Postsecondary Student Success Guidebook

7/25/2019 Postsecondary Student Success Guidebook

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Supporting PostsecondaryStudent Success

Strong support systems are necessary to help students complete their postsecondary programs, and these supportsmust come from both inside and outside the classroom. As communities work together to ensure that all studentssucceed in college, they must prioritize creating a completion culture with a sense of shared responsibility amongdifferent community stakeholders and they must target supports to underserved student populations to eliminateequity gaps in student retention and success.

Academic supports , such as advising and tutoring, can help students remediate needs and ensure that they

will succeed in subsequent coursework instead of stopping out. Career supports , such as career counseling,mentoring, and work experience, can help articulate how coursework translates into high-quality employment aftergraduation. Personal supports , such as learning communities and comprehensive rst-year experiences, canensure that underserved students feel a sense of belonging as they adjust to an unfamiliar campus culture. Andnancial supports should not be limited to nancial aid counseling but include supports for housing, transportation,legal services, and other holistic needs that realistically determine how affordable college is for low-income students.

But cross-sector partnerships that aim to improve rates of persistence and completion, particularly amongunderserved students, can be difcult to manage and maintain unless communities have clear guidance, objectives,and strategies. Community partners must work together to assess what kinds of programming and initiativeswork best for the various student populations within their communities. In an effort to support community-basedcollaborations on postsecondary student successeducation, business, policy, and nonprot and community

organizationsthe Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) has developed this tactical guidebook with supportfrom Lumina Foundation. The guidebook explains how some communities within the Community Partnership for Attainment (CPA) network use cross-sector partnerships effectively to improve student outcomes.

We hope you will use this guidebook to learn more about different practices and tools communities are using toimprove academic system alignment and support college readiness for all students, and to learn how you canadopt these practices and tools in your own communities. Our guidebooks opening infographic outlines differenttypes of supports that community actors can provide to students to help them along their path to completion.Each subsequent chapter takes a deep dive into these distinct academic and nonacademic supports and includesinterviews* with community leaders about their community partnership strategies and practices; tactical tools(such as online coaching platforms , sample strategic plans , pathway design recommendations , rst-yearexperience seminar workbooks , and career supports brochures ) that could help your community adopt these

practices; and additional resources that provide more information for you to examine at your leisure. Finally, weintroduce Beyond Financial Aid, a guidebook produced by Lumina Foundation that addresses college affordabilityand features an institutional self-assessment that can help campuses assess existing efforts and identify strategiesto build their capacity to strengthen students nancial stability.

* Please note that all interviews are summaries of conversations and not verbatim records.

The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) is a nonpartisan, nonprot organization committed to promoting access to and successin higher education for all students. Based in Washington, D.C., IHEP develops innovative policy- and practice-oriented research to guidepolicymakers and education leaders, who develop high-impact policies that will address our nations most pressing education challenges.

A TACTICAL GUIDEBOOK February 2016

Authors: Bob Coffey, Ph.D., and Julie Ajinkya, Ph.D.

Supported by Lumina Foundation


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BUILDING COLOR KEY

Financial Supports Academic Supports Personal Supports Career Supports

S u c c e s s S t r e e t

P e

r s

i s t e n c e

D r i v e

ParkingLot A

ParkingLot B

ParkingLot C

ParkingLot D

C o m m u n i t y P a r t n e r s h ip B o u le v a r d

8 9 10 11 12

5 6 4

17 18

3

1

2

24

13

14 15

16

20

21 22

23

19

1

2

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Financial Aid Office

BUILDING

NUMBER

SERVICE

PROVIDER

STUDENT

SUPPORTS

Financial AidCounselingand Literacy

Community-BasedOrganizations

Financial AidCounseling and Literacy

Parental Engagement

Math and EnglishDepartments

Remedial Advising andTutors

Online and TechnologyServices

Technology Supports

Writing Center Writing Tutors

Math Center Math Tutors

Student Affairs Office First Year Experience Family Engagement

Academic AdvisingOffice

Early Warning Systems Intrusive Advising

11 Registrar Flexible Scheduling Transfer Advising

12

Residence Halls First Year Experience

13

1415

16

17

18

19

BUILDING

NUMBER

SERVICE

PROVIDER STUDENT

SUPPORTS

Career Center Career Counseling

Executive Office Articulation Agreements

High Schools Remedial Advising andTutors

Diversity Office LearningCommunities/Cohorts

First Year Experience Office For Military

Students Support for Military

Students

Counseling Center Personal Counseling

20 Childcare Center Childcare21 Faculty Offices Mentoring

23 Institutional ResearchOffices

Early Warning Systems

24 English Language

Learning Center Language Supports

BusinessCommunity

Flexible Scheduling Work Experience Mentoring

Testing Office

Prior Learning Assessments

3 Academic

Departments Degree Mapping Advising

22 StudentOrganizations

Mentoring


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Chapter One:How can community partners provide

ACADEMIC SUPPORTS that improveunderserved student retention andcompletion rates?

Interview: Learn how community leadersin Boston, Massachusetts, work togetherto provide navigational coaching toBostons students in order to improvetheir postsecondary completion rates.

Tool: Learn about an online platformthat helps provide data-driven insights tocreate differentiated coaching plans andhelp improve student outcomes.

Additional Resources

Chapter Two:How can community partners ensure

that college success includes CAREERSUPPORTS, particularly for disconnected students?

Interview: Learn how community leadersin Durham, North Carolina, assess theneeds of disconnected students anddesign intervention strategies that improvetheir college and career prospects.

Tool: Learn about program designrecommendations for the development ofeducation-to-career pathways, includinggoals, outcomes, structure, strategies,and prospective partners.


Chapter Three:How can community partners design

PERSONAL SUPPORTS that ensureunderserved students adjust well tocollege and are more likely to succeed?

Interview: Learn how institutionalleaders in Cleveland, Ohio, workedacross campus divisions to develop acomprehensive First-Year Experienceto improve student success rates forunderserved student populations.

Tool: Learn how a First-Year Seminarworkbook helps students learn importantskills such as time management, test-taking and study skills, career exploration,wellness, and money management.


Chapter Four:How can communities provide holisticfinancial support for low-income students?

Resource/Tool Prole: Learn howthe Beyond Financial Aid guidebookhelps campuses assess existing effortsand identify strategies to build theircapacity in order to strengthen studentsnancial stability.


Table of Contents


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Efforts to widen postsecondary participation in urbancommunities necessarily start well before senior year. It takes avillageor a citypulling together to raise and sustain studentaspirations for college. Robust partnerships involving collegesand universities, school districts, government, foundations,nonprot organizations, and businesses can be importantcatalysts for change.

Moving the needle on postsecondary completion requiresintervention at every stage of the college process. School

districts, colleges, and nonprots can partner early on to ensurestudents prepare for the application process and are familiar withplacement tests. Nonprot organizations can invest in providingstudents with coaching and support before, during, and after thecollege search. Students benet when this coaching continuesinto college in support of a successful transition to campus life.The business community can play a part by helping studentsnd their way to internship opportunities during college andto employment after graduation. Below are a few examples ofintervention strategies that campuscommunity partnershipscan use to support student college readiness, persistence,completion, and, ultimately, the transition into the world of work.

College Readiness Programs: Does your community want to

invest in programs and events that help prepare students for the application process, placement tests, and college-level work? These programs can familiarize students with postsecondaryoptions, help them apply, and reinforce the norms of a college-going culture. Local colleges and universities as well as nonprotorganizations with a focus on college access can be importantpartners for school districts at this stage.

Navigational Coaching: Does your community want to provide students with one-on-one coaching and suppor t as they navigatethe college-to-career pathway? Nonprot organizations canpartner with school districts and other community organizationsto provide coaching aimed at college-bound students.Navigational coaches can partner with host institutions to

connect students with resources, help them with careerexploration, and help them stay on track to graduate. Employerscan invest in career coaching programs that help studentsdevelop resumes, prepare for interviews, and secure interviewsand job-shadowing opportunities. Nonprots with roots in thecommunity can often provide holistic support for students fromunderserved populations.

Learn While You Earn: Does your community want to identify and develop opportunit ies for students to work in paid internship

positions while earning college credit? Credit-bearing internshipsallow students to explore a potential career path and continueprogress toward graduation while earning money to supportthemselves. With paid internships, work doesnt distract studentsfrom focusing on their academics; rather, it can help sharpen andrene that focus.

