Strategic action planning Institutional Change is HARD Need(s) Strategies Goals Outcomes/ Outputs Strategic planning is not easy, especially when equity is involved—it requires examining our implicit biases, our own thinking, our own assumptions, and uses DATA at both the front and back end. AND it’s long term.

What makes a change “stick”? What makes a change sustainable? How many of you seen great ideas go nowhere? How many of you have seen mediocre ideas spread? Partners, buy-in, showing data of effectiveness, strategic planning, aligned goals. SYSTEMS thinking!!!!

Strategic action planning Where have we been? SWOT, Program Visualization, Need Statement Thinking systematically about your environment, and the target for change in relation to the three project strands in that environment

Strategic action planning Where are we going? Today: Identify factors that contribute to your need that can be the focus of action, make plans for the kinds of data you would want to collect to confirm your assumptions and measure your success Tomorrow: Finalizing connections between your strategies, your workshops, and the next steps back on campus In kezar model it’s analyzing strengths and weaknesses to prep for solutions, disseminating results

Locating Your Leverage Points within the Student Experience: Mapping the Processes and Practices Related to Your Need Statement

By the end of this workshop… Inventory and map the processes and practices that relate to the need you’ve identified Using this map, identify a short list of potential contributing factors related (optional) Create a list of follow-up action items Data needed to confirm or narrow the identified list Gathering student voices Stakeholders or experts who should be consulted You will likely have a short list of remaining questions e.g. additional data or conducting student focus groups to check you conclusions. But we hope that within your time here you will scope out at least a potential list of factors.

Why Assess Processes and Practices? Locating your need within your existing processes and practices and attributing a “why.” ENVIRONMENT We can change ENVIRONMENT Improved OUTCOMES Current OUTCOMES Control for INPUTS

Why Assess Processes and Practices? What are the standard processes related to this need and what do we know about it? What already exists in your program or in institutional processes or supportive services that attempts to address this issue? How does it work? Who does it reach? CURRENT ENVIRONMENT Woohoo administrators!!! Help us with this!

Suburban College—Final Logic Model Contributing factors Success Vision: A Diverse Graduating Class that Mirrors the Community Need Strategies Goals Outcomes Students of color and women are overwhelmingly not completing this pathway or transferring in the field. - Culturally relevant course redesign - Supplemental instruction Bonus: Create a Facebook page and revamp their website More culturally relevant pedagogy Greater # accessing support services Improved course grades at midterm and final Improved retention and completion later in the pathway Students of color and women are overwhelmingly not passing the intro course to this pathway and therefore are not able to complete or transfer in the field. The purpose of this is to get to a point where we can say—here are factors—whether they are ineffective practices, gaps in practices, etc. that with thing CONTRIBUTE TO OUR NEED. You can revise the need statement to be inclusive of this if you want. This also helps define your goals and align your strategies. HOW does undergraduate research contribute to your need?

Contributing Factors What is it (within your influence with the help of your champions) that’s contributing to or creating this need?

Contributing factors examples.., Students are not be receiving consistent messaging about career opportunities or curriculum pathways through advising process Some but not all students are gaining access to a pedagogy or practice that could support their success (how and why) Students are not receiving opportunities at the right points to learn key success skills We do not have a process to assess or support students in preparation for the written aspect of a licensure exam We do not offer students the opportunity to apply their knowledge in a way that will translate to other courses or future jobs

Can you add these to your need statement? YES! Can you identify MANY contributing factors? YES! Can you narrow to a smaller list that you think aligns most to what you want to affect with your work as a team? YES! (and probably should)

…we can move from the idea that “if we had better students, we would have better outcomes,” to the idea that “if we create better processes, our students will demonstrate better outcomes.” Heather This quote is from your process assessment guide and speaks to our responsibility to continuously review, reflect and improve processes for our students enhance their performance. Again, the student is our focus! This also reflects the equity-minded piece of our work in PTR—we do not focus on what students lack, but how our institution can change to facilitate their success.

Steps at a Glance Identify and Examine the Processes Explore the Presence of and Participation in Key Practices Identifying and confirming contributing factors (and for later, student voices) See page 5 of the module to say a bit more about these steps. Note, there is a student voice component in the final contributing factors step, which is something they will pick up on with their own students.

