A Matter of Degrees

1. A Matter of Degrees Promising Practices for Community College Student Success A First Look

2. Center for Community College Student Engagement

3. CCCSE: Collecting Data from Many Perspectives Four surveys that complement one another: • CCSSE • CCFSSE • SENSE • CCIS

4. CCCSE: Collecting Data from Many Perspectives • Qualitative and quantitative data • Surveys provide quantitative data. • Initiative on Student Success provides qualitative data.

5. CCCSE: Collecting Data from Many Perspectives Core surveys and special-focus items • Core surveys are the same from year to year. • Special-focus items examine a specific area and change from year to year. • Special-focus items for the 2011 and 2012 surveys address promising practices for promoting student success and completion.

6. CCSSE Overview

7. CCSSE: A Tool for Improvement CCSSE helps us: • Assess quality in community college education • Identify and learn from good educational practice • Identify areas in which we can improve

8. CCSSE: A Tool for Community Colleges • CCSSE data analyses include a three-year cohort of participating colleges. • The 2011 CCSSE Cohort includes more than 444,000 community college students from 699 institutions in 48 states and the District of Columbia, five Canadian provinces, Bermuda, and the Northern Marianas.

9. CCSSE: A Tool for Accountability • CCSSE: • Provides reliable data on issues that matter • Reports data publicly • Is committed to using data for improvement • CCSSE opposes using its data to rank colleges. ranking

10. CCSSE Benchmarks

11. CCSSE Benchmarks for Effective Educational Practice The five CCSSE benchmarks are: • Active and Collaborative Learning • Student Effort • Academic Challenge • Student-Faculty Interaction • Support for Learners

12. CCSSE Benchmarks for Effective Educational Practice

13. Benchmarking – and Reaching for Excellence • The most important comparison: where you are now, compared with where you want to be.

14. Reaching for Excellence at [XX College] • This is an opportunity to customize one or more slides for your college. Slide and discussion ideas include: • Show how your college is reaching for excellence by discussing how your college is using CCSSE data to better understand and improve its practices. • Compare yourself to the national average (the 50 mark). • Measure overall performance against performance by your least-engaged student groups. • Gauge your work in the areas your college strongly values (e.g., the areas identified in your strategic plan). • Contrast where you are with where you want to be.

15. CCFSSE Overview

16. Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (CCFSSE) CCFSSE: • Elicits information from faculty about their teaching practices, the ways they spend their professional time both in and out of class, and their perceptions regarding students’ educational experiences. • Is aligned with CCSSE to allow colleges to contrast student and faculty perceptions.

17. SENSE Overview

18. Why Entering Students? • Community colleges typically lose about half of their students prior to the students’ second college year. • An Achieving the Dream study determined that 14% of entering students do not earn a single college credit during their first term. • Lack of success lowers persistence rates — just 15% of students who earn no credits in their first term persist to the following term, compared to 74% of students who earn credit in their first term.

19. Why SENSE? • National data show that students of color, low-income students, and academically underprepared students are at greater risk of dropping out. • And CCSSE data show students typically described as high risk are moreengaged in their college experience than their low-risk peers.* • What does this tell us? *When there are differences in engagement between low- and high-risk students.

20. Why SENSE? • Highly engaged students are the ones who survive to the second term. • Maximizing engagement may be essential to retain high-risk students. • SENSE helps colleges, students, and the nation by focusing on the front door of the college experience.

21. SENSE:A Tool for Improvement • Helping students succeed through the equivalent of the first semester (12–15 credit hours) can dramatically improve subsequent success rates. • Successfully completing the first semester can improve students' chances of returning for subsequent semesters, reaching key milestones, and ultimately earning certificates and degrees.

22. SENSE: A Tool for Improvement • SENSE provides both quantitative and qualitative data that: • Are grounded in research about what works to retain and support entering students • Identify and help colleges learn from practices that engage entering students • Identify areas in which we can improve

23. SENSE: Quantitative and Qualitative Data • SENSE administers its survey during the fourth and fifth weeks of the fall academic term in courses most likely to enroll entering students. • Working through the Initiative on Student Success, SENSE also conducts focus groups and interviews with new students as well as faculty, student services professionals, and presidents. The initiative is supported by the MetLife Foundation and Houston Endowment Inc.