This chapter features an interview with the vice provost foracademic support services and undergraduate studies at theUniversity of Massachusetts Boston. She explains how theSuccess Boston partnership came together in response to a lowpostsecondary completion rate for Boston Public Schools (BPS)graduates. This chapter also includes several resources thatthis partnership used to organize its work, set goals, and deploy

resources. These resources include a set of plans drawn up bythe coalition and by individual campuses to positively affectcompletion by BPS students and an annotated bibliography onwidening participation by underserved students .

This chapter ends with a list of additional resources you canuse to nd more information about designing programming topromote rst-year student success.

Chapter One:

How can community partners

provide academic supportsthat improve underservedstudent retention andcompletion rates?


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Success Boston , Boston, Massachusetts: WideningCollege Participation Among Boston Public SchoolsStudents

Dr. Joan Becker, Vice Provost for Academic Support Services and Undergraduate Studies, University

of Massachusetts Boston ; Strategy Group Member, Success Boston

IHEP spoke with Dr. Joan Becker from the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB) to learn aboutthe coalition of higher education institutions, community organizations, and foundations that built theSuccess Boston initiative. Becker describes how this initiative developed, outlines its four primarycomponents, and provides evidence for the programs effectiveness in improving the completion ratefor Boston Public Schools (BPS) students. The interview provides an example of synergy betweenhigher education, government, foundation, and nonprot partners, and describes an interventionstrategy that is making signicant inroads in improving outcomes for urban high school students.

IHEP: What is the Success Boston partnership, and how andwhy did it develop?

Success Boston is a citywide college completion initiative. TheBoston Foundation, BPS, the City of Boston, nearly 40 collegesand universities, and several nonprot organizations are workingtogether to double the college completion rate for BPS students.

We have a long and deep history in Boston of collaborationbetween the higher education sector, the business community,and the K-12 system, beginning with the Boston Compact,which was in signed in 1982. In place for over 20 years, the

Compact rst took shape during the desegregation era. Duringthat time, many local colleges stepped up to the plate to workwith the K-12 system, not only to ease the transition related todesegregation, but also to help improve the outcomes for BPSstudents. We had formal agreements in which BPS committedto improve students preparation, the colleges agreed to admitmore BPS students and put more scholarship money on thetable, and the business committee committed to hiring moreBPS students. All along, our focus was on graduating more kidsfrom high school, getting more kids enrolled in college, andgetting more students hired into jobs.

In 2009, Northeastern Universitys Center for Labor MarketStudies released a report that said were doing a fabulous jobof getting students into college, but theyre not completing.This was no surprise to me, nor to others who had been doingcollege access work. Its great to get students into college, butif they dont nish, what have we really done? Tom MeninoBostons mayor at the timecared deeply about education andwanted to do something to improve retention. He held a pressconference at which the Success Boston initiative was launched,with a commitment of $5 million over ve years from the BostonFoundation.

Success Boston has four components Getting Ready is ledby BPS and involves improving student readiness for college.

A network of nonprots led by the Boston Foundation supportstudents through and after the college application process inthe Getting In stage. UMB is lead on the Getting Through stage,

in which 37 local higher education institutions committed toimplementing strategies aimed at increasing the completionrates of BPS students on their campuses and have expandedcampus-based supports for students. In addition, the collegesthat enroll large numbers of BPS students partner with nonprotorganizations to provide students with coaches to helpthem thrive and graduate. The newest component is GettingConnected , led by the Private Industry Council (PIC), whichlooks at the question of employment after graduation.

IHEP: Besides the Northeastern report, did you nd any otherresearch useful in developing the Success Boston strategies?

We were already looking at our own retention rates as a campusaround the time Success Boston launched. A report publishedby the Education Trust called Advancing by Degrees was veryimportant for us at UMB. It described a framework for thinkingabout what we came to call on-track indicatorsaccumulatingat least 30 credit hours a year, maintaining a certain gradepoint average, taking rst-year courses in the rst year, andcompleting math requirements earlythe benchmarks that mustbe completed to get a degree. The report found that studentswho successfully complete these benchmarks when theyremeant to be completed are much more likely to nish on time.We developed a whole on-track framework and launched amessaging campaign to students: Start on Track, Stay onTrack.

This also inuenced development of the Success Bostonstrategies when we came to the table. Rather than only ensuringthat students persisted, stakeholders focused instead onidentifying the key, campus-specic benchmarks that studentsneed to complete, and when they need to complete them.

Goals


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IHEP: Has the partnership focused on specic studentpopulations?

The initial report by Northeastern found a persistentachievement gap with regard to BPS students of color and whitestudents. Specically, college graduation rates for black (28.2%)and Hispanic (23.9%) BPS students are substantially lower thanthose for white (53.3%) and Asian (52%) BPS students. Thispopulation is a high priority for us, and through Success Boston weve started to move the needle. Black and Hispanic BPSstudents who worked with a Success Boston coach showedgains in one-year persistence rates of 17% to 22% over peerswho didnt participate.

Given how effective the coaching intervention is, wevestarted to focus on the gaps and how we can make sure wereconnecting all of our BPS students with a coach. Early inthe initiative we were able to garner institutional funding thatenabled us to hire our own navigational coach. As a result,

since 2010, we have been able to provide all incoming rst-timestudents with a coach. Approximately 50% of UMB studentsare transfer students, so were developing coaching supportfor BPS students who start elsewhere and transfer here. ManyBPS students start at community colleges and then go on tofour-year institutions, and that transition can sometimes be lessthan successful.

At UMB, our work with Success Boston occurs in conjunctionwith several other initiatives that target specic studentpopulations. We have the Federal TRIO Student SupportServices Program and a Federal Asian American, Native

American, Pacic Islander Serving Institution Grant. We alsohave an ongoing partnership with the Dana-Farber/HarvardCancer Center, which is working with us to provide opportunitiesfor underrepresented minority students with an interest inbiomedical careers to get involved in research projects involvingcancer health disparities.

PartnershipIHEP: How did UMB work with Success Boston partners todevelop its intervention strategies?

This was an area of challenge at rst. We needed to nd thebest way for nonprots to support, extend, and expand thework that campuses were doing to support students. If you lookat the literature on retention, making connections to people oncampus is crucial, particularly for low-income, rst-generationstudents. We wanted to ensure that our nonprot partners wereying in formation with usthat they were well connected topeople and programs on our campus, that they understood howwe were organized, and that we had an ongoing opportunity toprovide guidance and insight. Further, nonprots could havefound themselves supporting students and hiring coaches to

work on campuses all over the region. That didnt seem to be anefcient use of resources. Instead, we made a critical decisionto concentrate these nonprot resources at specic campusesrather than have all nonprots working everywhere. Further, Iassigned someone in our Advising Center to be a single point ofcontact for nonprots working on our campus. I wanted to makeit easy for us to quickly problem-solve and troubleshoot whatissues needed to go where.

With additional funding from the Boston Foundation, I conveneda committee and invited representatives from colleges anduniversities across greater Boston to participate. We madeuse of a team of consultants to help each campus develop astrategy to improve persistence to graduation specically forBPS students. Each campus identied specic goals, newor repurposed funds to support those goals, and what morethey could do with additional funding. We also held annualmeetings with all of the campuses to provide updates andshare best practices. Occasionally our nonprot partners orBPS participated as well. These meetings were really usefulin strengthening our partnership. Remember that Boston isperhaps the most competitive higher education market in theworld. Even though we compete with one another for students,we were able to park our self-interests at the door. Thosemeetings were about the success of Boston kids, and we keptour focus on how we collectively and individually could do that.

IHEP: What challenges did you rst encounter when

developing the Success Boston partnership?One challenge we encountered early on involved the extent towhich campus-level data are publicly shared. In the run-up tothe release of the Northeastern report, each campus had beengiven its institutional data. We understood that these data werefor our own purposes and would not be made public. In itsstudy, the Center for Labor Market Studies reported the data inthe aggregate. Later on, the Center released individual collegedata in response to repeated queries from the Boston Globe.The campuses werent trying to hide behind bad outcomes.Rather, we worried that the Globe wouldnt provide theappropriate context for the information. Further, were enrollmentdriven. Publishing a story at a crucial time in the enrollment

Boston is perhaps the mostcompetitive higher educationmarket in the world. Eventhough we compete with oneanother for students, we were

able to park our self-interestsat the door. Those meetingswere about the success ofBoston kids, and we kept ourfocus on how we collectivelyand individually coulddo that.


