1. Achieving the Dream Student Success and Completion
Board of Trustees Work Session
January 11, 2012
Trish

2. Trish

3. What is Achieving the Dream?
Overview and purpose
Who is involved?
Timeline of major AtD events
How have other colleges benefitted from AtD?
Developing a “culture of evidence”
Link between AtD, GISS, and Accreditation
Current list of data for AtD
Examination of data
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4. Achieving the Dream helps more community college students succeed, particularly low-income students and students of color.
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5. What is Achieving the Dream?
In 2004, ATD was conceived by the Lumina Foundation as a national initiative.
ATD is…
closing achievement gaps
accelerating student success nationwide
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6. Why is ATD a national student success initiative?
Fewer than half of all students who enter community college with the goal of earning a degree or certificate have met their goal six years later.
The U.S. has fallen to…
“average” in international education rankings
14th for reading skills,
17th for science, and
25th for mathematics.
*The rankings are from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2010 report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)
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7. Achieving the Dream is evidence-based, student centered, and built on the values of equity and excellence.
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8. Achieving the Dream
Whatcom Community College is among 160 community colleges throughout 30 states
ATD is helping 3.5 million community college students have a better chance of
realizing greater economic opportunity
achieving their dreams
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9. What does ATD provide? ATD Coach and Data Coach $50,000/year to…
2-3 campus visits each year
$50,000/year to…
engage faculty and staff
expand IR capacity, and
implement strategies
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10. What does ATD require? Strong commitment from College leaders
Broad engagement of faculty and staff to
analyze student data
identify achievement gaps
Input from students to gain insight
Review of national research and promising practices
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11. Achieving the Dream video
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12. Who is involved with AtD at WCC?
All faculty and staff who teach and support degree-seeking students
ATD Core Team
ATD Data Team: Student Success and Achievement Committee
Required
President, VPs for instruction and student services, institutional researcher, 1-3 faculty
Occasionally
public information, information technology staff
Ron

13. Timeline of major AtD events
Date
Event
Location
June 2011
Kickoff event
Seattle
Sept. 2011
Opening week kickoff
WCC
Nov. 2011
Meeting of Washington AtD colleges & Best Practices Workshop
Feb. 21, 2012
Professional Development Day
February 28- March 2, 2012
AtD Strategy Institute
Dallas, TX
4 per year
Coaches visits
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14. Planning year timeline (2012)
Date
Task
January
Identify achievement gaps and potential obstacles
February
Prioritize 3-4 problem areas based upon data
February-April
Review promising practices
May
Submit a 4-year implementation plan
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15. ATD has driven student success to the top of the community college change agenda.
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16. How have other colleges benefited from AtD?
Increased IR capacity and support
Redefined assumptions about gatekeeper courses (i.e., which courses are actually the gatekeepers?)
Broader institutional perspective in departments
Heidi/Bob

17. How have other colleges benefited from AtD? (continued)
Data is used to increase student success, not to evaluate faculty
Improvements in accessibility, frequency, and user-friendliness of data
More accurate targeting of achievement gaps and the impact of interventions (through disaggregating data)
Heidi/Bob

18. What have other ATD colleges learned?
Student success increases with the 3 Rs:
Rigor in courses (high expectations and aspirations)
Relationships (connections)
Relevance (active, engaged learning related to students’ lives)
Heidi and Bob

19. What have other ATD colleges learned? (continued)
Students don’t do optional!
Consider mandatory . . .
Students need to be ready to succeed in college.
Consider eliminating late registration. . .
Heidi and Bob
Consider mandatory See guidebook
Consider eliminating late registration, appropriate placement, first year experience . . .

20. Whatcom…
What will our data tell us? What will we discover about our students?
Heidi/Bob

21. Developing a
“Culture of Evidence” Ed

22. Evidence-based planning & decisions
Institutional Effectiveness
Achieving the Dream
GISS
Student Achievement Initiative
College-wide
Data analysis
Promising practices
Student
Success
& Completion
Evidence-based planning & decisions
Accreditation
Strategic Plan Ed
Core themes
Assessment
Learning outcomes
Programs & services review
Strategic direction
Budget decisions
Annual goals & work plans

23. A comparison of ATD, SAI, and GISS
Achieving the Dream (ATD )
Student Achievement Initiative (SAI)
Governance Institute for Student Success (GISS )
Overseen by
National Achieving the Dream (non-profit organization)
State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC)
Association of Comm. College Trustees and the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin
Consists of
160 colleges in 30 states
34 WA State CTCs
4 states and all their CTCs
Focus
Increasing success in college for non-traditional students
Quantifying success and linking it to funding
Providing common success measures for conversations about policy
Cohort
Transfer and workforce students entering each fall
All students for the entire academic year
All students entering fall divided into Basic Skills, Transfer and Workforce cohorts
Funding
College Spark
($250,000 over five years)
SBCTC
College skim to operating budget
Based on points earned over previous year
No funding at the present time AM
We have 3 initiatives: ATD, SAI, and GISS … all the acronyms can get confusing.
We will take a minute to look at the focus and cohorts for each of these initiatives.
The focus of ATD is on …….. For example, we might look at students by age groups, sex, SES, ethnicity, and so on. ATD cohort includes transfer and workforce students entering each fall quarter.
The focus of the SAI is to …… The cohorts include all …… It is a count of points, does not look at percent success.
The focus of GISS is to …. Divided into 3 cohorts: BS, T, and Workforce.