24. SENSE Benchmarks

25. SENSE Benchmarks of Effective Practice with Entering Students The six SENSE benchmarks are: • Early Connections • High Expectations and Aspirations • Clear Academic Plan and Pathway • Effective Track to College Readiness • Engaged Learning • Academic and Social Support Network

26. CCIS Overview

27. CCIS: A Tool for Improvement • CCIS collects information about whether and how colleges implement a variety of promising practices.

28. Promising Practices for Community College Student Success

29. Promising Practices for Community College Student Success These promising practices are part of collegiate learning experiences that attend to students’ needs from their first interactions with the college through the successful completion of their first academic term and beyond.

30. Promising Practices for Community College Student Success • Planning for Success: Assessment and Placement, Orientation, Academic Goal Setting and Planning, and Registration before Classes Begin • Initiating Success: Accelerated or Fast-Track Developmental Education,First-Year Experience, Student Success Course, and Learning Community • Sustaining Success: Class Attendance,Alert and Intervention,Experiential Learning beyond the Classroom, Tutoring, andSupplemental Instruction

31. Assessment and Placement Among entering students who report taking a placement test and needing developmental education, the percentage who say they were told they were required to take at least one developmental education course in their first term Among students who report taking a placement test and needing developmental education, the percentage who say they were told they were required to take at least one developmental education course in their first term Yes (48,648 of 71,167) Yes (19,327 of 23,470) Source: 2011 CCSSE Promising Practices data. Source: 2011 SENSE Promising Practices data.

32. Assessment and Placement Percentage of colleges offering a test-prep experience that report the test prep is mandatory for all first-time students, including full-time students and part-time students Percentage of colleges that say they offer some form of placement test-prep experience for reading, writing, or math Yes (83 of 187) Yes (11 of 83) Source: 2011 CCIS data. Source: 2011 CCIS data.

33. Assessment and Placement at [XX College] This is an opportunity to customize one or more slides for your college. Slide and discussion ideas include: • Provide your college’s data for survey items related to assessment and placement, and discuss the results. Provide examples of what you plan to do with the information, such as requiring testing, requiring students to enroll in developmental classes in their first semester, or requiring test prep. • Compare your college’s performance with the performance of a group of similar colleges (without naming the colleges, of course) or to the full CCSSE, SENSE, or CCIS population. • Give examples of initiatives that your college has developed (or plans to develop) to strengthen efforts on your campus(es).

34. Orientation Percentage of CCSSE respondents who report participating Yes (N=237,325) Source: 2011 CCSSE Promising Practices data.

35. Orientation at [XX College] This is an opportunity to customize one or more slides for your college. Slide and discussion ideas include: • Provide your college’s data for survey items related to orientation, and discuss the results. Provide examples of what you plan to do with the information, such as requiring orientation or changing its format. • Compare your college’s performance with the performance of a group of similar colleges (without naming the colleges, of course) or to the full CCSSE, SENSE, or CCIS population. • Give examples of initiatives that your college has developed (or plans to develop) to strengthen efforts on your campus(es).

36. Academic Goal Setting and Planning Percentage of entering students responding agree or strongly agree Source: 2010 SENSE Cohort data.

37. Academic Goal Setting and Planning at [XX College] This is an opportunity to customize one or more slides for your college. Slide and discussion ideas include: • Provide your college’s data for survey items related to academic goal setting and planning, and discuss the results. Provide examples of what you plan to do with the information, such as assigning a specific person, such as an advisor or staff member, to each entering student, so each student has a single contact for questions. • Compare your college’s performance with the performance of a group of similar colleges (without naming the colleges, of course) or to the full CCSSE, SENSE, or CCIS population. • Give examples of initiatives that your college has developed (or plans to develop) to strengthen efforts on your campus(es).

38. Registration before Classes Begin • More than one in 10 CCSSE respondents (11%) report they registered late (after the first class meeting) for at least one class. Fewer than 1 in 10 SENSE respondents (8%) say they registered late (after the first class meeting) for at least one class. Yes (26,828 of 238,504 respondents) Yes (2,629 of 34,266 respondents) Source: 2011 CCSSE Promising Practices data. Source: 2011 SENSE Promising Practices data.