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cycle can really hurt our ability to do the things were trying todo to improve. Im not reluctant to share data. I share data aboutUMB all the time. But context is important. Data are the data,but the story you tell about the data is a different matter. This

continues to be a point of tension for our coalition. I think peoplewould be more than willing to sign a data-sharing agreementif we had language in the agreement that obliged us to reachconsensus as to the story were going to tell.

ImplementationIHEP: Can you describe the four stages of the Success Boston initiative and how coalition partners led at each stage?

Getting Ready

As Ive mentioned, BPS led the Getting Ready stage, but otherpartners played key roles in helping prepare students for theapplication process. The Boston Foundation funded a full-timestaff position to help BPS organize and deliver college andcareer readiness programs. BPS also worked to help familiarizemore students with the placement tests that colleges are using.UMB faculty worked with their counterparts at Bunker Hill tocodevelop a course with teachers in one high school. Were inthe process of rolling it out to other schools in the district. Wealso took advantage of a BPS-sponsored program for parentscalled Parent University to deliver presentations on SuccessBoston to BPS parents. Obviously its critical for student successto help get parents on board as partners in this process.

As I mentioned earlier, Success Boston benets fromlongstanding partnerships between the higher educationsector, the business community, and BPS around improvingoutcomes, but these pre-existing partnerships can also pose achallenge. Any individual school in Boston may have multiplepartners representing the business community, community-based organizations, and higher education partners, and itcan be challenging to harness all that energy in service of acommon agenda.

Getting In

Were fortunate to have many nonprot organizations in greaterBoston that focus on college access and widening participation.They were in the lead with this stage of Success Boston . Severalof them received funding from the Boston Foundation to providewhat weve come to call navigational coaching . They ideally startworking with students in high schoolif not from the beginning,then by senior yearand continue to provide support over thesummer and into the rst two years of postsecondary schooling.

The nonprots provide really good navigational coaching. Their job is to teach the students how to navigate higher education just like the old adage of teaching someone how to sh. Thesecoaches are grounded in the community and thus have accessto supports and resources that can address non-school-relatedproblems students encounter. For example, a student completesnancial aid paperwork and is selected for verication. Dadsbeen laid off from his job, so his nancial circumstances havechanged, but neither parent speaks English. We dont alwayshave the capacity as an institution to meaningfully intervene.Thats where the nonprots can have a signicant impact andwhy our partnership is so important. The nonprots have theresources, the reach, and the relationships to really make asubstantive and meaningful difference in students lives. Manyof our nonprot partnerslike Freedom House or the HydeSquare Task Forcehave missions focused on communitydevelopment. Freedom House was founded during the civil

rights movement. It has a deep, historic commitment to social justice and community development, and its work with studentsis grounded in that history. Partners like Freedom House areincredibly helpful because they really know our students andtheir families. They really are of the community, and thatsusually really helpful.

Getting Through

The Boston Foundation made a strategic decision earlyon to concentrate coaching resources at the colleges and

universities that enroll the largest number of BPS students:UMB; the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology; and BunkerHill, Massachusetts Bay, and Roxbury Community Colleges.Someone on my staff manages the coaches deployed tomy institution. Shes very clear with them about their role.They arent meant to be academic advisors or nancial aidcounselors. Their job is to ensure that students work with theiradvisors and that the relationship is productive. She also plansregular meetings and activities for the coaches.

Initially, some of the nonprots really struggled to connect withstudents. They had the capacity to serve more students thanthose they were currently working with, but FERPA [the FamilyEducational Rights and Privacy Act] prevented us from simply

The nonprots provide reallygood navigational coaching.Their job is to teach thestudents how to navigatehigher educationjust likethe old adage of teaching

someone how to sh. Thesecoaches are grounded in thecommunity and thus haveaccess to supports andresources that can addressnon-school-related problemsstudents encounter.


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assigning them a caseload. After the rst year, they askedus to help them nd more students. Eventually we found asolution. The University of Massachusetts has a category in itsemployment system for people who serve as unpaid contingentworkers. For nonprots with which weve had a longstandingrelationship, we agreed to hire their coaches. The coachessign an ethics agreement and receive an institutional e-mailaccount. In exchange, they agree to be supervised by thedirector of the Advising Center.

We were also able to get internal funding to hire more seniorBPS students to serve as peer mentors. They help us getstudents to events on campus. And we got Admissions to codethe incoming BPS students, so we can run lists and balanceout caseloads. By the end of our second year, we were able toassign every single incoming BPS student to a coach.

The coaching is very important and very effective, but itsalso very expensive. Depending on the agency, coaches havecaseloads of approximately 75 to 100 students. If the staff inmy Advising Center had caseloads that low, we wouldnt needcoaches. We dont have a lot of places in the institution wherewe have that kind of capacity. I worry about this tremendously,because its not clear how weboth the campuses and thenonprotsare going to sustain this program over the long haul.

Getting Connected

The PIC is leading this next phase of Success Boston , whichfocuses on work-based learning and career connections. ThePIC, the citys Workforce Development Board, already plays asignicant role by connecting Boston high school students to

jobs and internships. The PIC is extending its school-to-careerstrategy to include jobs and internships for community collegestudents and eventually increased hiring upon graduation.

In January 2015, the PIC hired a postsecondary employmentspecialist through a one-year grant secured by the MayorsOfce of Workforce Development from the U.S. Department ofLabor. The PIC has committed to maintaining this position asthe grant expires in early 2016. The postsecondary employmentspecialist currently works with two Bunker Hill CommunityCollege career navigators to provide enhanced career adviceand employment support to 125 BPS graduates attendingBunker Hill Community College. The PICs postsecondaryemployment specialist will continue to provide employmentsupport to these students and will work with Success Coachesto support additional students in 2016.

These early efforts are teaching us what it means to extend ourgoal beyond college completion to getting graduates connected

to the career opportunities that a postsecondary educationmakes possible.

IHEP: What outcomes indicate that Success Boston is improving the postsecondary completion rate forBPS students?

The 2009 Northeastern University report found that only 35%of BPS students who enrolled in college or university hadearned a degree within seven years of graduating from highschool. Success Boston s goal was to increase the six-year

postsecondary completion rate for the BPS Class of 2009 from35% to 52% and to double that same rate for the Class of 2011to 70%. A 2013 report published by the Boston Foundationfound that the Class of 2005 had achieved a six-year collegecompletion rate of 47.4%. Ive looked at some preliminary dataand I think were going to make our goal of 52% for the Classof 2009.

IHEP: So whats next?

I think getting to the goal of 70% is going to be a lot harder.Weve already picked most of the low-hanging fruit. I think wellstill see increases in retention and graduation rates, but weregoing to level off unless we can start tackling some of the morethorny issues like affordability. Were committed to doing ourbest to get there, but I do think its going to take some strategiesthat were not currently using. Going forward, weve identiedseveral areas of focus that are critical for us to tackle if were toprovide additional momentum for Success Boston .

First, affordability and degree completion will continue to becritical issues for us. I have a student Ive been working withfor a long time. Shes trying to graduate, and were at thatpoint in the semester where shes falling apart because shesoverwhelmed. Shes working 40 hours a week while takingclasses and shes exhausted. She cant do both, so shesgoing to have to either slow down at school or reduce her work

schedule. Its always a trade-off. Lots of people think its agood cost-saving strategy for students to start at a communitycollege. But if youre at a community college and you get stuckin developmental education and you blow through your Pelleligibility, then it actually isnt affordable for you.

Second, creating opportunities for students to acquire theexperience that gets them out of the trap of a job and onto a

career path is a big nut that we have to crack. Bunker Hill hasan initiative called Learn and Earn . Its a relatively small program,but its a credit-bearing paid internship program thats withinparticular elds. Students can nd a paid internship related totheir eld of study and career goal while earning academiccredit. It stops being an either/or, like Ive got to go to work orIve got to go to class.

Third, we need more seamless pathways between K-12,community college, and four-year institutionsnot justarticulation agreements, but true integration. What you do atBunker Hill in your rst two years shouldnt look very differentfrom if youd done those rst two years at UMB. That way, whenyou arrive at UMB, youre a true junior, not a student with 60credits who still hasnt attained junior status in your major.

