Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count

Francie Grace — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:50:07 -0400

This Talking Circle at the University of New Mexico at Gallup, convened as part of the Achieving the Dream initiative to boost success rates at community colleges, got an auspicious start with a resounding welcome from the Cedar Lodge Drum Group.

By Lara Birnback

When the cameras roll for Hollywood's campus comedies, the colleges the screenwriters have in mind are typically leafy expanses where students have hardly a serious thought to consider. Reality is quite another picture.

Nearly half of all U.S. college students attend community colleges, an important part of the American dream because of their institutional commitment to providing broad access to higher learning.

Giving many income and age groups initial access to college isn't, however, enough to make the dream come true. Currently fewer than half of community college students are able to meet their educational goals.

With that problem in mind, "Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count", a national initiative, was developed to help more students earn certificates or degrees that open the door to further education, better jobs and greater opportunity.

Achieving the Dream, a multi-year initiative, is focused on helping more community college students succeed, particularly those student groups which traditionally have faced significant barriers to success, including students of color and low-income students.

Achieving the Dream works on multiple fronts, with multiple partner organizations, and includes direct efforts at community colleges and in research, public engagement and public policy. It emphasizes the use of data to drive change and focus on measureable outcomes.

Eighty-three community colleges in 15 states currently participate in Achieving the Dream, with the support of over 17 national, state, and local funders. Since 2005, Public Agenda has been working closely with other Achieving the Dream partner organizations and colleges to build the principles of effective dialogue and public engagement into their work with local communities and leaders, as well as community college staff, faculty, and students.

In addition to serving as the overall consultant on public engagement, Public Agenda has contributed original research, created stakeholder and community engagement materials and toolkits, and provided direct technical assistance to over twelve community colleges through three different pilot programs.

Throughout late 2005 through early 2006, Public Agenda worked directly with six colleges in Florida, Texas, Connecticut and Ohio providing technical assistance as they planned community conversations to engage the campus and broader community in a discussion about the best ways to help struggling students succeed.

The six conversations each attracted between 80 to130 students, community members, and college faculty and staff. In addition, Public Agenda developed an integrated "'tool kit" of print and video materials and discussion guides that all Achieving the Dream colleges - as well as community colleges across the country - can use to jump start community conversations and/or stakeholder dialogues on the topic of "Success is What Counts: Helping all Community College Students Succeed."

"The Public Agenda model… truly opens the dialogue so that people are fully valued for their opinions, experiences, and contributions," reflected an organizer of a well-attended April 2006 Community Conversation at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida. It also helps to prevent us from inadvertently looking past another person, not seeing or hearing what they are saying."

Participants in the Community Conversations have again and again cited the value of having the chance to sit and talk with people from a wide range of backgrounds - a vital component of the program.

Results and follow-up action at each college have varied, but in many locations one of the key results has been an effort to form greater connections and deeper partnerships with the local K-12 schools.

South Texas College in McAllen, Texas: Participants in this Community Conversation, set up with the assistance of Public Agenda's Public Engagement team, praised the format of free talk aimed at problem-solving and expressed interest in further grassroots efforts to change policy and K-12 curriculum.

Jefferson Community College in Steubenville, Ohio, for example, is planning a Fall 2008 follow-up Community Conversation in partnership with local school authorities to discuss college readiness community-wide. In San Antonio, Texas, a new "College Connection" program was created by Alamo Community Colleges in cooperation with the San Antonio Independent School District. As part of the program, each high school senior interested in the college is to be assessed and provided guidance with enrollment and financial aid.

Currently, Public Agenda is involved in two pilot programs intended to expand and deepen its past engagement work with the Achieving the Dream colleges. The first, Involving Faculty and Students in Creating a Culture of Success, is underway at Bunker Hill Community College in Massachusetts, Coastal Bend Community College in Texas, Cuyahoga Community College in Ohio and Capital Community College in Connecticut.

When done skillfully, the authentic involvement of critical stakeholders such as faculty, staff, and students in planning and implementing institutional change can minimize resistance, foster a sense of shared responsibility, and create a "distributed leadership" model.

Each of the colleges participating in this program is employing a variety of strategies including focus groups, student/faculty dialogue groups, and campus conversations.

While the work is still ongoing, the impact is already being felt. "I used to find my office hours were pretty quiet, and I had the chance to get work done," says a Coastal Bend Community College faculty member who was a part of the dialogue on that campus. "Now the word has gotten around that I'm available and my office is full of students!"

The second pilot program, Community Action & Engagement for Student Success, is being undertaken in collaboration with MDC, Inc. and is focused on deepening the relationship between the college and the surrounding community through the development of a college/community leadership team, thereby creating mutual accountability and responsibility for student success.

South Texas College in McAllen, Texas, and the University of New Mexico at Gallup are Public Agenda's college partners in this effort—and both are majority minority institutions. At South Texas, most students are Hispanic in origin, with a majority being Mexican and Mexican American. At Gallup, a great majority of the students are Native American, largely Navajo and Zuni.

"I had several informed moms in our group," says Susan Valverde, a moderator of a Community Conversation in McAllen, Texas. "They credited programs such as Gear Up for making them better able to support their kids. I was pleased to hear that folks are taking advantage of that resource."

"I was also pretty impressed by one student that talked about rigor and how much he wanted it," says Valverde. "He essentially felt that many classes (high school and college) are being taught to the lowest students in the class. It was refreshing to hear a young person say the he felt cheated by “easy route” because it not going to prepare him for career and life.

At the heart of this initiative is the realization that in some cases, even the best efforts by institutions to increase student success may plateau or stall due to widespread cynicism or ineffective community engagement and leadership. This has been particularly true in areas where significant disparity exists among groups along economic, social, or racial lines.

While a college may make numerous internal changes in policy and practice, commonly held beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, practices and policies in the community may nevertheless limit how much progress is made.

Encouraging results are being seen in this program as a result of each college's highly successful community conversations, which in Gallup are called "Talking Circles."

Nowhere is the role of the community college as a provider of hope more evident than in the comments of some of the participants in New Mexico, where parents suggested annual talking circles might be helpful to push for school reform.

Some suggestions came from hard-won personal lessons.

"I attended a community college," said one talking circle participant. "I had bad advising. I could have figured out how to get out of school a lot sooner with less money [spent]."

"I want to go back to school and learn but it is all about money and time," said another participant, with eyes trained firmly on the future – and a personal dream. "I want to get my kids out on their way, so it will be my turn because all I am is a high school graduate."

For more on Achieving the Dream, check out the national website for the initiative, as well as Public Agenda's mini-sites for the Achieving the Dream pilot programs, Involving Faculty and Students in Creating a Culture of Success and Community Action & Engagement for Student Success.

Lara Birnback is Public Agenda's Senior Public Engagement Project Director.