24. longitudinal, cohort data intermediate steps
Similarities: Student Achievement Initiative (SAI), Governance Institute for Student Success (GISS), and Achieving the Dream (AtD)
longitudinal, cohort data
intermediate steps
building towards college level skills (basic skills gains, passing precollege writing or math)
retaining the first year (earning 15 and 30 college level credits)
completing a college level math course
completing degrees and certificates AM

25. metrics (standardized, but slightly different)
Differences: Student Achievement Initiative (SAI), Governance Institute for Student Success (GISS), and Achieving the Dream (AtD)
cohorts
metrics (standardized, but slightly different)
WCC…
develop useful and relevant data
link to accreditation AM
Cohorts may be different.
Use standardized, but slightly different metrics.
We are also developing data based on what is most useful and relevant to us.
Important link to accreditation—support R#3.

26. Current List of Data Disaggregated course completion rates
overall college / pre-college level courses
high enrollment / low success courses
pre-college math and English courses
Math and English progression
% of students successfully transitioning from pre- college level placement to college level courses Ed

27. Current List of Data (continued)
Graduation and retention rates
Effectiveness of placement testing
Timing of first math course taken
Success rates in courses with no prerequisites
Academic Alert Ed

28. Disaggregated Course Completion Rates College Level Courses (2010-11)AM
This graph depicts our overall CCR for all college level courses in
Avg CCR was 79%.
Completion includes only A to C and S grades.
"n" represents the number of enrollments.
We have disaggregated the data by different variables.
What observations do you have about our CCR by sex?

29. Disaggregated Course Completion Rates College Level Courses (2010-11)AM
The first 3 sets of columns are identical to the previous slide.
You have a hand-out with a couple of the graphs we are showing today with an explanation sheet on top for understanding the dCCR data.
We are disaggregating CCR by many variables and looking at many courses and sequences of courses on campus.

30. English Course Progression: Completion Rates Based on Initial Placement (2006–08)

31. Math Course Progression: Completion Rates Based on Initial Placement (2006–08)

32. What are we doing with this information?
Examination of data: by faculty and data team
Focus groups: ask students about experiences
Fishbone groups: ask faculty/staff about root causes of gaps and issues
Determine 3-4 most important achievement gaps
Develop strategies to implement based on consultation with faculty, staff, and research
Identify useful accreditation indicators Ed

33. Academic Alert at WCC
Students are placed on academic alert for one of two reasons:
Quarterly GPA falls below 2.0
Completed less than 50% of credits attempted
300 – 600 students are placed on academic alert each quarter.
Trish

34. Number of Students on Academic Alert at WCC per Year
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Note: Data for is based on projections from

35. Of all the students who attended WCC between fall 2005 and spring 2009, what percentage were placed on academic alert? 9%
27%
43%
65%
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36. Of all the students who attended WCC between fall 2005 and spring 2009, what percentage were placed on academic alert? 9%
27%
43%
65%

37. working part-time on campus working part-time off campus
Of all the students placed on academic alert more than half (53%) were…
working full-time
not employed
working part-time on campus
working part-time off campus
Get numbers for other items from Kim

38. working part-time on campus working part-time off campus
Of all the students placed on academic alert more than half (53%) were…
working full-time
not employed
working part-time on campus
working part-time off campus
Get numbers for other items from Kim

39. professional-technical / job-related high school diploma or GED
67% of students placed on academic alert reported their purpose for attending WCC as…
personal enrichment
professional-technical / job-related
high school diploma or GED
transfer to a 4-year college
Trish

40. 67% of students placed on academic alert reported their purpose for attending WCC as…
personal enrichment
professional-technical / job-related
high school diploma or GED
transfer to a 4-year college

41. Continuous improvement
1. Generate and analyze data
2. Identify which student groups are not doing as well as others
3. Determine why the group(s) are not doing as well (e.g., with focus groups)
4. Determine the interventions that will be implemented
5. Implement strategies
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42. ATD has infused evidence- based decision-making into strategic planning, program review, and budgeting.
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43. Questions?
Trish

44. English Course Progression: Completion Rates Based on Initial Placement (2006 - 2008)

45. Direct indicators (learning outcomes)
Accreditation Recommendations
Services Review
Recommendation #1
Type of data
College
Program
Course
Direct indicators (learning outcomes)
Core learning abilities
Program outcomes
Course outcomes
Indirect indicators (surveys)
CCSSE
Employer surveys
Course evaluation
Institutional data (numbers and rates)
Achieving the Dream
Graduation & retention rates
Course completion rates
Recommendation #2 Am
This is a good summary diagram of how the 3 R’s relate to one another and the assessment work. As you can see, R#1 overlaps with Rs #2 and 3.
Recommendation #3