Finally, we havent engaged policymakers and lawmakers ina strategic way about these issues. Thats become part of thediscussion now, in terms of how we begin to think about thatpart of the equation. The buying power of the Massachusettsstate scholarships has eroded signicantly. Twenty-ve yearsago these scholarships covered 80% of tuition and fees at apublic four-year college in Massachusetts; today they coveronly 9%. Good public policy can also help incentivize thingslike credit-bearing paid internships, which can give students thenancial freedom to gure out their career aspirations.

Impact


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IHEP: Finally, what advice do you have for other communitieshoping to learn from or reproduce what Success Boston has achieved?

Youve got to be in it for the long haul. The work is not easy. Ithink its really important that people create safe spaces and arehonest with each other, so that if one partner in the initiative isdoing something that feels hurtful to another partner, they can

speak up and talk about it. I think our students deserve andneed us to be the best we can be. That means we cant affordto make nice at the expense of making progress. It doesntmean that we dont behave civilly and that we yell and screamat each other, but it does mean we sometimes have to havedifcult conversations.

Getting Through: Higher Educations Plan to Increase the College Completion Rates of Boston Public Schools Graduates

This report describes a regionwide strategic planning processin which participating campuses created plans to improvepersistence and completion rates, along with estimates of fundingneeds. The report includes summaries of 25 campus plans aswell as an annotated bibliography of college success studies.

Page length: 42

Beyond 12

This online platform provides college coaching and student datatracking analysis aimed at increasing the number of underservedstudents. The system improves the retention work of collegesand universities by sharing longitudinal data across K-12 andhigher education and deriving data-driven insights that shapedifferentiated coaching plans.

Tools

Effective College Access, Persistence, and Completion Programs, and Strategies for Underrepresented Student Populations: Opportunities for Scaling Up [2010: Center forEvaluation and Education Policy]

This 2010 study published by Indiana Universitys Center forEvaluation and Education Policy reviews current research onthe outcomes achieved by postsecondary persistence andcompletion programs targeting students from underrepresentedpopulations, identies and describes promising interventionstrategies, and reviews current programs at postsecondaryinstitutions in Indiana.

The Effects of Student Coaching in College: An Evaluation of aRandomized Experiment in Student Mentoring [2011: StanfordUniversity School of Education]

This study by two Stanford researchers investigated theeffectiveness of individualized coaching provided to studentsat public, private, and for-prot postsecondary institutions.Coaching topics included goal setting, academic skill building,time management, and self-advocacy. The study found thatinvolvement with a coach improved student persistence and wasa more cost-effective retention strategy when compared withincreased nancial aid.

https://www.tbf.org/~/media/TBFOrg/Files/Reports/SuccessBoston_ReportOne_F.pdfhttps://www.tbf.org/~/media/TBFOrg/Files/Reports/SuccessBoston_ReportOne_F.pdfhttps://www.tbf.org/~/media/TBFOrg/Files/Reports/SuccessBoston_ReportOne_F.pdfhttp://www.beyond12.org/http://ceep.indiana.edu/projects/PDF/Special_Report_ICHE.pdfhttp://ceep.indiana.edu/projects/PDF/Special_Report_ICHE.pdfhttp://ceep.indiana.edu/projects/PDF/Special_Report_ICHE.pdfhttp://www.nber.org/papers/w16881.pdfhttp://www.nber.org/papers/w16881.pdfhttp://www.nber.org/papers/w16881.pdfhttp://www.nber.org/papers/w16881.pdfhttp://ceep.indiana.edu/projects/PDF/Special_Report_ICHE.pdfhttp://ceep.indiana.edu/projects/PDF/Special_Report_ICHE.pdfhttp://ceep.indiana.edu/projects/PDF/Special_Report_ICHE.pdfhttp://www.beyond12.org/https://www.tbf.org/~/media/TBFOrg/Files/Reports/SuccessBoston_ReportOne_F.pdfhttps://www.tbf.org/~/media/TBFOrg/Files/Reports/SuccessBoston_ReportOne_F.pdfhttps://www.tbf.org/~/media/TBFOrg/Files/Reports/SuccessBoston_ReportOne_F.pdf


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For regions to thrive and grow, they require an educatedworkforce whose skills align with available job opportunitiesand meet employer demands. The quality of life theseplaces afford residents also make them strong attractors fortalented newcomers.

Yet even successful regions often include thousands of peoplewho nd themselves disconnected from the education-to-careerpathway. Failure to complete high school or stopping out fromcollege restricts many people from job opportunities that provide

a path to the middle class and wages able to support a family.

Efforts to re-engage these students can result in signicantdividends for students, their families, and their communities.Educators, civic leaders, and regional employers can cocreateeducation-to-career pathways that offer people the chance to getback on track. Below are a few examples of pathway componentsthat can help once-disconnected students thrive and grow.

Flexible and Accessible Pathways: Does your community wantto promote access to education and training opportunities for

people who are disconnected from school and career? Manypeople experience personal, nancial, or other barriers that mayhinder their ability to re-engage. Think about designing exible

pathways that offer multiple onramps to help students get backon track. Be sure to consider student input when developingstrategies to widen access.

Work-Based Learning: Does your community want to provide young people with opportunities to explore the world of workwhile still in school? Job tours, internships, job shadowing,and apprenticeships offer multiple benets to students. Theseprograms can provide the opportunity to explore prospectivecareer paths, make connections with employers, and learn moreabout workplace norms. Involvement may also further encouragestudent persistence. The business community can help byidentifying and sponsoring internship placements, hosting jobshadowing and tours, and providing coaches to help studentshone interview skills and develop resumes.

Align Pathway Destinations With Employer Needs: Does your communi ty want to help disconnected students acquire thetraining and skills needed to access high-need job opportunities?Regional employers can play an important role in cocreatingpathways that deliver graduates prepared to respond toemployer demands. Consider how available data sources onhigh-growth job areas and labor market needs can inform yourdecision making.

Provide Adult Learners With Accelerated Pathways to

Postsecondary Credentials: Does your community want tohelp adult learners earn college credit while completing GEDrequirements? Adult education programs that allow students toenroll in courses at technical colleges while completing their GEDspeed the time to degree while accelerating access to jobs in arange of high-demand elds.

This chapter features an interview with leaders from Madein Durham a publicprivate partnership in Durham, NorthCarolina who work to re-engage young people who aredisconnected from both school and career opportunities. Thischapter also includes several resources that this partnershipused to organize its work, set goals, and deploy resources. Theseresources include a 2012 report that described the problem of

disconnected youth in the Durham region and a policy briefoutlining Made in Durham s education-to-career strategy.

This chapter ends with a list of additional resources you canuse to nd more information about intervention strategies thatrespond to disconnected students as well as how best to developeducation-career pathways.

Chapter Two:


ensure that college successincludes career supports,particularly for disconnectedstudents?


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Made in Durham , Durham, North Carolina: BuildingCommunity Partnerships in Support of Connecting

Young People With Careers

IHEP: Can you explain why the Made in Durham initiative developed?

[Lydia Newman] Made in Durham is a community partnership thatbrings together educators, the business community, governmentleaders, and community organizations. Weve mobilized aroundan ambitious shared vision: that all young people in Durham willcomplete a postsecondary credential and earn a wage sufcientto support a family by age 25.

A 2012 report by a community organization called MDC providedthe initial catalys t for our work. This report found that approximately40% of Durhams young people were outside what weve cometo think of as the education-to-career system. This populationincludes students who have dropped out of high school or areat risk of doing so, as well as young people who arent currentlypursuing any further education, training, or employment. Durhamis in a fast-growing region with great alternative educationalprograms, colleges and universities, and job opportunities. Weestimate that employers will create more than 23,000 middle-skill

jobs over the next 10 years. If we dont act, these young peoplewont be able to take advantage of the opportunities Durham hasto offer them.

We created a task force made up of civic, community, and businessleaders to tackle the problem. They decided what was needed

was better coordination and alignment between educationalinstitutions; data-supported decision making; career, internship,and training programs; and employment opportunities. And thatswhy Made in Durham was created.

IHEP: Does Made in Durham focus on supporting anyspecic student populations?

[Lydia Newman] Weve been very intentional in stating that weserve all Durham young people, with special attention to whatwe call opportunity youth young people between the ages of

14 and 24 who are really disconnected from both school andcareer employment.

Were in the process of developing a re-engagement strategyto better serve these students. To that end, we want to betterunderstand the students currently served by Durhams alternativeeducation programs. What kinds of students are thriving in theseprograms and who isnt being served as well? What do we needto do to re-engage our opportunity youth? Is it just a matter ofadding capacity to existing programs, or do we need to imaginesomething entirely different? We dont want to be in the businessof creating solutions that dont t the population were tryingto serve.

