Telling the Completion by Design Story: The

Institutional Change Study

Presentation by MDRC for the Completion by Design Cross-Cadre Retreat

Charlotte, NCFebruary 2013

MDRC study is one of several ways we will surface CBD learning and tell our collective story

MDRC Deep Dive on

Institutional Change, Student

Experience and Cost

Student Progress Measures

(KPIs)

Convenings—Cadre-Wide and

Cross Cadre

Quarterly College

Reflection Meetings

College and Foundation-Generated

Reports

CCRC Research & Tools on

Redesigning Community

Colleges

Feedback from the Cross-Cadre Advisory Committee◦ Focus on institutional change (including culture

change) ◦ Less focus on fast trials of individual interventions

Excellent work by colleges to set realistic, evidence-based improvement targets on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Feedback from experts on how to research institutional change in higher education

Input for Refining Approach

Principles Guiding Revisions to StudyPrinciple Change

Focus on most unique aspects -learn about the change process and the new student experiences

• MDRC will not conduct a student outcome analysis

• The cost study and qualitative interviews with students remain

Maximize relevance to field -- Provide other colleges with practical information they need when considering whether to adopt CBD-like changes (e.g. what barriers will my college face and how much does it cost)

• Enriching the change process study by adding more interviews with administrators and faculty and adding more observation

• Maintain cost study.• Increase interviews with students

Focus at the initiative level

• To afford more in-depth, qualitative data collection, go deep on representative sample of colleges that reflect diversity of the field

Provide the higher education field with practical information to consider when aspiring to CBD-like transformation◦ E.g. Time, money and skills to make these types

of changes and how students experience the changes

Build knowledge about institutional change in higher education in general

The study is NOT designed or intended to evaluate each individual college

Purpose of the Initiative-level Study on Institutional Change

1. How does the systemic change envisioned by CBD occur?

◦ What changes do the colleges make in pursuing the CBD goals?

◦ What factors facilitate or inhibit change? What is the role of cross-college fertilization?

2. What does change cost? ◦ What is the cost-effectiveness of the new student

pathway compared to the pre-CBD pathway?◦ How do the colleges cover these start up and ongoing

costs? ◦ What are the revenue implications?

3. How do students experience the changes?

Refined Research Questions

To develop a rich and nuanced understanding of what happens when colleges make these types of changes, we plan to deeply study the process of change in a subset of the CBD colleges

Sample colleges will be chosen to represent the diversity of community colleges nationwide. Chosen to provide diversity in size, region, student mix, degree mix and data availability.

Case study colleges will not be identified in reports; readers should see these colleges as archetypes of community colleges, not particular institutions

Case Studies in 5 Sample Colleges

Track the process of change by:◦ Talking to administrators, staff and faculty

multiple times a year◦ Observing key activities◦ Reviewing documents

Understand student experiences by:◦ Talking to students multiple times a year◦ Review changes in the KPIs

Track costs (start-up costs, maintenance costs) and revenue implications by:◦ Reviewing budget and expenditure data◦ Talking to key staff and administrators

Likely Research Activities in the Sample Colleges

KPIs from all colleges will be used to put case study college experiences in context

All colleges will review early findings and provide input on how case study college experience compares to their own

Cross-cadre evaluation advisory committee will continue to provide feedback as well as advice on sharing findings with the field

How all CBD colleges will be involved

Jean Grossman—Project Director Sue Scrivener—Project Manager and co-lead

of the Institutional Change Study Janet Quint—Co-lead of the Institutional

Change Study Adriana Kezar—Senior Advisor, Rossier

School of Education, University of Southern California

Key MDRC Staff and their Roles