Getting to the Next Phase in Student Success

The key challenge: Engaging the academic core to achieve next-level student success gains

Since the launch of the completion agenda in the late 2000s, community colleges have implemented countless pilots and initiatives aimed at improving student engagement, retention, and graduation. This first phase of institutional change focused almost exclusively on student services reform, reaching a meaningful but modest percentage of the student body. Next-level student outcomes gains require reimagining the academic curriculum, programs of study, and teaching and learning. These activities require participation and support from faculty members—both as individual faculty instructors and the faculty as a whole.

The goal: Direct faculty energy to specific activities and responsibilities that will improve student success

To achieve this goal, community college leaders must first translate their strategic student success goals to specific actions and responsibilities for frontline faculty who interact with students daily. Second, individual faculty must proactively flag signs of student risk when they notice academic or personal distress. Finally, leaders must ensure that collective action bodies like committees and task forces have clear goals, accountability frameworks, and result-driven approaches to their projects. Each of these challenges requires striking a balance between accountability and engagement, illustrated in the tactics below, so that faculty direct their student-focused energy toward the institution’s strategic goals.

The three critical areas outlined in this study will help you improve faculty participation and overall employee engagement in student success.

Tactics to improve completion rates through greater faculty participation in student success initiatives

Section 1: Making Strategic Goals Meaningful for Departments and Faculty

Many colleges have made marginal improvements towards increasing student outcomes, but most lack the resources to make such dramatic institutional changes or financial investments. College leaders must engage the faculty in their efforts to build on previous student success initiatives and avoid stagnation. This section examines how to motivate individual faculty members by giving them both institution-wide perspective and tailored recommendations for next best actions.

• Practice 1: Cascaded Strategic Goals
• Practice 2: President-Mandated Department Data Investigation
• Practice 3: Student Success-Focused Performance Evaluation

Section 2: Increasing Individual Faculty Participation in Mitigating Student Risk
Community colleges continue to invest in technologies designed to help faculty report signs of student risk in the classroom, but faculty participation remains incredibly low. This section focuses on how to promote faculty interventions with at-risk students.

• Practice 4: Critical Course Compliance Campaign
• Practice 5: Discussion-Based Risk Tagging
• Practice 6: Faculty Tutorial Referral
• Practice 7: Real-Time Withdrawal Alerts

Section 3: Elevating Committee and Task Force Effectiveness
Relying on disconnected and under-resourced task forces and committees to lead student success change can result in “committee overload” and inconsistent progress. This section provides ways to infuse traditional task forces and committees with project management infrastructure to amplify the impact of a small group’s initiatives.

• Practice 8: Role-Based Student Success Committee
• Practice 9: Interest-Based Call to Action
• Practice 10: Strategic Initiative Accountability Process
• Practice 11: Tiered Initiative Leadership Accountability Framework