Goals

Lydia Newman, Youth Transitions Strategist,

Made in Durham

Laura Wendell, Business Engagement Strategist,

Made in Durham

IHEP spoke with Lydia Newman and Laura Wendell from Made in Durham to learn about how their publicprivate partnershipmade up of educators, civic leaders, and the business sectoris working to ensurethat all of Durhams young people have graduated college and found career employment by age 25. Newmanand Wendell describe the catalyst for this partnership, how it uses data to develop education-to-careerpathways, and its focus on re-engaging young people who are completely disconnected from school andcareer opportunities. The interview illustrates an example of a promising practice in developing interventionstrategies informed by assessment of a targeted populations needs.

PartnershipIHEP: Can you explain how Made in Durham s partners areworking together to build education- to-career pathways?

[Laura Wendell] Its an incredibly exciting time for this initiative.NCWorks (our regional workforce group) has just issued a set ofcriteria for certifying education-to-career pathways. Its having atremendous impact on how Durham works with other communitiesto develop more regionally focused pathways aligned to employerneeds. Made in Durham is helping by bringing together education,workforce development, and business partners from throughoutthe region to support the pathway initiative. Were also involving

young people as cocreators. We have a youth network made upof about 20 young people who will help shape the pathways weredeveloping. So far, their insights have been especially helpful withregard to how young people learn about the world of work, whotheir key inuencers are, and how their families, schools, andcommunities can best support them.

[Lydia Newman] Weve learned from this youth network that thesepathways need to be exible to be responsive to young peoplescircumstances. We need multiple access points so that a youngparent who left high school early can return, graduate from high


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school, go on to college, and start a career. And I agree with Laura:Feedback from engaged employers is really critical so that we canprovide students with the training and experience that make themgood hires. Right from the start weve had a huge commitmentfrom the business community to generate work-based learningopportunities. Employers really are key partners for us in a lotof ways. Their perspective absolutely informs pathway design,training, and program criteria. Success here absolutely relies ondeveloping pathways that produce graduates who employersactually want to hire. If were successful, the curriculum informingthese pathways wont look all that different from what employerswould have created themselves in developing the kind ofemployee theyre looking for.

[Laura Wendell] The program is growing really quickly. Westarted with one initial pathway in Durham linking four schools(an elementary school, middle school, high school, andcommunity college) and focused on health and life science.

As we expand into a more comprehensive, regional program,were also identifying best practices for how employers engagewith schools and communitiesfrom mentoring, afterschoolprograms, and community lab programs to job shadowing,company tours, internships, and apprenticeships. We are doingthis through mapping the landscape of companies offering work-based learning opportunities. The rst step will be a meetingwith our education partners to determine which companies aremost deeply engaged in their programs right now. We will usethe results from that process, as well as the connections we havemade through our work to date, to identify companies leadingthe way in work-based learning. We will then assemble an actionteam of those groundbreaking employers to help us develop astrategy for supporting, expanding, and scaling their work-basedlearning. The action team will also help us promote the benetsof work-based learning to other companies through establishedpeer networks and other channels. Its exciting to see ourcommunity invest in the intersection between classroom learningand the world of work, and how that investment will motivate ouryoung people.

[Lydia Newman] In time, we intend for Made in Durham to bea central point of contact between employers and education/training providers. Our staff will play a facilitative role at everystage of the pathwayeducating stakeholders about labormarket trends, working with employers to identify and buildwork experience opportunities, and helping employers becomeyouth ready.

IHEP: How are you using data to inform development ofthese pathways?

[Lydia Newman] Many of our partners already gather data thatthey use to track student progression and graduation rates. Theymade these data available when we rst started another programcalled Durham Futures and weve used it when weve appliedfor grants.

[Laura Wendell] Ensuring our education-to-career pathways aredata informed is one of NCWorks certication criteria. In thiscontext they mean data on labor markets and projections as tofuture high-growth job areas. We pull data from labor reportsavailable from North Carolinas Department of Labor. We alsorun focus groups with area employers to complement what thereports tell us. The focus group participants talk with us abouttheir most pressing labor needs, how they account for thedifculty in lling these positions, the positions salary ranges, andtheir future projections for the labor market. We use these datato help us zero in on the focus and destination of the pathwayswere developing.

Our pathways are structured around particular occupations withincareer clusters or sectors. An ongoing challenge for us is getting

to the right level of granularity in identifying a set of competenciesand skills with sufcient labor market demand to justify includinga credential in the pathway.

We also want to measure the impact work-based learning hason skill development for young people. Specically, does theexperience inuence career exploration, how students makemeaning of the skills and experience theyre developing, andhow they present themselves on resumes and in interviews? Weknow testing can help assess how well students have masteredcontent, but measuring skills acquisition and meaning making ismore complex. Wed really welcome ideas and suggestions forhow best to gather that kind of data.

All this matters because employers often use an earned credentialplus so many years of experience as shorthand for the skillstheyre looking for. I think this approach overlooks people wholack the credentials but have the skills and experience, and viceversa. So when we think about moving the needle on wideningparticipation by young people, we have to think about assessingand improving soft skills and interviewing skills, and providingopportunities to address deciencies.

Employers really are key partners for us in a lot of ways. Theirperspective absolutely informs pathway design, training, andprogram criteria. Success here absolutely relies on developing

pathways that produce graduates who employers actually wantto hire.


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ImplementationIHEP: How is Made in Durham working to improve outcomesfor young people?

[Lydia Newman] Made in Durham includes an opportunity youthaction team, which we call Durham Futures . The team consistsof three executive directors from three alternative educationprograms, senior-level administrators with the public schoolsystem, and representatives from our local community college.We have about 250 students enrolled in the alternative educationprograms. Our job is to help them navigate the education-to-career system.

Two previous reports helped guide our decision making as tohow best to re-engage disconnected youth. The rst report wasreleased in 2008. It called attention to the degree to which youngpeople in Durham are disconnected from education and careeropportunities. The report provided specic data on populationdistribution, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, educationalattainment, and unemployment. We used these data to identifydemographically vulnerable groups and the circumstancescorrelated with disconnection. The report concluded that ndinga way to help disconnected youth attain a postsecondary

credential was our regions ultimate challenge.I previously mentioned the second report, which led to thecreation of Made in Durham . It specically recommended thedevelopment of an education-to-career system, led by a broadcoalition of community partners and responsive to employer andlabor market demand.

Weve identied three intervention strategies to help us reach thatgoal. The rst is to connect students with work-based learningopportunities, like an internship or a job tour. Seeing what itslike to work at a company can help them better understand howclassroom learning can affect life after high school and college.We started this program this past summer with 15 students. Welluse what weve learned to grow the program this coming year.

The second strategy involves using funds from the UnitedWay to create two positions. One position will be an employerengagement associate. This persons role will be to ensure our

young people are getting the work-based learning experiencesthey need, and that were building lasting relationships withemployers and helping employers connect with educators.Were also hiring a resource specialist who can provide careerand college guidance and supportanything that can helpstudents successfully transition to college, and then to persistand graduate. Three Durham alternative education schools willshare these two positions. Thats an unprecedented arrangementfor us. These schools hadnt been working together prior to theformation of Made in Durham . Finally, were launching a programto identify peer and adult mentors who we can match withstudents in these three schools.

IHEP: What challenges have you encountered in developingthe Made in Durham partnership?

[Laura Wendell] One challenge is that our partners collectivelyhave a broad range of different interests and focuses involving ourtarget population. Some focus specically on court involvementand what to do about youth involved in the justice system.

Others think about career and technical education and how toencourage students into careers in construction. Others want tofocus on college access. Incorporating all of these perspectivesinto a shared vision for Durhams young people is tricky, but eachorganization has a role to play.

[Lydia Newman] On a more day-to-day level, sometimes weencounter challenges in getting access to the data we feel weneed to move the needle. The Durham Public Schools have tobe mindful of FERPA [Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act]when sharing data. Were also working through issues in gettingdata from our community college partners. But its nothing wecant resolve because we have so many of the right people at thetable. For example, our board and action team talked about theneed to understand how and if young people are more successfulwhen they receive more career counseling. The superintendentof schools, who is on the board, is now looking into how to useNational Student Clearing House data to nd more answers.

ImpactIHEP: What is your plan for assessing the effectivenessof Made in Durham s efforts to improve outcomes foryoung people?