DO NOT GET HUNG UP. Why think about both process and practice DO NOT GET HUNG UP? Why think about both process and practice? Because we have a tendency to one or the other, but both form opportunities for students to succeed. A major functional process can be defined as a set of interrelated actions within all or most pathways or programs of study that achieve a specific result. A process contains multiple steps that follow a sequence to the intended result, and may integrate one, and often more, supporting practices. A practice is an intervention or support—which may be repeated throughout a pathway—with an identifiable and measureable outcome and an underlying theory and evidence. Student participation in a practice can be measured in isolation of other practices and processes. However, because practices should be well integrated within a pathway and its processes, it can be difficult to measure the outcome of participation in the practice in isolation of the larger system. Often practices support or align with the goals of one or more major functional process.

Major Process Inventory Recruitment and Matriculation Academic support Graduation processes Transfer and articulation Today you will inventory your major processes, this is one example Student health

Work through Steps 1 and 2 Page 7-11 Page 7-12 Inventory major functional processes that lead and support students to and through your geoscience program. Narrow to a list of just a few you want to think about more that seem related to your need statement. Write out the steps involved in those processes. Page 7-12 Use the Inventory of Student Support Practices Worksheet and the Pay-Attention-To List to create an inventory of the practices you or your institution has in place for your geoscience students. The tools for this start at 7-16

Step 3: Putting it all together… Need Statement Pathway milestones (retention, course or assignment completion, learning outcomes) System Outcomes: E.g. transfer, learning, employment  Student experience in geoscience program  Pathway exit points (e.g. credential completion, transfer, sequence completion)   Entry points (e.g. enrollment, dual credit)   Supportive services?   Extra-curriculars   High Impact Practices in courses   Map how these related processes and practice create the student experience. You can do this however seems best to you. You might frame it by thinking about it on a pathway like the one you created yesterday through your program. How is it supplemented and supported by the practices and processes you’ve decided are relevant??? Where do the processes and practices come in to set students up for success or not??? FEEL FREE to note where you see gaps or concerns that might be your contributing factors!!! But ALSO feel free to note what you’re doing really well? Or even what you’re doing really well for SOME students but not all! Cont. Factors Strengths

Step 4: Walk the Room—what can you learn? Need Statement Pathway milestones (retention, course or assignment completion, learning outcomes)  Student experience in geoscience program  Pathway exit points (e.g. credential completion, transfer, sequence completion)   System Outcomes (Goals): E.g. transfer, learning, employment Entry points (e.g. enrollment, dual credit)   Supportive services?   Extra-curriculars   High Impact Practices?   Map how these related processes and practice create the student experience. You can do this however seems best to you. You might frame it by thinking about it on a pathway like the one you created yesterday through your program. Where do the processes and practices come in to set students up for success or not??? FEEL FREE to note where you see gaps or concerns that might be your contributing factors!!! But ALSO feel free to note what you’re doing really well? Or even what you’re doing really well for SOME students but not all! Cont. Factors Strengths

Step 5 & 6 Page 7-13 & 14 Discuss what you saw in others’ work and reflect on your map to finalize your list of contributing factors and record them in your notebook or journal. There are useful reflection questions in your notebook. Map how these related processes and practice create the student experience. You can do this however seems best to you. You might frame it by thinking about it on a pathway like the one you created yesterday through your program. Where do the processes and practices come in to set students up for success or not??? FEEL FREE to note where you see gaps or concerns that might be your contributing factors!!! But ALSO feel free to note what you’re doing really well? Or even what you’re doing really well for SOME students but not all!

Report out… Project Strands: How do your contributing factors address one or more of the three project strands? Equity: How does this factor relate to issues of equity or broadening participation? Champion Team: What does this contributing factor mean for the Champion Team you may need in place to overcome it? How can you appeal to the concerns or interests of specific champions to help them feel invested in this issue? What do you still need to know from students or other sources? You will likely have a short list of remaining questions e.g. additional data or conducting student focus groups to check you conclusions. But we hope that within your time here you will scope out at least a potential list of factors.