Issue-29

In 2010, Senate Bill 1143 called on the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to convene a task force to make recommendations on how to improve student success. This article provides the background on the rational and the recommendations that resulted from this legislation. It is a companion piece to the lead article on Ten Reasons to Support the Recommendations of the Student Success Task Force by Linda Michalowski.

Linda Michalowski, Vice Chancellor for Student Services and Special Programs, shares her perspective on the recommendations of the Student Success Task Force.  As a long-time champion for access and student equity, she presents 10 reasons why student services professionals and student advocates should enthusiastically support these reforms.  The system is being challenged to refocus on what makes students successful and that gives us an opportunity to refocus resources to support student success.

The high national and statewide unemployment has placed challenging demands on community colleges and its services. We would like your insight on how colleges are coping and what new ways have been identified to help our unemployed students, our students with disabilities and other groups challenged by the current condition of the state and national economy. Articles will be accepted  now through May 15, 2012.

In this edition, our writers share what is happening on their college campuses to improve access, graduation rates and successful transition to a job or a four year university. The issue also spotlights key state legislation and a plan approved by the Community College Board of Governors to address this issue. Our sponsor is the California Community College Chief Student Service Administrators Association.

Over 11 million students are enrolled in community colleges and nearly two-thirds of them indicate they plan to continue their education at a senior institution and obtain their bachelor’s degree.  However, many of these students never accomplish that goal.  Community colleges and four-year institutions must coordinate and collaborate in various ways to support the students’ dreams and prepare them to be successful.  Research has identified various factors that inhibit student success.  Included are barriers identified as academic, social, informational, complexity, and financial.

As more and more colleges offer on-line courses, the gap between on-line student retention and success and on-campus student retention and success becomes more apparent.  On-line students can persist and be more successful if instructors take advantage of technology tools embedded in the course management system to identify and correct performance and participation issues of at-risk students.

In this article, the authors provide an overview of the development and evolution of a collaborative set of relationships amongst writing faculty at a research university, community colleges, and high schools.  Prompted by concerns about challenges facing students transitioning to a four-year university from local high schools and community colleges, the authors worked to establish networks and workshops that would allow literacy and writing specialists from all segments the opportunity to share data, understand each others' programs, and work toward aligning curricula to facilitate student success. 

AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is an elementary through post-secondary college readiness system that is best known for its success in preparing Latino, low income, first generation to college, English Learners and African American high school students for college, is now playing a central role in accelerating the transfer process for first time freshmen at a Bay Area community college. This is being done through a new program called the Los Medanos College's Transfer Academy. Launched in fall of 2011, the first semester showed enormous promise, bringing together student services, management, counseling, and faculty to collaborate on a holistic approach to student success. For the fall semester, 73 or 78 first-time freshmen enrollees successfully completed their courses. The program is largely based on AVID principles that have been translated to the community college context.

This article presents one institution’s approach to meeting the “completion agenda” mandate from the President of the United States.  Prince George’s Community College has used data to design and implement Envision Success, a college-wide initiative that will allow the students to graduate in a timely manner.