[Laura Wendell] Its still early days for us in terms of assessment.Were still developing and implementing our initial strategies. Ofcourse, within our Durham Futures work, we can measure successby assessing student completion of a high school credential, thena postsecondary credential, and then getting a job. So there aresome really nice, measurable outcomes there. As a whole, werelooking at how we can incorporate continuous improvementpractices, both into our work organizationally and into the workof the partnership across the board. We dont want to wait untilits time to publish an annual report before we learn how wellwere doing.

[Lydia Newman] Our partners were already doing their ownindividual evaluation work before Made in Durham began. Nowthat we have a collective vision, we need to determine the way

were measuring our progress. We dont want to be comparingapples to oranges. Our evaluative process still very much a workin progress.


[Laura Wendell] I think one important next step for us is to getvertical and horizontal alignment with our partners. Weve got aclear vision with some important pieces in place, and Made inDurham is bringing partners to the table. But I think theres workleft to do with regard to complete system alignment. Were hopingto access some technical assistance from Lumina to help usbuild deeper understanding among our partners of how to workin a collective impact environment. I sometimes feel like werebuilding a bridge by starting at both banks, and now weve gotto get that bridge to meet in the middle. And were pretty surewell get there, but until then we need to continue evaluating andmeasuring our progress.


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[Lydia Newman] Weve had boots on the ground from thebeginning, so its important for us to help our partners also seethemselves in this work and the contributions they can make. Ithink its going to take a lot for people to fully understand thesystem change that will be necessary. And that isnt just the viewfrom the top, like when a CEO says she understands what role herorganization can play. We need to help that CEO gure out how tolead the change so that the entire organization is invested.

[Laura Wendell] Exactly. When we have leaders around the tablethinking about this problem, we need to ensure they have whatthey need to build our shared goals into their organizationsplanning processes. We havent fully accomplished this yet.

IHEP: Finally, what advice do you have for other communitieshoping to learn from Made in Durham ?

[Lydia Newman] Its going to take a whole community pullingtogether to get us to our goal. I think its been extremely impor tantto make sure to get buy-in, to make sure everyone feels liketheyre a part of the process. Conversely, leaving some groupswith the sense that they werent part of the process will cost youdown the road. Right from the start, Made in Durham involved lots

of different stakeholders across the board. When youre trying todevelop a collective impact organization, you spend a lot of timeinvesting in the partnership and mobilizing the people involved.Thats really critical work. Youre going to need buy-in fromyour high schools, your community colleges, and the variousorganizations that touch the populations of interest if you want tomove the needle.

Ill also say that although its important to ensure everyones onthe same page, feeling included, and being heard, its essentialthat you keep a laser focus on a shared vision that everyone iscommitted to working toward.

[Laura Wendell] I think thats absolutely right. Were workingtoward consensus, but its important to be prepared to sit withthe dissenting voice in the room. Weve learned so much frompartners who were in disagreement. Working through dissent isa real strength of collective impact organizations. I think the endresult is greater trust and investment. Its not always comfortable,but if you dont have someone in the room in dissent and askinghard questions, you probably dont have all the right peoplearound the table.

Disconnected Youth in the Research Triangle Region: An Ominous Problem Hidden in Plain Sight

This 2008 report by MDC investigates the phenomenon ofdisconnected youthindividuals ages 14 to 24 who aredisconnected from both school and career opportunities.Researchers conducted an environmental scanincludinginterviews with civic, education, business, and governmentleaders and surveys of frontline social service providerstobetter understand the problem. The report concludes with a setof recommended action steps to re-engage young people ineducation-to-career pathways.

Page length: 44

Made in Durham: Building an Education-to-Career System

Taking the recommendations from Disconnected Youth as astarting point, this 2012 policy paper provides program designrecommendations for the development of education-to-careerpathways, including goals, outcomes, structure, strategies, andprospective partners. The report serves as a useful blueprint forcommunities interested in developing publicprivate partnershipsto re-engage disconnected youth. Page length: 58

Tools

Working through dissent isa real strength of collectiveimpact organizations. I think

the end result is greater trustand investment. Its not alwayscomfortable, but if you donthave someone in the roomin dissent and asking hardquestions, you probablydont have all the right people

around the table.
http://www.mdcinc.org/sites/default/files/resources/disconnected-youth.pdfhttp://www.mdcinc.org/sites/default/files/resources/disconnected-youth.pdfhttp://mdcinc.org/sites/default/files/resources/Made%20in%20Durham%20PRINT%20%2011%2013%2012-FINAL_0.pdfhttp://mdcinc.org/sites/default/files/resources/Made%20in%20Durham%20PRINT%20%2011%2013%2012-FINAL_0.pdfhttp://www.mdcinc.org/sites/default/files/resources/disconnected-youth.pdfhttp://www.mdcinc.org/sites/default/files/resources/disconnected-youth.pdf


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Mentoring: At the Crossroads of Education, Business, and Community [2015: Ernst & Young & MENTOR: The NationalMentoring Partnership]

This study reports on the benets of business-sector involvementin mentoring programs for young people, provides a businesscase for corporate engagement, identies promising practicesand case studies drawn from current programs, and outlines aset of recommendations for future mentoring initiatives.

Education to Employment: Designing a System That Works [2012: McKinsey Center for Government]

This report takes an international and comparative approach toseeking better understanding of the problem of disconnectedyouth, including an analysis of over 100 education-to-careerinitiatives in 25 countries.

Findings From the Field: Regional Pathways to Prosperity Model Development [2014: North Carolina New Schools]

This brief describes efforts to develop pilot education-to-careerpathways in two North Carolina regions. Each regional proleincludes a list of key partners, initial ndings, and lessons learnedthat are informing continued program development. The authorsrecommend using relevant data metrics and investments incross-regional networks to share promising practices as futureareas of focus.

Improved Adult Education Support Critical to GeorgiasBottom Line [2015: Georgia Budget and Policy Institute]

Intended for policymakers, this report makes the case foradditional public investment in adult education programs as astrategy to improve Georgias competitive economic standingwhile addressing a pervasive opportunity gap for adult learners.Included is a description of an initiative that provides studentswho lack a high school diploma the opportunity to enroll intechnical college while completing the requirements for a GED.

http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Mentoring_at_the_crossroads_of_education,_business_and_community/$FILE/1501-1385340_Mentoring%20at%20the%20Crossroad_CV0116.pdfhttp://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Mentoring_at_the_crossroads_of_education,_business_and_community/$FILE/1501-1385340_Mentoring%20at%20the%20Crossroad_CV0116.pdfhttp://mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/Education-to-Employment_FINAL.pdfhttp://ncnewschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Pathways-Findings-from-the-Field-Report_10-21-14.pdfhttp://ncnewschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Pathways-Findings-from-the-Field-Report_10-21-14.pdfhttp://ncnewschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Pathways-Findings-from-the-Field-Report_10-21-14.pdfhttp://gbpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Improved-Adult-Education-Support-Critical-to-Georgia%E2%80%99s-Bottom-Line.pdfhttp://gbpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Improved-Adult-Education-Support-Critical-to-Georgia%E2%80%99s-Bottom-Line.pdfhttp://gbpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Improved-Adult-Education-Support-Critical-to-Georgia%E2%80%99s-Bottom-Line.pdfhttp://gbpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Improved-Adult-Education-Support-Critical-to-Georgia%E2%80%99s-Bottom-Line.pdfhttp://ncnewschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Pathways-Findings-from-the-Field-Report_10-21-14.pdfhttp://ncnewschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Pathways-Findings-from-the-Field-Report_10-21-14.pdfhttp://mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/Education-to-Employment_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Mentoring_at_the_crossroads_of_education,_business_and_community/$FILE/1501-1385340_Mentoring%20at%20the%20Crossroad_CV0116.pdfhttp://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Mentoring_at_the_crossroads_of_education,_business_and_community/$FILE/1501-1385340_Mentoring%20at%20the%20Crossroad_CV0116.pdf


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Colleges play a critical role in providing access to careeradvancement through a postsecondary credential for a diversespectrum of learners. These learners often face signicantacademic, nancial, and logistical barriers that may constrainpersistence to completion. Competing responsibilities, nancialconstraints, and other challenges may compel students to stop

out for a semester or longer. Failing to return can leave studentssaddled with college debt while still lacking the credential thatcould otherwise help them advance.

