project finish line: tools to strengthen community college...

Project Finish Line: Tools to Strengthen

Community College Completion

Pave the Way Conference

October 19, 2017

Green River College North Seattle College Seattle Central College South Seattle College

Allison Warner Alice Melling Naina Eshwar Erin Barzen

Walla Walla

Community College

Puget Sound

Educational Service

District

Private Consultant

Kristi Wellington-Baker Hilary Loeb Bob Hughes

Maureen Pettitt

Presentation Overview

• Introductions

• Project Finish Line overview

• Evaluation findings and discussion

• Closing thoughts

Introductions

and Project

Finish Line

Overview

Introductions: In Pairs or

Triads at Your Table

• What role do you play in supporting student retention and

completion?

• What are some barriers to student success that you hope

to address to your work?

• What is one thing at Pave the Way that you are hoping to

apply when you return to work?

Data Sources: WA OSPI student level database, WA SBCTC data warehouseAll data provided to CCER by WA ERDC

Completing a Degree or Transferring to a 4-Year College within Three Years

Rationale for Creating a Completion Culture

What is

Project Finish

Line?Completion

Coaches at Seattle Colleges and Green

River College

Puget Sound Coalition Learning

Community

Regional Change in Campus Cultures

Completion Coaches at Seattle Colleges and Green River

Community College

• Walla Walla Community College award winning model

• Reengagement of “potential completers”

• Changes to infrastructure, policies and practices

• Gates Foundation funding for one coach/campus with college match

• Goal of return on investment=69 FTE students/Completion Coach

Completion Coaches at Seattle Colleges and Green

River CollegeResults

8,016

3,809

2,193

Students Identified for CompletionCoaching

Students Responding to CompletionOutreach Efforts

Students Agreeing to Work withCompletion Coaches

Completion Coaches at Seattle Colleges and Green

River College

Results

321

1,009

1,330

1,147

Completes a Certificate Earns a Two-Year or a BADegree

Total CredentialsCompleted

Total Unique StudentCompletions

• Collaboration with Dr. Rob Johnstone of National

Center for Inquiry & Improvement

• External evaluation led by Professor Bob Hughes

• Professional learning community supported through

the Puget Sound College and Career Network

• Changes in infrastructure, policies, practices aimed at

supporting completion


External

Evaluation

Findings

Campus Culture

Commitment from across

Campus

Systems Responsive

to need

Finances and Funding

Our Methods

We conducted analysis from:

• A review of the peer-reviewed literature on completion and retention

• Initial interviews with 16 key staff, administrators, and faculty at Walla Walla Community College to establish factors supporting success

• Initial interviews with 48 key staff, administrators, and faculty at Green River College, South Seattle College, Seattle Central College, and North Seattle College

• Questionnaire data collected from participants (n=101) attending six Learning Community events – note: this includes additional colleges and organizations

Initial Work Suggested Impact from Four Factors

The four impact themes identified from the work of Walla

Walla Community College:

1. Campus Culture

2. Commitment from Across Campus

3. Systems that are Responsive to Need

4. Finances and Funding

Each has significance – completion coaching as a focal point

for systemic change

Focal Point for Already Ongoing Work

Completion Coaching Provided Framework and People for Dialogue on:

• Systemic work

• Collaboration across units and externally

• Identification of specific barriers and remedies

In all cases (both Walla Walla Community College and the four

replicating sites), completion coaching was a natural next step in work

underway such as TRIO and AANAPISI projects

The Student Experience

(What the data tell us)

• n = 2,347 Students from four colleges over a two-year period (note:

slight difference from funder report)

• Types of connections (in-person, personal and blast e-mail,

appointment and robocall phone contacts) slightly varied by campus

– One campus relied heavily on robocalls

• 1,154 students in contact with a completion coach finished the

degree or certificate they sought (note: slight difference from funder

report)



Demographics Gender

Male 51.6%

Female 48.2%

Race/Ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 44.4%

Hispanic 10.4%

African American 11.6%

Asian/Pacific Islander 14.1%

Native Am/Native Alaskan 1.5%

Other/Not Reported 14.0%



Impact

• Of the total reported population, just under half (n = 1,154)

of the people receiving personal contact completed in the

time period of this study, finished

• Note: This holds true for the total time of the project, as

well as for six-month segments of time of the project (i.e.,

first six months and last six months).

Did Not Finish 50.8%

Finished 49.2%



• Coaching Positively Impacted All Groups, Regardless of

Demographics

– Ethnicity and age

– Eligibility for needs-based supports such as BFET, State Needs

Grant, or Pell Grant (important to note that 69% of students

received financial aid, with the mean number of award types =

2.8)

– Student Intent (transfer, prof/tech, or certificate)

– Began career in basic skills or developmental levels

– No statistically significant differences among populations served



For the most part, the method of personal contact does not correlate

with completion

– These have similar positive relationships to completion:

• In-person meetings

• Phone meetings

• E-mail exchanges

– The data on robocalls come from one college, and we were

unable to gauge their impact

Small Group Discussion: Guiding Questions

1. What does a culture of completion look like on our

college campus?

