Community College League of California: Equity2015 = I 3 Implement, Integrate, & Institutionalize Student Equity Student Equity Plans: Promising Practices Denise Noldon, Interim VC, Student Services, CCCCO Debra Sheldon, Student Equity & Success, CCCCO May 6, 2015

Student Equity Funding 2014 June—An appropriation of $70 million of Student Equity funding to the CCCs with new requirements for planning:  Be coordinated with other categorical programs.  Include faculty, student services and other constituencies.  Include Foster Youth, Veterans and Low-Income students as target populations January—Governor proposed an additional $100 million in of Student Equity funding for FY, bringing the statewide to $170 million May—Revenue estimates are much higher than expected

What is Equity?

Prioritizing Equity How do we prioritize? All students? Largest number of students? High-need students? Where is the balance?

Prioritizing Equity CCRC studied High and low-impact Florida CC’s* Focus on retention & graduation vs. enrollment Target support to underperforming & historically underrepresented students Provide well-aligned and proactive student support services Provide faculty development on improved teaching Experiment with ways to improve student success Use data for program improvement *Community College Management Practices That Promote Student Success, Jenkins, 2006

Prioritizing Equity CCRC studied High and low-impact Florida CC’s Focus on retention & graduation vs. enrollment Target support to underperforming & historically underrepresented students Provide well-aligned and proactive student support services Provide faculty development on improved teaching Experiment with ways to improve student success Use data for program improvement

Elements of the Plan Research Success Indicators* Access Course Completion ESL and Basic Skills Completion Degree and Certificate Completion Transfer Goals* Activities* Budget Evaluation *Disaggregated by student groups

Student Equity Plan: Populations American Indians or Alaskan natives Asian Black or African American Hispanic or Latino Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander Whites Some other race More than one race Current or former foster youth Students with disabilities Low income students Veterans Populations to be addressed by gender:

Student Equity Plan: Coordination SB 860 also requires the Student Equity Plan to include coordination with these categorical or campus-based programs: DSPS EOPS Fund for Student Success:  MESA  Middle College High School  Puente Project SSSP Programs for foster youth Programs for veterans CalWORKs Student Financial Aid Administration Basic Skills Initiative and students

Student Equity Plan: Guidelines Basic Elements of Expenditure Guidelines: All expenditures must: address the Student Equity populations and indicators as defined in statute and title 5. Be based on the disproportionate impact study, goals and activities described in the college Student Equity Plan. No match is required. In addition: Provide an annual report on expenditures and progress toward goals.

Student Equity Plan Requirements Timelines:  Planning timeframe: minimum of 3 years  Must submit annual Year-end Report  Revised plan template available hopefully end of June, 2015  Due November 23, 2015

Reading the Plans - Highlights Representative Panel of 30 Readers March 18-20, 2015 – Review worksheet covered research, goals, activities, budget, coordination with other programs, etc. – 10 teams of 3 readers, with unique backgrounds/skills. – Each team reviewed plans from across the state. Feedback to Colleges: – Peer review with feedback to individual colleges on strengths and weaknesses. – Provided in time to help colleges update plans for Feedback to CCCCO: – needed changes to plan template, expenditure guidelines, evaluation and statewide professional.

Plan Review - Questions Did the college student equity plan include: Required elements – Signatures, Research, goals, activities, budget, evaluation? Goals and activities addressed and aligned with impacted groups? Budget aligned with goals, activities and impacted groups? Campus wide collaboration and coordination? Evaluation aligned with goals, activities and impacted groups? For each section: What was done well? What needs to be improved?

Reading of the Plans – Practices Institution-wide Initiatives: Bi-annual study sessions/updates for the BOT. College-wide process for publicizing and monitoring success indicators for groups experiencing an achievement gap. Integrate SE into the Education Master Plan and program review. Improve data collection and research for foster youth, veterans and low-income students.

Reading of the Plans – Practices Conduct a campus climate needs assessment survey. Integrate student equity planning into district resource allocation. Update website and student portal to support focus on goal completion. Make it easily accessible, with timely information. Address language and disability barriers. Provide faculty and staff development

Reading of the Plans - Practices Access: Develop/Revise outreach materials and websites in target group languages. Reach out to faith-based communities frequented by target groups to better understand student barriers and solutions. Increase applications and use of financial aid for targeted groups. Ask affected students what barriers they face and what helps them to succeed. Disseminate results.

Reading of the Plans - Practices Course Completion and ESL and Basic Skills Completion: Provide better prep for students prior to placement tests Make sure student groups experiencing DI receive an education plan. Provide targeted counseling to affected groups. Conduct research on improving early alert and revise process. Cultivate peer mentor programs to identify and work on diversity issues.

Reading of the Plans - Practices Course Completion and ESL and Basic Skills Completion, cont’d: Expand first-year experience programs and learning communities for targeted student populations Integrate student equity planning with basic skills. – Publicize BS pathways to HS and existing students. Include info on “cost” in terms of time and money, and strategies to shorten the path. – Increase tutoring and supplemental instruction – Provide acceleration in math, English and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs

Reading of the Plans - Practices Degrees and Certificates: Promote scheduling practices to eliminate gaps in pathways to facilitate completion of academic goals. Schedule more evening courses if research shows it might improve outcomes. Develop as student communication management systems to notify them of deadlines, etc. Increase use of career center to help refine career goals. Target activities to students w/15 units who lack a comprehensive education plan. Implement Year-end celebrations for targeted groups.

Reading of the Plans - Practices Transfer: Improve messaging to students about benefits of transfer. Promote Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADT’s) to targeted student groups. Promote collaboration among instructional and counseling faculty on ADT’s for targeted groups.

Reading of the Plans – Future Changes Plans and Topics: Statewide Professional Development: What is student equity and why it is important? Best practices by indicator and target population Cultural sensitivity and competency Using SE data for program improvement: – Displaying data for decision makers and committees – Aligning student equity goals and activities with research – prioritizing student equity goals, activities and expenditures – Setting equity goals and establishing baseline data Integrating student equity, program evaluation and other planning efforts Developing “All Student Equity Coordinator” training.

Reading of the Plans – Future Changes Changes to the Student Equity Plan Template: Include new requirements of SB 860 Increased focus on collaboration Description of overall strategy for improving equity Better alignment of research, goals, activities and expenditures Reformat template so research, goals and activities, and budget are all a subset of each indicator: access, course completion, Basic skills and ESL completion, Degrees and Certificates and transfer.

Panelist Experiences What did you learn? What will you implement at your college?

Student Equity: Next Steps Get involved – Make equity visible, know your plan, make equity part of institutional plans and budgets, be a active part of the current/future committee. How do you move from Student Equity planning to implementation? Implement, Integrate and Institutionalize

Questions? Comments?