Cabrillo College Student Equity Plan

Cabrillo College Student Equity Plan January 12, 2015

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY "In a learning organization, the journey never ends." -- John Tagg Major Findings and Directions The complementary state mandates addressing student success, basic skills, and student equity offer Cabrillo College an extraordinary opportunity to transform the college and improve on its efforts to serve its students. The Student Success and Equity Committee (SSEC), using the data generated by Cabrillo's Planning and Research Office, has identified the following target groups for the first round of student equity efforts. Latino/a students African-American students Native American students Current and Former Foster Youth Veterans Students in need of accessibility services (ASC/DSPS) Low-income students All of the five success indicators that the SSEC reviewed access, course completion, basic skills, certificate and degree completion, and transfer are addressed in the goals and programs outlined in this report. At the same time, the college has decided to focus on two specific success indicators 1) Basic Skills sequence completion and 2) overall college course completion rates - for the 2014-15 to 2016-17 planning period. 1 Quantifiable Three-Year Goals: 1. The college will improve the course completion rates among disproportionally impacted groups promoting them from great concern or concern to moderate concern or no concern area from 2014 to 2017. 2. The college will raise the Basic Skills sequence completion rates among disproportionally impacted groups according to the degree of concern they have from 2014 to 2017. Goals: A. Student Success Indicator For Access Increase the number of students who place into upper level basic skills math and English courses or college level courses using multiple measures including but not limited to college placement test scores, high school course completion, high school grades, and high school standardized test scores. Increase the volume of re-entry (35+ years old) and Veteran students, Latinos, Current and Former Foster Youth, First Generation, and economically disadvantaged students enrolled at Cabrillo College into learning communities. B. Student Success Indicator For Course Completion Increase the number of African American, Latino, American Indian and Current and Former Foster Youth (20-39 years old) who successfully complete one semester of course(s) and continue on to the next semester. C. Student Success Indicator For ESL and Basic Skills 1 In producing this document the college has benefited from a draft of the Equity Plan for Foothill College that was shared on the ASCCC website. Cabrillo College Student Equity Plan 5

Increase the number of African American, American Indian, Latino and Filipino students (18-25 years old) who successfully complete basic skills courses and move on to college level math and English courses. D. Student Success Indicator For Degree and Certificate Completion and Transfer Increase the number of African American, American Indian, Latino and Filipino students who successfully complete degree or certificate at Cabrillo College effectively closing the achievement gap. The goal is to also help meet the requirement set by the California Community College Board of Governors to increase the number of college graduates by 50% by 2020. E. Student Success Indicator For Transfer Increase the number of American Indian, Filipino, Latino, Current and Former Foster Youth, Mobility Impaired, BOG Aid receivers (20-39 years old) who transfer to and enroll in a university or college to complete a bachelor s degree. F. All Student Success Indicators: Our Additional Campus Commitment Beyond the requirement for all new students to complete assessment, orientation, and educational planning, Cabrillo College will develop a comprehensive follow-up system that will allow the college to respond to multiple academic and personal issues that may be barriers to degree and transfer completion. Using the Student Retention module in Colleague, a process will be developed to identify and intervene with students who are having personal and academic challenges and encourage them to continue their education as the gateway to move out of poverty. Broader College Vision for Student Equity There are two approaches that the college will take to improve access, course completion, certificate or degree completion, and transfer. One goal is to increase the reach of existing successful student equity programs and services on campus to support more students and to make that support more strategically delivered. The other more comprehensive goal is to effect a transformation of the college culture so the student equity initiatives involve every employee in the district. This will be a transformation for Cabrillo to a Learning College, one that embodies a culture of inquiry to increase equity for students in all learning environments. Such a transformation engages the entire college community, cultivates leadership, is at the center of our current professional development efforts (Cabrillo Connects), and leads to a broad base of understanding, support, and participation in the college s student equity and success efforts. The underlying tenet is that every member of the college community can contribute to our efforts to increase student equity at the college. This transformational project that centers on professional development is referred to as Pathways and Pedagogy. Rationale: Virtually all of the educational research over the past several years indicates that substantive improvements to colleges do not happen as a result of piecemeal changes. Some have translated this directive as Go big or go home, and others simply argue that business as usual has not adequately served whole populations of students over the years. 2 Indeed, the Crosswalk guidelines from the Chancellor s Office have guided the SSEC toward these kinds of institutional commitments. 3 Our conversations have led us to grapple with the kinds of challenges that require a level of fundamental change in the way our college addresses issues of student equity. Some of the questions from the Crosswalk that we have found especially provocative include: 2 Among the proponents and sources advocating for this sort of broad-based approach are Terry O Banion, Francisco Rodriguez, John Tagg, the RP Group, the speakers at the ASCCC Training on Equity Plans in September of 2014, and the 2014 Center for Student Engagement. 3 Linda Michalowski, Updated Student Equity Plan Instructions, March 14, 2014 Cabrillo College Student Equity Plan 6