2. What steps did our college take to build our culture?

3. How did these efforts promote equity of access to

success for historically underserved students on our

campuses?

Factors Contributing to Project Finish Line

Impact: Theme 1 Importance of Campus Culture

• Culture of collaboration

• Relationships among staff

• Relationships with students

• Culture of innovation

• Student completion as a measure of the college’s success

Factors Contributing to Project Finish Line

Impact: Theme 1 Importance of Campus Culture

Campus Culture

• Project built on existing structures that supported collaboration and innovation

• Coaches’ holistic scope allowed them to bridge multiple areas of student services

At the end: “…We're trying to look at a completion model that really looks at the

lifecycle of students from the very beginning when they're exploring what

careers they want to focus on through that advising component and then as

they get closer to graduation and completion coaches really push them

forward to get through.”

• Support from across campus

• Support from leadership

Factors Contributing to Project Finish Line Impact: Theme 2

Importance of Commitment from across Campus

Factors Contributing to Project Finish Line Impact:

Theme 2 Importance of Commitment from across Campus

Commitment from Across Campus

• Strongest evidence: All four campuses have institutionalized completion coaching

• Strong buy-in from staff, and administration

At the end: “Our leadership – not just from Student Services but across the board – is well aware and supportive of our efforts. They're seeing it and then they're voicing their support of it because they're seeing the impact that it has on students and on departments.”



college campus?




campuses?

• Technology systems

• Access and use of data

• Policies and procedures


Theme 3 Importance of Systems that are Responsive to Need


Importance of Systems that are Responsive to Need

• Policies adopted to reduce barriers (e.g., graduation and admission fees)

• Exploration or adoption of policies and practices that fit each college (e.g., auto-conferral of degrees)

• Some progress on data systems (especially one of the college’s data dashboard)

• Some challenges in all colleges managing the multiple sets of data required to track student progress (shadow Excel files and lists)

• All colleges agree on the need to include their college’s instructional unit in the future


Importance of Systems that are Responsive to Need

At the end: “We're pretty intentional about examining our own practices

such that we kind of get out of our own way as much as

possible. As a result of some of those conversations we've

changed some of our internal practices so that completion isn't

necessarily a process or an unnecessary burden for students.

We're trying to streamline the lifecycle and the processes

associated with it as much as possible.”



college campus?




campuses?

• Financial barriers must be addressed

• Sustained funding

• Importance of the foundation


Theme 4 Importance of Finances and Funding


Theme 4 Importance of Finances and Funding

• Each college has committed to continuing completion coaching after

the grant funding

• Each college has developed extraordinary funding to support

students who are completing.

At the end: “The completion agenda is not only internal to the campus,

but the Foundation has also utilized [positive stories] as a way to

ask donors to donate so that we can help students directly and

look at community partners who want to engage in a completion

agenda.”

Closing

Thoughts

Conclusions from the Data

(What Made a Difference?)

Triangulation between quantitative and qualitative data suggest:

• Whole systems approach

• Focused effort

• Using data to inform decisions on individuals and on systems

• Opportunities and encouragement for innovation

• Learning Communities

• Support/expert advice from Walla Walla Community College

and Kristi Wellington Baker, specifically

Conclusions from the Data

(What Made a Difference?)

Triangulation between quantitative and qualitative data

suggest a need to:

• Continue efforts to refine and develop completion coaching

at each campus

• Continue to develop a systems approach on each campus

• Continue to connect to other campuses as they learn and

innovate

• Develop stronger connections to the Instructional units at

each campus

Concluding Discussions and Questions

• What have you learned that you can implement on your

campus or organization?

• What are some concrete steps that you can take to

support postsecondary completion efforts?

• What further questions did this session raise?

Resources• Presentation and Materials:

https://coalition.psesd.org/resource-repository/

• Road Map Project Community and Technical College Report http://www.roadmapproject.org/data-center/reports/

• Puget Sound College and Career Network Website http://psccn.org

• AACC Completion College Fact Sheet http://www.aacc.nche.edu/About/completionchallenge/Documents/Completion-Fact_Sheet.pdf

• Bailey, Thomas R., Shanna Smith Jaggars, and Davis Jenkins. Redesigning America's Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015.

• The Murky Middle Project https://www.eab.com/technology/student-success-collaborative/members/white-papers/the-murky-middle-project

• Please contact Ury Salinas to be added to our Newsletter mailing list: [email protected]

https://coalition.psesd.org/resource-repository/

http://www.roadmapproject.org/data-center/reports/

http://psccn.org/

http://www.aacc.nche.edu/About/completionchallenge/Documents/Completion-Fact_Sheet.pdf

https://www.eab.com/technology/student-success-collaborative/members/white-papers/the-murky-middle-project

mailto:[email protected]