1. Diversity Principles, Strategic Goals, and Accountability
The need for organizational learning
in promoting equity in OUS and EOU
Rosemary Powers
April 28, 2009

2. Overview Brief background on educational attainment in Oregon
First five slides from presentation to OUS Committee on Participation and Completion, Jan 30, 2009 by Bob Kiernan of OUS institutional research.
Diversity Principles and Goals
OUS commitment to increasing participation and completion of post-secondary education by under-represented students
EOU history and strategic goals
Accountability
Reflections on our current situation
An example of organizational learning
Recommendations

3. Educational Attainment: Race/Ethnicity
Highest Level of Educational Attainment in Oregon by Race/Ethnicity
Ages 25 and Older, 2007
Source: US Census, American Community Survey 2007 3
January 30th, 2009

4. The Changing K-12 Pipeline
Proportion of Oregon’s K-12 Population by Race/Ethnicity,
Select Grades,
Sources: NCES, Common Core of Data; US Census, 2007 American Community Survey 4
January 30th, 2009

5. Rural and Urban Counties as Defined by the Oregon Progress Board
Rural/Urban Counties
Rural and Urban Counties as Defined by the Oregon Progress Board
Polk
Yamhill
Lincoln
Columbia
Clatsop
Tillamook
Washington
Multnomah
Hood River
Klamath
Benton
Marion
Union
Umatilla
Gilliam
Sherman
Wasco
Curry
Clackamas
Coos
Crook
Deschutes
Douglas
Grant
Harney
Jackson
Jefferson
Josephine
Lake
Lane
Linn
Malheur
Morrow
Wallowa
Wheeler
Baker
Urban Counties
Rural Counties
Source: Oregon Progress Board 5
January 30th, 2009

6. Educational Attainment: Rural/Urban
Highest Level of Educational Attainment in Oregon by Rural/Urban County
Ages 25 and Older, 2007
Note: Due to Census geography boundaries, Columbia County is included in rural counties for this calculation.
Source: US Census, American Community Survey 2007 6
January 30th, 2009

7. OUS Six-Year Graduation Rates by Rural/Urban County
OUS Graduation Rates
OUS Six-Year Graduation Rates by Rural/Urban County
Ten Year Trend
60.7% Oregon
Resident OUS
Graduation Rate³
¹ Fall First-Time Freshman Cohort completing by June 1997 ² Fall First-Time Freshman Cohort completing by June 2002 ³ Fall First-Time Freshman Cohort completing by June 2007 Source: OUS Institutional Research 7
January 30th, 2009

8. OUS strategic priorities: March 2007
Lead a statewide effort to deliver a measurable increase in higher education participation and success for underserved populations throughout the state.
Facilitate student success and degree completion by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of k-20 learning processes.
(OUS March 2007, An Investment in Oregonians for our future)

9. State Board of Higher Education Student Participation and Completion Committee
Goal: Develop strategies to improve participation, retention, and success in postsecondary education of all Oregon students, with special focus on the needs of underserved populations throughout the state.

10. Committee actions in addressing goal
Developed “Taking Back Oregon’s Future” Student Success Policy Option Package—a $15.5M request to the legislature for improving student preparation, participation, retention
Convened expert panel on best practices for retention
Conducted outreach focus groups on barriers for underserved populations

11. Economic Downturn implications
Committee identified that deliberate, proven strategies must be supported to increase access and promote success for students not already attending post-secondary institutions
Major components of the Policy Option Package proposal were unable to be included in Governors Recommended Budget (GRB)

12. Key Goals Remain
Increase college participation rates for Hispanic/Latino, Native American populations.
Increase retention for African-American and Native American population
Increase college participation and retention for rural and first generation students
Pursue efforts to improve participation of other underserved groups such as LGBTQ, adult students, student parents, students with disabilities.

13. Priority # 1 for 2009 work
Support partnerships and collaboration with existing successful pre-college academic prep/outreach and retention programs, strategies that have demonstrated (i.e. evidence based) success with target populations.
Ensure that existing successful programs are fully enrolled and funds are connected to most needed groups.

14. Priority # 2 for 2009 work
Develop and advocate for best practices, alignment of current campus efforts toward underserved populations, and policy recommendations regarding participation and completion for underserved populations
--to the Board of Higher Education, campuses, as well as partner agencies.

15. Priority # 3 for 2009 Work
Improve faculty effectiveness with underserved populations’ retention and completion rates;
focus on improving campus learning and environment through professional development, collaboration for these resources.

16. State Board Diversity Principles Approved March 6, 2009
1. Overall commitment to diversity
2. Commitment to workforce enhancements
3. Commitment to equity in student success
4. Commitment to welcoming campus environment
5. Commitment to vendor and contracting enhancements
6. Commitment to continuous feedback
7. Commitment to key goals
Full Text and suggested actions to address goals distributed

17. Diversity principles directly related to committee priorities
Principle # 1. Overall Commitment to Diversity
Board values perspectives, educational benefits and robust exchanges of ideas…seeks to promote and support initiatives that sustain best practices in diversity efforts.
Board, Chancellor and campus presidents will
Identify opportunities and promote expectations for diverse representation, inclusion, and engagement throughout OUS programs and activities

18. #3 Commitment to equity in student success
Board is committed to providing
Equitable opportunities to succeed
Efforts to close achievement gaps among underserved populations
Campus presidents and OUS committees will
identify strategies and progress relating to student success among diverse populations

