Thoughts on State Policy Meeting in Seattle

A delegation of Michigan community college representatives attended the 2012 Winter State Policy meeting of the continuing Achieving the Dream initiative sponsored by Jobs for the Future. Attendees at the conference heard from national experts and peers from other colleges about promising practices and policies that states are exploring or implementing to improve student outcomes. Conference objectives included sharing accomplishments, strategies, and lessons across the state network; providing opportunities for cross-state learning; highlighting new research and state activity on key policy issues facing participating states—particularly in the areas of data, innovation, developmental education redesign, program entry, and K-12 alignment.

A few key ideas emerged from this meeting for me:

1.  Performance based scholarships show promise
MDRC is studying the impact of performance based scholarships in several states including New York, Ohio, New Mexico, California, Arizona and Florida.  The concept is simple.  Offer a targeted group of students a scholarship of $500-$1000 per term on top of their other grant aid.  Pay out that scholarship directly to the student AFTER he or she meets established performance benchmarks such as attending consistently, maintaining a 2.0 GPA, re-enrolling for the next term, etc.  The study has found significant impacts on the scholarship students' ability to meet performance benchmarks when compared to a control group.  Read more about this idea here: http://www.mdrc.org/publications/607/overview.html

2.   Accelerating college readiness and credit attainment for high school students
Some colleges and school districts in Texas have been heavily engaged in Early College activities  targeting all students, rather than just those who are considered advanced.  These partners have aligned high school curricula with college expectations and offered early assessment, advising and academic support to ensure that at-risk students graduate from high school with some college credit and continue on to earn certificates and degrees at a higher rate than their counterparts in other districts. Read more about this idea here: http://hidalgo.jff.org/

3.  "Get with the Program"  has potential to impact completion rates
Davis Jenkins from CCRC presented research indicating that community college students who attempt and pass three or more courses in a degree program are more likely top complete a credential, including a certificate, associate or bachelor's degree within five years than students who do not attempt at least three program-specific courses.  The findings have implications for the way in which colleges design programs, advise students and deliver services such as developmental education.  Read more about this idea here: http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=885

What do you think about these ideas?

Upcoming Webinar

Michigan Center for Student Success to Host a Webinar about Serving Low-Skilled Adults: As we indicated in previous updates, we plan to communicate more frequently about the activities of the Center and the good work of the individual colleges. To this end we will hold periodic webinars with national experts and college innovators in Michigan. The first webinar will occur on February 24th. Please join us for an overview of the current policy environment for serving low-skilled adults nationally and in Michigan as well as a look at policies, practices and emerging opportunities across the state. Hear highlights from the recent statewide survey conducted by the Michigan Center for Student Success and get a preview of our upcoming publication as well as our plans for aligning initiatives to increase the success of low-skilled adults. The information about registering for the webinar is below. Please direct any questions about the webinar to Jenny Schanker at jschanker@mcca.org.

Serving Low-Skilled Adults: Challenges, Opportunities and Promising Practices in Michigan
Friday, February 24 - 1:00-2:30 pm (EST)
You can register for the webinar at the following link:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/449356674

1st Annual Student Success Research Symposium April 10, 2012

Announcing the 1^ST Annual Student Success Research Symposium

The Michigan Center for Student Success (MCSS) will be hosting the first annual Student Success Research Symposium on April 10th. This event will be held in Ann Arbor in partnership with the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan.  One of the main goals of MCSS is to develop a sustained student success research agenda based on the needs of Michigan community colleges and key issues correlated with improved student outcomes. To this end, the symposium will be the launch of the Student Success Applied Research Collaborative with the input and direction from academic leadership, institutional research directors, and other practitioners at community colleges. The college staff and leadership will also be joined by scholars from Michigan universities conducting research on two-year institutions. The goal of this event is to inform the long-term research agenda for the Center with an eye toward research projects and analyses that have practical application and value to the colleges efforts to improve student outcomes. Topics to be covered at the symposium will include:

·         An overview of the student success research literature

·         An initial profile of student progression and success (w/aggregate data from ATD colleges)

·         An update about the Michigan P-20 data system and its implications for the research agenda

·         Breakout sessions and facilitated discussions about key research questions

·         A panel session featuring research and analyses from community college research and planning staff

·         A panel session featuring emerging and relevant research projects from university faculty

More details (including an agenda) will be shared as they are finalized in the next couple weeks, but this event will be an important opportunity for teams of college practitioners (including leadership, IR staff, and faculty) and scholarly researchers to begin a dialogued about a sustained student success research agenda for Michigan’s community colleges. As always, we welcome your input. Please direct any questions about the symposium to Chris Baldwin (cbaldwin@mcca.org) or Jenny Schanker (jschanker@mcca.org).