Students arrive on campus at varying stages of preparednessfor college-level work. Academic pathways that allow students toquickly resolve deciencies and move on to the next level canhelp students stay engaged, progress to completion, and savetime and money. Incoming students benet from a campuswidefocus on quickly orienting them to campus, integrating theminto campus life, and connecting them to faculty mentors in theirchosen discipline.

More broadly, postsecondary partnerships with upstream (e.g.,

school districts) and downstream (e.g., employers) stakeholderscan help provide holistic support for students before, during,and after collegefrom presearch coaching and advising tointernships, job shadowing, and career skill development. Thesecommunity partnerships are essential to intervention strategiesintended to boost postsecondary completion for all students.Below are a few examples of student support programs andcourses that advance a persistence and completion agendathrough targeted interventions and partnership building. First-Year Success Programs as an Intervention in Supportof Equity and Inclusion: Does your institution want to reimagine

how it welcomes, integrates, and supports incoming students as a strategy to support broader equity and inclusion goals?

Initiatives aimed at helping incoming students adjust and getconnected to campus life can also advance institutional equityand inclusion goals. Consider programs that specically targetstudent populations (e.g., students from low-income households,rst-generation students) that may face additional barriers topersistence and completion.

Convocation: How can your institution celebrate entry for incoming students in a way that helps them feel involved in campuslife and excited for the challenges ahead? Convocation exercisesand other welcome rituals for new studentsa common featureat traditional, four-year institutionsmay be even more critical forstudents from underserved communities. Convocation can be apowerful way for institutions to inspire new students to connectand engage.

Success Seminars: Does your institution want to offer courses to students that introduce student support services, academic skill building, and budgeting, while also helping reduce their time todegree? Credit-bearing courses can help students acquire the

academic, career planning, and budgeting skills that positionthem for success in college right from the start. Such coursesalso provide additional opportunities to connect students tocritical college support people and services (e.g., writing centers,career development centers).

Intensive Bridge Courses: Does your institution want to offer short-term, intensive Bridge courses that can help students both address academic deciencies and quickly progress?Many students test at the high end of a range of English ormath prociency while still not quite crossing the threshold tothe next level. Two-week, intensive Bridge courses can quicklyprepare some students to move to college-level English or mathwithout requiring an entire semester of remedial coursework.

Chapter Three:


design personal supportsthat ensure underservedstudents adjust well tocollege and are more likelyto succeed?


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These pathways allow students to make quick progress on theiracademic plan, saving them time and money.

Mentoring and Coaching: Does your institution want to seekcommunity partners to support student success through mentoring

and coaching programs? Research suggests that mentoring canhave a signicant impact on student engagement, integration,and persistence. Consider developing or leveraging relationshipswith community partners (e.g., employers, civic and professionalorganizations) to identify prospective mentors. Mentorship

programs should be responsive to institutional characteristicsand demographics. Adult students will likely have very differentneeds and expectations than traditionally aged students will.Community college students timelines will differ from that ofstudents enrolled in four-year programs.

This chapter features an interview with the vice president foraccess and completion at Cuyahoga Community College(Tri-C) , who describes her institutions First-Year Experience(FYE)an intervention strategy intended to increase completionrates. We include a student workbook developed by Tri-C facultyand administrators for use in a credit-bearing First-Year Successseminara component of the FYE initiative. An FAQ document(designed for a student audience) also identies and explainsthe FYE program goals and describes its ve components. Wealso include a brief that summarizes Tri-Cs strategic plan . This

chapter ends with a list ofadditional resources

you can use tond more information about designing programming to promotestudent success.

Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland, Ohio: A Campuswide Commitment to Helping All First-YearStudents Thrive, Progress, and Complete

IHEP: What is the FYE program, and why did it develop?

FYE is the umbrella title weve given to several interrelatedprograms that are required for all new students at Tri-C. Theseprograms have been designed to help new students start theircollege career on the right path. The four major goals of FYE areto help students connect , engage , plan , and succeed . Studentsnavigate a series of programs and activities that are customizedto each persons needs and designed to help them succeed.

A critical catalyst for FYE was the arrival of our new president(Dr. Alex Johnson) in summer 2013. Dr. Johnson had beenvery involved in the national conversation on the importanceof completion in the community college sector. Even as wedalready been active on this front, he really changed the cultureand the tone at Tri-C. He took every opportunity to raise theissuein small gatherings, at town hall meetings on campus,and at convocation. Everyone quickly got the message that thiswas going to be a critical area of focus for us. He created the rightenvironment for us to advance the systemic change necessary toget the results we needed.

State ofcials were also very interested in completion. Theyasked us to put together a plan for increasing completion levels.We knew we needed to move the needle on this, and that it likelymeant shifting people and scal resources around to support thework we knew was important.

IHEP: Does Tri-C focus on supporting specific studentpopulations?

Well, weve been focused on some populations for quite a while.For instance, students who come to us at a developmental levelhave been a population of concern for some time. When werst started as an Achieving the Dream institution several yearsago, we were focused on rst-time students, students of color,and underprepared students. That focus absolutely informedour decision to develop and commit resources to a reimaginingof FYE.

Equity is an important value for us. We continue to experience anachievement gap between our students of color and our whitestudents. Our students of color are not progressing at the samerate as other students. Were also concerned about our Pell-eligible students and our adult students. Tri-Cs new strategic planexplicitly commits us to nding ways to close this gap in hopes ofmaking completion attainable for all students, regardless of age,race, or economic standing. With this end in mind, were currentlydeveloping new persistence, retention, and completion goals forthese three populations of concern and what the plan will be toget us there.

Goals

Dr. Karen Miller, Vice President for Access and Completion, Cuyahoga Community College

IHEP spoke with Dr. Karen Miller from Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) to learn about the institutionsFirst-Year Experience (FYE) programa comprehensive suite of programs, events, and courses designedto positively impact completion rates for new students. Miller recalls how Tri-C faculty, administrators, andstudents collectively shaped development of FYE, describes FYEs specic components, and explains therationale for making student participation mandatory. The interview suggests a promising strategy for gettingstudents off to a great start, with completion as their ultimate goal.


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IHEP: I know Tri-C involved the entire campus in developingthe program. Can you describe how you built thispartnership? Were off-campus stakeholders involved?

We used an appreciative inquiry (AI) approach to collectivelybuild the FYE initiative. Rather than focusing on problems to besolved, AI starts with what works well within an organizationwhat is critical about what we doand then leverages thatexperience to imagine where we want to go.

We pulled hundreds of people together from across Tri-Cto engage in this process. We invited representatives fromevery constituency on campus. Tri-C faculty and staff wereintegrated into the cross-functional teams of stakeholders thatwe developed. We particularly wanted to hear from everydaystudents about their experiences and what they wanted Tri-Cto be like. We also held several collegewide meetings thatattracted about a hundred people each. We used this process

to discern our vision of what FYE might include, what thestudent experience of FYE should deliver, and what the desiredoutcomes were.

We also included representatives from the ClevelandMetropolitan School District (CMSD) in our AI process todevelop the FYE initiative. We frequently work collaborativelywith them to ensure student success, as they are one of ourbiggest supporters and provide a direct pipeline for studentsto the college. Their input, as well as the input of our students,faculty, staff, and administrators, collectively contributedto the nal product. I believe it was well worth the time andeffort we put into the process, and I think our CMSD partnerswould agree.

We rolled out the newly imagined FYE program components in August 2014.

Partnership

IHEP: Can you explain how the specic components of theFYE program came about?

Development of the FYE initiative took place as we weredeveloping a new strategic plan for the institution. Throughthat process we identied several key metricstotal degreesand certicates awarded every year, our three-year IntegratedPostsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) graduation rate,the fall-to-spring retention rate, the fall-to-fall retention rate, thepercentage of students who complete gateway English andmath in one year, and the percentage of students who completeFYE in their rst term. These metrics all t into the broaderconversation were having about equityensuring that all of ourstudents persist and complete.

The components we built into FYE were very much shaped bythe thoughts, concerns, and desires of the constituencies who

participated in the process. For example, our counseling facultyfeels very strongly about the value of orientation for students.Without orientation, they dont get to develop relationships withkey people who can help them succeed. They also dont get afeel for the culture of the campus theyre going to attend. Forthese reasons, we knew it was important to embed new-studentorientation into the FYE initiative.