19. #4: Commitment to welcoming campus
Board values importance of campus environment in attracting, recruiting, and retaining diverse students, faculty, staff
Campus presidents will
Identify campus climate challenges and successes
Discuss measures taken to promote welcoming environment
Describe the possible impact of these measures on student success

20. Next Steps: Pursue 2009 priorities through:
Fall Symposium focused on best practices
Data Summit (sharing institutional research on student participation and completion)
Support Senate Bill 906 (creates task force on increasing the number of students in post-secondary education)
Seek methods to address longer-term challenges that require funding

21. What about EOU?

22. EOU institutional commitment to diversity and inclusion
Established Diversity Committee of the University Assembly (now reporting to University Council -- 6/02)
Proposed diversity requirement as part of general education or as institutional requirement (2003, 2006,2007)
Determined Strategic Goal related to diversity/globalization (May, 2007)

23. Diversity/Globalization EOU Strategic Goal 2007-2010
Support and sustain an educational community that respects racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, socioeconomic, physical, ideological and other differences.
Promote a climate of inclusion and equity through recruiting and retaining a diverse student body, faculty and staff.
Promote understanding of global diversities through internationalizing the educational experience.

24. Efforts to attract, recruit and retain members of underserved groups
Summer programs
Work with high schools
Diversity scholarships
First-year experience
Outreach to rural communities
Rural Initiative grant support Native American recruiter/advisor
Multicultural Center
Other initiatives

25. Diversity Requirement
Several proposals for a diversity requirement exist, but could not find any official statement that EOU had approved having a requirement.
We did report to OUS that:
“…a diversity requirement will soon be added to the curriculum…” May 2008 Performance Report OUS Report to the Oregon State Board of Higher Education (p. 50).
“Eastern has adopted a new General Education initiative that contains a diversity requirement” (Diversity Panel Discussion, State Board 9/08).
While there seems to be agreement on some kind of diversity requirement, we are still debating what form this should take.

26. Where are we now?
OUS -- principles and committee work, proposals for legislative action, data gathering, summit planning. Direct accountability measures are being developed.
EOU – diversity requirement is still being debated. Accountability measures for moving towards strategic diversity goal need to be developed.

27. A provocative claim
As an historically white university, part of an historically white system of colleges and universities, participating in an academic culture based on white Western European models of learning and success, we will be unsuccessful in reaching our goals regarding diversity and inclusion without significant organizational learning.

28. Accountability: measurable commitment to equity
“Celebrating ethnic and racial diversity on our campuses is laudable, but is not the same as achieving equity. We must deliberately and energetically remove the conditions that deny or impede equitable outcomes for all students”
(Estela Mara Bensimon,2004, p. 46).

29. What will it take to fulfill our commitments?

30. An example The Diversity Scorecard
A learning approach to institutional change

31. Promoting organizational learning to achieve equity in educational outcomes
…”Evidence, [i.e. factual data] about inequities in educational outcomes [access, enrollments, retention, excellence, graduation]…can have a powerful effect upon faculty members, administrators, counselors, and others and their motivation to solve them.”
Estela Mara Bensimon

32. Traditional approach to addressing needs of under-served students: Deficit model
Low participation, retention, achievement of under-served students often attributed to pre-college characteristics—attitudes, behaviors, lack of cultural capital
Responsibility for learning placed primarily on the student

33. The equity model: organizational learning for student success
Institutional actors (faculty, staff, administrators) become responsible for the learning needed to improve educational outcomes for these students
Attitudes, behaviors, lack of data, lack of structural analysis by institutional agents account for significant inequity in outcomes.

34. What conditions promote organizational learning?
The presence of new ideas
The cultivation of doubt in existing knowledge and practices
The development and transfer of knowledge among institutional actors

36. Access Indicators
In what programs and majors are under-served students enrolled?
What access do these students have to financial support?
What access do they have to graduate and professional schools?

37. Retention indicators
What are the comparative retention rates for under-served students by program?
Do these students disproportionately withdraw from certain programs?
How successful are these students in completing basic skills courses?

38. Institutional receptivity indicators
How well is our university serving the needs of students of color?
Do educational outcomes for these students reveal an equity gap?
Are the experiences of students of color acknowledged in the curricula and the co-curricula ? In what ways?
Does the composition of the faculty enhance diversity, and correspond to the racial and ethnic composition of the student body?
Does the institution hold itself accountable for the success of students of color?

39. Excellence Indicators
Access:
Which majors or courses function as “gatekeepers” for some students and “gateways” for others?
Are students of color concentrated in certain majors? Why might this be?
Achievement:
What are the comparative completion rates in competitive programs?
What is the pool of high-achieving under-served students eligible for graduate study?

40. Recommendations:
Initiate a process of organizational learning regarding diversity and equitable outcomes. To do this, we need
to introduce ourselves to new ideas
to question existing knowledge and practices
to develop and transfer knowledge among ourselves as institutional actors

41. Suggested steps:
initiate structured conversation and process regarding organizational learning and equitable outcomes;
encourage participation in the OUS fall symposium focused on best practices for promoting access and success for under-served students;
promote creation of diversity action plans for all university units;
make approval of specific diversity requirement a priority.

42. Hold ourselves accountable