Engaging Community Colleges A First Look

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They Cant Succeed if They Dont Come Back
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Why focus on entering students?
Survey of Entering Student Engagement
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They Cant Succeed if They Dont
Come Back Finding Keys to Entering Student
Retention, Engagement, and Success

• Angela Oriano-Darnall
• Assistant Director, Survey of Entering Student
  Engagement (SENSE)
• Center for Community College Student Engagement
  (CCCSE) UT Austin, TX
• Marsi Liddell
• President, Aims Community College Greeley, CO
• Terry Calaway
• President, Johnson County Community College
  Overland Park, KS
• Steve Head
• President, North Harris College Houston, TX

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Why focus on entering students?

• Community colleges typically lose half of their
  students prior to the second year
• Achieving the Dream Round One colleges (41,008
  students) 14 earned NO credits during first term
  
• Helping students succeed through the equivalent
  of the first semester (1215 credit hours) can
  dramatically improve subsequent success rates

Survey of Entering Student Engagement
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• CCSSE data show students typically described as
  high risk are more engaged in their college
  experience than their low-risk peers.
• Why?
• Highly-engaged students are the students who
  survive to the second term!

• When there are differences in engagement
  between low- and high-risk students.

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SENSE A Tool for Improvement

• SENSE provides 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, and
• identify areas in which we can improve.

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• CCSSE

• SENSE

• Focused snapshot of entering students
  experiences
• Sampling Frame All developmental courses
  first college-level English and math course(s)
• Drawn from Course Schedule File
• Projected Enrollments
• Administration 4th and 5th weeks Fall Semester
• Electronic reports via SENSE Web site Early
  March

• Broad overview of students experiences
• Sampling Frame All credit courses excluding ESL
  Distance Learning
• Drawn from Course Registration File Actual
  Enrollments
• Administration Throughout Spring Semester
• Paper Reports End of July

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SENSE Overview

• Qualitative Work Starting Right
• Piloted in fall 2007 with 22 colleges
• Conducted Field Test fall 2008 with 89 colleges
• Core Survey plus Special-Focus Modules
• (up to 2 per college)
• Financial Assistance
• Support and Commitment
• Student Success Courses
• Engagement Through Technology
• Customized Modules (College or Consortium
  Specific)

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SENSE Overview

• Entering Student Success Institute
• 2-½ day Learning Event
• College Teams (3 to 5) people One Price for
  Team
• Complete Advance Homework
• Inventory of Current Practices
• Basic Data Review
• SENSE Data Review - Entering Student Action Plan
• Assigned Resident Faculty
• Breakout Sessions
• Designated Team Work Sessions
• Leave with Completed Action Plan

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Panel Discussion Questions

• What findings from your initial review of SENSE
  data capture the attention/concern of the college
  team?
• Were there areas that your college varied
  significantly from other field test colleges?
  What about when you looked at your disaggregated
  data?
• What specific findings are pertinent to the
  colleges current student success initiatives?
• What specific findings point to potential
  priorities for college action and work at ESSI?

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Fostering a Culture for Americas New Community
College
Johnson County Community College
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WHO ARE WE?Johnson County Community CollegeFall
2008 Enrollments

• 2008-2009 FTE 10,760
• 2008-2009 Head Count 19,062
• 25,000 Non-credit Workforce Development Hours
• Annual enrollment growth of 1- 4 since 2005

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JOHNSON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGESUMMARY OF
DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

• Proportion of Hispanic to Other Ethnic
  GroupEnrollment Rising
• Overall Completion Rates Rising by 18
• County High School Graduation Rates are 2nd
  highest in the United States
• College participation rates in Johnson County are
  6th highest in the United States

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Why SENSE

• Focus on Engagement Retention
• Vehicle for College Wide Reflection
• Quality Improvement

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JCCC Basic Data Review Preparing for ESSI
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JCCC Basic Data Review Preparing for ESSI
Entering Students First-Term Course Completion
Rates (All Courses C or Higher) Fall 2007
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JCCC Basic Data Review Preparing for ESSI
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Johnson County Community CollegeSelected SENSE
Findings

• Student Use of Support Labs Tutors ( 19.2)
• Career Counseling (11.6)
• Faculty Feedback (6.7)
• Outside Engagement with Peers (7)

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Johnson County Community CollegeSelected SENSE
Findings
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Johnson County Community CollegeSelected SENSE
Findings
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Orientation Getting to Know You
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About Aims Community College

• Aims offers over 130 degree certificate
• programs on campuses located in northern
  Colorado
• Greeley, Fort Lupton Loveland
• Berthoud (future campus)
• Windsor (future Automotive Center)
• Online
• New Student Demographics
• 66 Caucasian
• 20 Hispanic
• 14 Other
• 39 First-generation College

Survey of Entering Student Engagement
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Rate of Entering Student Participation in
Developmental Education - Aims (Fall 2008)
Survey of Entering Student Engagement
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Overall Rate of Successful Course Completion for
Students in First Term of Enrollment Aims (Fall
2008)
Survey of Entering Student Engagement
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Entering Student Persistence First to Second
Term of Enrollment - AimsFall 2008 to Spring 2009
Survey of Entering Student Engagement
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Aims Community CollegeSelected SENSE Findings
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Aims Community CollegeSelected SENSE Findings
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Advising Getting Students Started Right
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Lone Star College System

• Lone Star Colleges 52,000 students
• LSC-CyFair 13,000
• LSC-Kingwood 8,500
• LSC-Montgomery 9,500
• LSC-North Harris 12,000
• LSC-Tomball 9,000
• University Center
• Seven Centers

Survey of Entering Student Engagement
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Lone Star College North Harris

• 12,000 Students
• 35 Hispanic
• 25 Black
• 23 Anglo
• 80 Low income
• 80 First generation

Survey of Entering Student Engagement
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SENSE Data - Lone Star College System

• Advising not valued or helpful in setting goals
  and establishing plans by 70 of students
• The majority of students knew little about
  applying for financial aid
• Further review internally showed that Lone Star
  College-North Harris did not have an effective
  structure to communicate and follow up with
  students in the early weeks

Survey of Entering Student Engagement
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Actions Taken as a Result of SENSE

• Created a new position called Advisor
• Moved to a case management system
• Matrix system of accountability and tracking of
  all First Time in College (FTIC) students
• Counselor role lessened in early weeks of
  semester
• Revamped Financial Aid Office
• Creation of SEA (Success Encourages Achievement)
  Center for early alert, tutoring and mentoring

Survey of Entering Student Engagement
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Advisor Responsibilities

• Conduct personal contact with cohort at least
  twice a semester
• Email cohort twice a month
• Place hold on records of students who dont
  respond to emails or calls
• Schedule FTIC (First Time in College)
  orientations
• Phone students (with no prior contact) at least
  once a semester
• Write correspondence to instructors and students
  home as needed
• Complete degree plans with each student

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Fall 2008 Advising Effectiveness

• 97 students completed the semester
• 93 fall 2008 to spring 2009 retention rate
  compared to 56 all students
• 71 completed with a 2.0 or higher compared to
  62 all students

Survey of Entering Student Engagement
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Participant Questions?

• SENSE Web site www.enteringstudent.org
• ESSI Registration Open Now Limited to first 25
  colleges
• SENSE 2010 Registration opens fall 2009
• CONTACT INFORMATION
• Angela Oriano-Darnall
• Phone [phone]
• Email oriano-darnall_at_ccsse.org

Survey of Entering Student Engagement