Highlights from Dual Enrollment Research

MCSS has been conducting research into the current state of dual enrollment in Michigan community colleges.  Currently, 27 colleges have completed a survey of dual enrollment policies and practices and 18 have submitted data on enrollment numbers and tuition rates.  This data provides a useful basis for understanding current practices, highlighting successful innovations and connecting practitioners grappling with similar challenges.  The research also supports MCCA's advocacy efforts related to the proposed revisions to the Michigan's dual enrollment program currently moving through the Michigan legislature. 

Survey results indicate that Michigan colleges offer dual enrollment opportunities in a variety of formats, including on-campus, at high schools and other sites, and online, with 75% of colleges indicating that at least some students are self-paid.  50% of colleges are offering or participating in structured dual enrollment programs such as Early/Middle College, high school academies or 4+1-type programs.  Colleges cited payment and FERPA issues as key challenges and indicated strong interest in increased collaboration with K-12 partners to improve college readiness and participation in dual enrollment.

Welcome to Our New Blog

Welcome to our new Blog!

2012 Preview of Activities from the Michigan Center for Student Success

Happy New Year! With the start of the New Year, we thought it would be valuable to give you a preview of activities sponsored by the MCSS in 2012:

Major upcoming events to connect large numbers of college leaders and practitioners

·         1^st Annual Research Symposium for Student Success (April 2012) – This event will be an opportunity for teams of college practitioners (including leadership, IR staff, and faculty) to engage in a dialogue with scholarly researchers about a concerted student success research agenda

·         Faculty Leadership Initiative Regional Meetings (Spring 2012) –  Building on the successful launch of the Faculty Leadership Initiative in the fall, we will be working with faculty leaders across the state to hold regional cross-campus conversations about student success from a faculty perspective

·         Summer Trustee Institute focused on Student Success (July 2012) – Leveraging the Trustee Institute held in September 2011 with the leadership of ATD colleges, we will be providing an opportunity for trustees from all 28 colleges to participate in this one-day event as part of the activities in Traverse City this summer.

·         2012 Student Success Summit (September 2012) – Following on last year’s successful event, we will be looking to increase the participation of college and community partners in this signature event with presentations about promising innovations here in Michigan and perspective from national experts.

Enhanced communications to grow the network of college innovators

The staff of MCSS will be putting a much greater emphasis on communications in 2012. Below are series of publications that will be regularly produced with the primary audience college leaders, faculty and staff with a tight focus on student success efforts.

·         Monthly E-newsletter – This publication will include four sections: 1) feature article; 2) college spotlight; 3) new resources or publications from the field; and 4) upcoming events. 

·         Bi-monthly Issue Papers – This will be a series of short issues papers on topics related to student success. We envision issue papers on college readiness, dual enrollment, adult completion and transfer, student success metrics, and more.

·         Longer topical briefs or reports ­– These publications will be longer, in-depth explorations of issues and initiatives related to colleges activities to improve student outcomes. Likely publications this year will include an examination of Michigan colleges’ experiences in longer standing initiatives such as Achieving the Dream and Breaking Through. Additionally, we will be publishing a document that outlines the Center’s overarching Student Success Framework.

·         Enhanced website and use of social media – As part of the MCCA’s website, MCSS pages will be augmented considerably to include: 1) an overview of the Center including events and publications; 2) profile existing student success initiatives in Michigan;  3) new national resources and publications; and 4) a mechanism for college’s to share their emerging promising practices with their peers. To this fifth point, we will be much more aggressive in our use of social media including the use of Twitter, Facebook, and other comparable tools.

·         Periodic webinars – We will provide routine opportunities for college staff and faculty to participate in webinars that include national experts as well as innovators from Michigan colleges. We will host at least six of these webinars throughout the year.

In addition to the activities outlined above, we will also support opportunities for colleges to collaborate and learn from each other through existing communities of practice (i.e. Achieving the Dream, Breaking Through, the Faculty Leadership Initiative, and Project Win-Win) as well as emerging peer networking opportunities (i.e. Michigan Educators Veteran Support Consortium, Credentials that Work initiative, and a student success research collaborative). Last, but certainly not least, the MCSS staff will continue to support MCCA policy efforts such as the legislative study committees focused on college readiness and block transfer as well as inform other policy dialogues such as dual enrollment and performance funding. 2012 will be a busy year and, as always, we welcome your input and feedback.  Please contact Chris Baldwin (cbaldwin@mcca.org) or Jenny Schanker (jschanker@mcca.org) with any questions.