39. Registration before Classes Begin at [XX College] This is an opportunity to customize one or more slides for your college. Slide and discussion ideas include: • Provide your college’s data for survey items related to registration, and discuss the results. Provide examples of what you plan to do with the information, such as reassessing drop/add rules or offering late registrants different learning opportunities. • Compare your college’s performance with the performance of a group of similar colleges (without naming the colleges, of course) or to the full CCSSE, SENSE, or CCIS population. • Give examples of initiatives that your college has developed (or plans to develop) to strengthen efforts on your campus(es).

40. Structured Group Learning Experiences The Center describes five of the promising practices as structured group learning experiences: • Orientation • Fast-track developmental education • First-year experience • Student success course • Learning community

41. Accelerated or Fast-Track Developmental Education Percentage of CCSSE respondents who report participating Yes (N=64,658) Source: 2011 CCSSE Promising Practices data.

42. Accelerated or Fast-Track Developmental Education at [XX College] This is an opportunity to customize one or more slides for your college. Slide and discussion ideas include: • Provide your college’s data for survey items related to accelerated or fast-track developmental education, and discuss the results. Provide examples of what you plan to do with the information, such as introducing targeted or self-paced programs. • Compare your college’s performance with the performance of a group of similar colleges (without naming the colleges, of course) or to the full CCSSE, SENSE, or CCIS population. • Give examples of initiatives that your college has developed (or plans to develop) to strengthen efforts on your campus(es).

43. First-Year Experience Percentage of CCSSE respondents who report participating Yes (N=230,996) Source: 2011 CCSSE Promising Practices data.

44. First-Year Experience at [XX College] This is an opportunity to customize one or more slides for your college. Slide and discussion ideas include: • Provide your college’s data for survey items related to first-year experience, and discuss the results. Provide examples of what you plan to do with the information, such as making a first-year experience mandatory for at-risk students or all students. • Compare your college’s performance with the performance of a group of similar colleges (without naming the colleges, of course) or to the full CCSSE, SENSE, or CCIS population. • Give examples of initiatives that your college has developed (or plans to develop) to strengthen efforts on your campus(es).

45. Student Success Course Percentage of CCSSE respondents who report participating Yes (N=229,696) Source: 2011 CCSSE Promising Practices data.

46. Student Success Course at [XX College] This is an opportunity to customize one or more slides for your college. Slide and discussion ideas include: • Provide your college’s data for survey items related to student success courses, and discuss the results. Provide examples of what you plan to do with the information, such as combining entry-level or developmental courses with student success courses. • Compare your college’s performance with the performance of a group of similar colleges (without naming the colleges, of course) or to the full CCSSE, SENSE, or CCIS population. • Give examples of initiatives that your college has developed (or plans to develop) to strengthen efforts on your campus(es).

47. Learning Community Percentage of CCSSE respondents who report participating Yes (N=229,374) Source: 2011 CCSSE Promising Practices data.

48. Learning Community at [XX College] This is an opportunity to customize one or more slides for your college. Slide and discussion ideas include: • Provide your college’s data for survey items related to learning communities, and discuss the results. Provide examples of what you plan to do with the information, such as combining introducing more learning communities or making them mandatory for some or all students. • Compare your college’s performance with the performance of a group of similar colleges (without naming the colleges, of course) or to the full CCSSE, SENSE, or CCIS population. • Give examples of initiatives that your college has developed (or plans to develop) to strengthen efforts on your campus(es).

49. Structured Group Learning Experiences Percentage of colleges that report they implement each practice (N=288) Source: 2011 CCIS data.

50. Structured Group Learning Experiences Among responding colleges using each practice, the percentage that require the experience for all first-time students (part-time and full-time) Accelerated or fast-track developmental education* First-year experience Orientation Yes (105 of 276) Yes (15 of 120) Yes (45 of 166) Student success course Learning community Yes (35 of 238) 1% Yes (2 of 160) *Required for first-time developmental students only (part-time and full-time)Source: 2011 CCIS data.