A new report from Achieving the Dream (ATD) offers early findings from 15 community colleges participating in an ATD initiative that focuses on “community vibrancy,” which aims to expand access to higher education, create greater social and economic mobility for more learners and their families, and help communities prosper.
The report released Wednesday highlights the various ways community colleges are using ATD’s Community Vibrancy Framework, particularly in informing their strategic planning and student success agendas. Several participating colleges have used the tool to uncover populations they could serve better. For example, the Alamo Colleges District in Texas used the framework to determine a potential to help justice-impact populations while also serving local workforce needs.
“The college realized that expunging students’ criminal records could unlock the transformative potential of earning a credential while supporting ‘second chance’ hiring initiatives by regional employers and multinational companies in its service area,” the report says.
In Ohio, North Central State College‘s analysis of national, state and local discovered something similar.
Controlling costs, keeping momemtum
Colleges in the program are also exploring ways to keep students’ costs and debt down. That includes better explaining to students what those costs are and what resources are available, as well as providing career advising sooner in the process so students understand potential income in their field of study.
Grayson College in Texas, for example, is working with area K-12 systems to promote its Promise program. As a result, local FAFSA completion rates have increased from 50% to 75%, and the percentage of high school graduates going directly to college have rose by nearly 15%. The success has the college mulling possibly creating a Promise program for adults in partnership with local workforce partners and a university partner, the report says.
Creating and sustaining momentum is another key part of the framework. Harper College in Illinois studied its student data to revamp its first-year student experience in order to improve student success. Its research showed that students will graduate at a 75% rate if they complete five milestones by the end of their first year. These include picking a major and having an academic plan to complete gatekeeper courses in English and program-specific courses in college-level math, as well as earning 24 credits for full-time students and 12 credits for part-time students.
Quick tips
Lessons learned from early stages of the initiative include:
- Start with intended community outcomes in mind.
- Bring the community voice early, meaning involve the community in the planning process.
- See local opportunities in new ways using a data-informed approach. This includes working with local leaders and partner groups to confirm and understand the data.
- Strengthen value proposition, such as establishing unifying language anyone can support and emphasizing the college’s history as a trusted partner in the community.
- Reimagine and deepen community partnerships, which include re-evalauting current partnerships and collaborating with peer colleges.
- Shift the mindset from completion to post-completion and from post-completion to community impact.
- Build internal support.
- Measure program relevance and value.
- Emphasize place-based planning.
- Inform and align internal strategy.
- Self-reflect on college capacity building and restructuring.
- Look for the future.