We also piloted a one-credit success seminar that coveredtopics like time management, nancial responsibility, andgood study skills. We found that students who had taken theseminar persisted at a higher rate and had higher GPAs thanstudents who hadnt taken the course. These First-Year Successseminars also became a component of FYE. Incoming studentsnow have to register for an FYE course. We offer a number ofoptions to make the course t students schedules easily, but itis a requirement. Through the course, they learn about Tri-Csstudent success resources, they develop an academic plan, andthey connect with a faculty member and peer mentors. Theres anancial literacy component as well. By the time they completethe course, students know what resources we offer to help themmanage their money as well as how the choices they make nowwill impact them when they leave us.

We also tried something different with our convocationexercises. We hold campus convocations, which are moresimilar to what youd nd at a traditional four-year institution.We wanted to get students excited, not just about participatingin orientation or starting at Tri-C. We wanted them to keep theend in mindto get excited about graduation. The message wehoped to send is that we want them to graduate just as much asthey do, and that were going to help them stay on that path.

Convocation also helps connect students with their disciplines.Research suggests that students benet from early connectionsto their disciplines. Thats what gets them excited. We knowthats why theyre here. With convocation we saw an opportunityto connect them with people in their program right from the start.

Like most community colleges, we use math and English testsat entry to place new students. We often nd that some studentswill test at the highest end of a range but not quite cross thethreshold into the next-higher level. In addition to FYE, weve

Implementation

Research suggests thatstudents benet fromearly connections to their

disciplines. Thats what getsthem excited. We knowthats why theyre here. Withconvocation we saw anopportunity to connect themwith people in their programright from the start.


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created two-week Bridge courses in intensive math and Englishfor students who fall into this category. We retest them at theend of the course. About half of the math Bridge students moveto the next-higher level, while 75% of English Bridge studentsmove to the next-highest level.

Wed always offered math and English placement practice tests,but students seldom took them. Now, weve started requiringstudents to complete these practice tests and weve seen greatresults.. For instance, preintervention, 72% of students testedinto developmental English. After we started requiring studentsto take the practice test, 70% of students were placing intocollege-level English. Accelerating the pace at which studentssuccessfully meet program criteria means we can quickenthe time it takes them to complete their degree and enterthe workforce.

IHEP: Did implementing FYE require additional resources?

Well, it mostly involved reallocating existing dollars. There wasno new money. We already had a team of people working onorientation, so that didnt really change. We had faculty teamsworking to create the FYE success seminars. Once we made

the seminars mandatory, enrollment in these courses jumpedfrom a few hundred students to a couple thousand. That meantadding additional sections and hiring adjuncts, although ourfull-time faculty and then our counseling faculty had rst right ofrefusal. Of course, if we succeed in retaining more students, wegain revenue.

IHEP: Participation in FYE is mandatory. Can you explain therationale for that decision?

We took note of what other colleges were doing through ourafliation with Achieving the Dream , our involvement with AACC

[American Association of Community Colleges], and the broaderconversation about the importance of completion. We decidedwe needed to be much more intentional in designing a rst-yearexperience for students, rather than have them experience thecollege by chance. We knew we needed additional structureand intentionality on the front end with college-readiness and totighten up the experience on the back end with career readinessif we wanted to affect persistence and completion. MDRCsresearch has found value in connecting students with academicpathways right from the beginning. My dissertation research

found that students who are satised, engaged, and feel likepart of the campus culture tend to be retained at higher levels. And then, of course, the positive outcomes we saw from pilotingthe FYE course made an impact. At the end of the day, webelieved making participation mandatory and creating changeat scale were necessary to make a signicant difference inour outcomes.

IHEP: What challenges did you encounter in implementingthe FYE program?

We struggled with compliance during our rst year. Roughly 900of 3,500 incoming students didnt complete the required FYE

course. We expect students to register for an FYE course andfor convocation, but when they dropped one, the system didntalways catch it. These technological loopholes make monitoringstudent progress time intensive for our staff. We have a lot ofpeople in our student affairs ofces assigned to triaging the FYEgroups. Students who fail to complete the FYE program haveholds applied to their student accounts, so they cant registerwithout intervention. This kind of case management requires alot of staff time. Were committed to continuous improvement,making adjustments as we go. Were especially interested inclosing loopholes and nding ways to use technology to reducestaff time on triage.

IHEP: What outcomes indicate that participation in FYE isimproving the completion rate for Tri-C students?

I think the initial impact has been tremendous with regard toimproved outcomes for students. As you know, communitycollege students are quite different from students at a traditionalfour-year college. Theyre at great risk with regard to attrition.They dont enroll continuously until graduation. They start,stop out, return, and leave again. Not surprisingly, weve reallystruggled with our completion rate. We dont always agree withhow the measure is determined, but we dont make excuses.

When we started, our IPEDS rate for rst-time full-time studentsstarting in the fall was 4.2%. Our president challenged us to dobetter, and in our rst year we got the rate up to 5.5%. Our third-year goal was 8%we hit 9.2%. This year, hes challenged usto improve to 15% by the end of summer 2016. Given our totalpopulation of 25,00029,000 students, thats no small number.

Success requires us to be very intentional about that work.It means getting everyones eyes on our numbers. Not only atthe highest level, but with our faculty, in all leadership groups,across all campuses. Everybody knows where we are with ourkey metrics at the end of every semester.

This experience also sets an important precedent for us. Wenow know that when we all pull together across the institution,we can make some pretty signicant changes in a short amountof time. I think we realize now the power that we have to makea difference, and thats exciting. Everyone at Tri-C knows thedirection were headed in. No one is unclear about his or herrole with regard to promoting student success and completion.Our president recognizes our accomplishments, but he hasntlet up on us in terms of the ongoing challenges. And thats agood thing.


Were focusing now on students who havent been assuccessful. Were targeting not only the rst-years and thecompleters, but also the students who are somewhere in themiddle. As we continue to ne-tune FYE, were now talkingabout redening our student population. We think now in termsof rst-year students, sophomores, and upper-class students.For us, sophomores are any students with two semestersunder their belt but who have yet to complete college-levelmath and English. And thats where the majority of our studentsare. Weve got to do what we can to move those sophomores

Impact


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along. Its important to us that all our students succeed andthat were moving the dial for everybody in terms of retentionand completion. Its a question of equity for us, and that value isdriving the conversation.

Were also working on reshaping the student experience ofacademic majors by developing metamajors. Metamajors arean array of academic programs with common or related content.Were creating what we call care teams of support made upof faculty, counseling faculty, and support staff, all clusteredaround students in the disciplines. Were still guring out whatthats going to look like.

Were still engaged in the same campuswide process we usedto develop FYE. Our efforts are now focused on how we cancontinue to reshape the Tri-C student experience to ensureeveryone is both engaged from entry and guided on a directpath to completion.

IHEP: Finally, what advice do you have for other communi-ties hoping to learn from what Tri-C has achieved?

You must have engaged leadership from the top down.Everyone needs to be focusing on the same thing. If you getmixed messages from leadership about what the prioritiesare, you wont be able to get everyone on the same page. Youneed someone at the top who knows exactly where you needto go and can effectively convey that message to leadership atall levels of the institution. You need very specic targets, veryspecic outcomes, benchmarks, and a realistic timeline. Onceyou have buy-in on the plan and campus constituencies startdriving the conversation, collecting feedback, encouraginginvolvement, and keeping it positive, you can achieve someincredible things.

I dont mean to suggest this was easy. Its denitely not easy.Were a large institution: four campuses, two corporate colleges,and a district ofce. Its a big ship to turn. I dont think any of usthought that we could have moved so quickly. But if we can doit, then with the right leadership anybody can do it.

You must have engagedleadership from the topdown. Everyone needs to be

focusing on the same thing. Ifyou get mixed messages fromleadership about what thepriorities are, you wont be ableto get everyone on the samepage. You need someone atthe top who knows exactly

where you need to go andcan effectively convey thatmessage to leadership at alllevels of the institution.

Tri-C Challengers Guide: Practical Advice for College Success and Personal Growth

This workbook was developed by Cuyahoga Community College(Tri-C) faculty and administrators for use by students enrolled inthe colleges credit-bearing First-Year Success seminars. Topicsinclude time management, test-taking and study skills, careerexploration, wellness, and money management. Learners arealso encouraged to make connections with student supportadvisors and programs at the college.

Page length: 63

First-Year Experience Program: Frequently Asked Questions

Designed for a student audience, this public

Postsecondary Student Success Guidebook

Documents

Transcript of Postsecondary Student Success Guidebook