What instructional strategies or curricular redesign can be undertaken to improve success for the targeted group? Does faculty employ a variety of instructional methods to accommodate student diversity? How are instruction and student success tied to institutional effectiveness measures? How are they established and through what venue? How do they connect instruction and student services? Does the college have structures and processes in place to engage faculty, administrators, and staff in an ongoing and intentional examination of student equity? These questions suggest that a thoroughgoing re-purposing of both Instruction and Student Services is needed in order to bring about the needed institution-wide changes to create a more equitable college. Priority: The first step in creating a Learning College is to create a culture of student equity, to create a more dynamic college committed to innovation and continual learning, and to unite the components (especially Instruction and Student Services) in an effort to increase student equity. This approach to the Student Equity Plan will fund ongoing projects, a few pilots (mentoring, assessment, outreach and Math Plus), and will strive to unite and leverage what is already happening by focusing on building a campus-wide culture of inquiry. This leveraging piece of the plan is extremely important fostering a cross fertilization of efforts that are already in process, enriched by conversation, analysis of data, and creative input. During the first year the Student Equity efforts will be bolstered by parallel initiatives by the Student Success and Support Programs (SSSP) Plan and the Professional Engagement and Transformational Learning groups to focus on leadership development across constituent groups. These efforts will be directed toward articulating pathways for student success, as well as engaging the employees and faculty serving the target populations in action-research pilot projects to better understand how to breakthrough sluggish gains in completion and retention. Outcomes: The outcomes of all SSEC efforts will be measured by research gathered by the Cabrillo Planning and Research Office. One goal is to use this research to recognize and integrate current projects that are doing that work, and new programs that we believe will increase the percentage of students completing coursework and completing the basic skills sequence. Background: The Student Success and Equity Committee has grown out of a college-wide effort, guided by the Student Success Steering Committee, to implement the requirements of the Student Success Act of 2012. The overarching goals of this steering committee were to serve as a clearinghouse for all of the efforts to refocus on student success, to engage in a meaningful dialog on exactly what student success could look like at our college, and, most importantly, to coordinate the efforts of the Student Services and Instruction components of the college. Working groups have been meeting since the fall 2012 under the guidance of the Student Success Steering Committee. These groups include: Acceleration, Enrollment Management, Distance Learning, K-12 Alignment, Basic Skills/Learning Communities, and Faculty Best Practices. In addition to this evolving framework for student success planning at the college, this Student Equity Plan is meant to be congruent with other important planning processes at the college. These processes include: the Basic Skills Plan, the Student Success and Support Programs Plan, the college s Strategic Plan, and the countywide task force implementing AB 86 regarding Adult Schools and non-credit instruction. Close cooperation among all of these groups will be necessary to successfully implement this Student Equity Plan. Cabrillo College Student Equity Plan 7

The college recognizes that many factors generally thought to be outside the scope of the college can be the most significant barriers to student success. These factors may include the financial pressures facing a student not addressed by financial aid, transportation difficulties, or finding quality child-care for our students who are parents. To help combat some of these real-world difficulties, the college has instituted a new, grant-funded program through the Fast Track to Work (CalWORKS) office called the Working Families Support Network. This program will combine academic programs, personal financial training, and student support services to help serve this large segment of our student population. Close coordination between the WFSN and the Student Success and Equity Committee should ensure that best practices identified through this grant can be offered in a college-wide context. This is a tangible way that the college is working to improve student equity and maximize the academic opportunities for our economically disadvantaged students. This 2014 Student Equity Plan has been drafted and reviewed by the Student Success and Equity Committee, to build upon the implementation of the 2012 Student Success Act and the implementation of the newly-formulated state directives focused on student equity. Research and Planning: The college recognizes that data, research, and sustained analysis are central to the successful implementation of this Student Equity Plan. Perhaps the most important guiding principles to improve student success and equity are contained in the Research and Planning Group s 2013 report. The report indicates that students are more likely to achieve their goals when six success factors are present. Those factors are: 1. Directed students have a goal and know how to achieve it 2. Focused students stay on track, keeping their eyes on the prize 3. Nurtured students feel somebody wants and helps them to succeed 4. Engaged students actively participate in class and extracurriculars 5. Connected students feel like they are part of the college community 6. Valued students skills, talents, abilities, and experiences are recognized; they have opportunities to contribute on campus and feel their contributions are appreciated 4 This document s timely publication has meant that the college does not have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to understanding some of the key components that foster students success. However, we must embrace this opportunity and coordinate our efforts creating effective change for our students. Still, questions remain regarding the specific contours of the student equity and success challenges at Cabrillo. To this end, the college s Planning and Research Office has produced local data to illuminate the scope and shape of the student equity and success challenges facing the college. These data follow this Executive Summary and demonstrates some of the trends that need to be addressed if the college is to make meaningful progress in achieving student equity. 5 4 RP Group, Using Student Voices to Redefine Support, January, 2013 5 Continued close collaboration between the Planning and Research Office and the Student Success and Equity Committee will be a crucial link in the process. In particular, further data are needed to pinpoint the reasons that some Cabrillo students fail to succeed, while others do succeed. Among the research questions that have emerged are: What are the possible causes and/or correlations for the decreased course success rates for our targeted populations? What effect, if any, does course delivery modality (e.g. face-to-face versus hybrid or distance) or the course discipline have on these rates? What effect, if any, does the student s completion of English or math have on these rates? What effect, if any, does the number of hours a student works, or family obligations, have on these rates? What courses, modalities, and disciplines have high (and low) success rates? What do students think will help them be more successful at Cabrillo College? Are there specific things that faculty, staff, and administrators can do to support student success? (Some of these research questions are from the Foothill Equity Plan Draft.) Cabrillo College Student Equity Plan 8