1. Wednesday March 11, 2015 Board of Trustees Meeting
Mission Fulfillment
Wednesday March 11, 2015
Board of Trustees Meeting
Take clicker
Pull up mission fulfillment webpage

2. Mission fulfillment
3 core themes 12 objectives 41 indicators Definition: at least 80% of objectives are satisfied

3. Goals
Update on progress Solicit feedback

4. Mission fulfillment webpage

5. Core theme 3, objective 3
Course completion rates eLearning course completion rates Academic transfer one-year retention rates Professional-technical one-year retention rates

6. Next steps Continue to work on webpage
Refine indicators (core theme 1)
Provide annual progress report at Board retreat

7. Questions

8. Measuring Up: Using Student Achievement Data to Measure College Performance
As you may recall, in Nov. 2013, we provided the first measuring up presentation about SA data. These metrics were developed in summer 2013 by the state board for use in a trustee workshop.
(The current funding model awards colleges a share of $4,684,627 in new money (above base allocation), which is a variable pool.)
(All awards are based on the college’s share of points in a given year within the following three pots:
45% for Total Points (less completions)
45% for Points Per Student
10% for Completions)

9. Student Achievement Initiative (SAI) indicators
basic skills gains
college readiness in English
college readiness in math
first 15 credits
first 30 credits
first 45 credits
college math
retention
completions
(used data from the three most recent academic years 2012, 2013, and 2014)
The SAI is the performance-based funding and accountability system for WA State Community and Technical Colleges.
SAI includes these 9 indicators of student progress.

10. Student Achievement Initiative (SAI) indicators
basic skills gains
college readiness in English
college readiness in math
first 15 credits
first 30 credits
first 45 credits
college math
retention
completions
(used data from the three most recent academic years 2012, 2013, and 2014)
The focus of measuring up is on 3 key policy areas: basic skills gains, college readiness in math, and completions by transfer and prof-tech students.
We will look at each of these 3 indicators, starting with completions.

11. Academic transfer students Professional-technical students
1. Completions
Academic transfer students
Professional-technical students
In terms of completions, we are going to look at academic transfer students and then prof-tech students.
(Why is this policy area important?
The national completion agenda and WA state studies call for completing more college graduates with meaningful certificates and degrees.
To meet these goals, we will have to produce more graduates every year.
This analytic measures a completers cohort to describe how many graduates we produce each year per students enrolled. )

12. Completions per academic transfer students enrolled at WCC and all colleges (2011-14)
For all of the graphs presented today, Whatcom is represented by the green columns on the left and the comparison group of all colleges in the system is in blue on the right.
If we were to interpret the first green column and the first blue column we would say…
Our completions over the last 3 years were consistently about 3% higher than the state average. And it’s difficult to move this percentage because of the size of the population.
Just to clarify, this is not a gradation rate…it is just the % of students whose intent was an academic transfer degree and who completed a degree in the same year. Consider on average it takes students 3 years to graduate, so a maximum of one third or 33% of students attending in a given year could potentially graduate. So 14% out of a maximum of 33% is actually pretty good.
Running start and college in the high school students are excluded.
Our 3-year graduation rate is 21%.
Interpretation: In of the 4,408 enrolled WCC students whose intent was an academic transfer degree, 14% completed a degree in that same year as compared to 11% of 116,300 students enrolled in all colleges in the system.

13. Completions per professional-technical students enrolled at WCC and all colleges (2011-14)
When we look at completions for students whose intent was a prof-tech degree or certificate, in , we experienced a small increase compared to the rest of the system, which has remained steady at about 20%.
Reason: Compared to other colleges, WCC offers fewer prof-tech certificates.
Interpretation: In of the 1,904 enrolled WCC students whose intent was a professional-technical certificate or degree, 14% completed a certificate or degree in that same year as compared to 20% of 92,004 students enrolled in all colleges in the system.

14. 2. Pre-college math students who complete college-level math
Now we will take a look at pre-college math students who complete a college-level math course in the same year.
Why is this policy area important?
Current research shows that multiple pre-college levels and the ways we assess students for college readiness can create barriers for students.
Student Achievement was revised to measure pre-college students only when they become college ready and complete their college level math.

15. Pre-college math students who complete college-level math in the same year at WCC and all colleges ( )
This graph depicts the percent of all current or former (prior year) pre-college math students who completed a college-level math course in the same year. As compared to the system average, you can see Whatcom students consistently out-performed students from other colleges in the system.
Reason: We generally have higher than average CCRs for math courses.
Interpretation: In , of the 2,469 current or former pre-college math students who were enrolled at WCC, 26% completed a college-level math course in that same year as compared to 19% of 79,748 students enrolled in all colleges in the system. 'Former' is restricted to those students who enrolled the year before.

16. 3. Percent of basic skills students who transition into college-level courses
And the final indicator is the % of …
Why is this policy area important?
Basic skills students need to move beyond basic skills in order to meet the overarching goal of increasing all Washingtonians’ post-secondary attainment.
Student Achievement was revised to measure basic skills students who transition to college level work.

17. Overall (includes ABE, GED, and ESL)
This graph depicts the percent of all current or former (prior year) basic skills students – which includes ABE, GED, and ESL students – who transitioned to a college-level course in the same year. As compared to the system average, you can see we have made steady progress over the last couple of years. The progress has been mainly in the areas of ABE and GED.
Interpretation: In , of the 798 current and former basic skills students enrolled at WCC, 13% transitioned to a college-level course that year as compared to 13% of 55,942 current and former basic skills students enrolled in all colleges in the system. 'Former' includes students who are not currently in basic skills, but were in the prior year.

18. ABE and GED
The % of current and former students transitioning from ABE and GED to a college-level course has increased by 8% over the last couple of years as compared to only a 3% gain in the system.
There are two main reasons for this trend:
1. Increased enrollment in iBEST courses due to a grant-funded research project. IBEST courses (Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training) pair 2 instructors in a class, one to teach professional-technical or academic content and the other to teach basic skills in reading, math, writing or English language.
 2. An increased emphasis on transitional advising and the development of educational plans with transitional learning students.
(PACE (Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education) research project. In and WCC enrolled 10 and 26 students respectively into IBEST courses as part of the Certificate of Proficiency – Clerical Assistant. For the majority of these students, this was their first college level course. The increased IBEST numbers make up a significant portion of the gain in transitions. In that portion is approximately 2% of the 5% gain and in that portion is approximately 6% of the 8% gain.)
Interpretation: In , of the 488 current and former ABE and GED students enrolled at WCC, 21% transitioned to a college-level course that year as compared to 20% of 24,297 current and former ABE and GED students enrolled in all colleges in the system. 'Former' includes students who are not currently in ABE and GED, but were in the prior year.

19. ESL
The % of current and former students transitioning from ESL to a college-level course has increased by 1% over the last couple of years as compared to no gain in the system.
Interpretation: In , of the 310 current and former ESL students enrolled at WCC, 2% transitioned to a college-level course that year as compared to 4% of 27,601 current and former ESL students enrolled in all colleges in the system. 'Former' includes students who are not currently in ESL, but were in the prior year.

20. Questions?