lloyd, South Seattle College, William Spence, Seattle Central College

Engaging with campus and community partners: Aimee Brown, North Seattle College, Sonia Servantes, Green River College

Completion Coaching 101: Becca Abeles, South Seattle College, Megan Nord, South Seattle College

Small Group Discussion: Logistics• We will participate in three 15-minute discussions of four

topics– Begin with introductions– Each topic will have handouts in your packet

• Questions to keep in mind for debrief– What have you learned that you can implement on

your campus or organization?– What are some concrete steps that you can take to

support postsecondary completion efforts?

Small Group Discussion: Debrief• What have you learned that you can implement on your

campus or organization?• What are some concrete steps that you can take to

support postsecondary completion efforts?

Data Sources: WA OSPI student level database, WA SBCTC data warehouseAll data provided to CCER by WA ERDC

Communications and Outreach Planning

Why Plan for Communications and Outreach?• Engaging stakeholders is critical for student success• Different audiences have varied needs• Just in time information can make a difference in

students’ lives

Why Plan for Communications and Outreach?• Strong communication can…

• Shift consciousness to change culture: Colleges need to be student ready rather than students need to be college ready

• Early program adopters can nurture partnership

• Critical communications resources:• Compelling completion stories• Clear completion data

Communications and Outreach Planning for Student Completion

Audience AssumptionsWhat do we know about

them?

ResearchWhat else do we need to

know?

Key MessagesWhat need will this fill for

them?

StrategiesHow will we reach them?

Students • Priorities: achieve academic goals, contribute to family, take care of finances

• Needs: help navigating systems, access to resources, sense of success

• Info: email, website, phone, in-person

• Who: Info Desk, Financial Aid, advisors, counselors peers, student leaders

• How best to reach students-limited success with email.

• What unexpressed needs do we not know about? Any use for focus groups?

• Need to know which systems-level barriers are most frequent and/or most challenging

• You are so close and we’re here to help you get over the last hurdles. You can do it & it’s worth it.

• We’re here for you just as much at the end of your college experience as we were at the beginning.

• There’s a resource for that.

• Having a degree will make a tangible difference in your life.

• Be visible on campus – staff at events & in classrooms, signage, and online presence

• Referrals from staff & faculty

• ID programs, classes, and student meetings/events to target

• Use social media• Create systems to

anticipate & thus mitigate barriers for students

Individual or Small Group Exercise• Complete the Communications and Outreach Planning for

Student Completion Tool individually or with a member of your campus or organization team

• Large group debrief• What opportunities does this spark for future work?• What questions does this exercise raise?

Closing Thoughts• Completion is a system-

level endeavor• Student services• Institutional research• Financial aid• Technology

• Key Project Finish Line supports• Executive sponsorship• Communication and

celebration of early easy wins

• Collaboration across teams on five campuses

A shared commitment to exploring and addressing issues of equity helped us support students’ individual needs.

Resources• Road Map Project Community and Technical College Report

http://www.roadmapproject.org/data-center/reports/• Project Finish Line Website

https://coalition.psesd.org/project-finish-line/• AACC Completion College Fact Sheet

http://www.aacc.nche.edu/About/completionchallenge/Documents/Completion-Fact_Sheet.pdf

Resources• Puget Sound ESD Race Equity Materials and Toolkit:

https://www.psesd.org/services/equity-in-education/• Bailey, Thomas R., Shanna Smith Jaggars, and Davis

Jenkins. Redesigning America's Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015.

• Please contact Ury Salinas to be added to the Puget Sound College and Career Network Newsletter mailing list: usalinas@psesd.org