Welcome
to The Report Card, a newsletter containing information on various
topics related to institutional effectiveness. Unlike previous years, the
2005-2006 Report Cards focus on institutional processes rather than
institutional data. They have been designed to inform the college
community about how Green River addresses each of its five Institutional
Goals. In doing so, the Report Cards also inform the college
community about each recent institutional effectiveness presentation to
the Board of Trustees – the Monitoring Report. This issue summarizes the
most recent Monitoring Report presentation to the Board of Trustees on
under-represented students.
Background
Corresponding to Green
River’s Vision and Mission statements, the Board of Trustees adopted five
Institutional Goals on May 25, 2005. In compliance with Policy Governance
procedures, the Monitoring Reports should report on the college’s
performance in achieving its goals, and thus ultimately in fulfilling the
Mission. However, because the college is devoting the 2005-2006 year to
identifying and developing core indicators and related quantitative
measures to assess goal achievement, this is a transitional year for the
Monitoring Reports. More specifically, they have been designed to better
inform the Board about how the college addresses each goal area. The
intention is to provide the Board members with a clear picture of the
mission and functions of the germane instructional and administrative
areas, and a better sense of the kinds of core indicators that should be
used to evaluate performance.
Monitoring Report:
Under-Represented Students
The Monitoring Report on
under-represented students was presented to the Board of Trustees on
November 17, 2005. The presenters were David Hyllegard, Director of
Research and Planning, Mark Mitsui, Assistant Dean of Student Services,
Vik Bahl, Instructor, English, and Richard Ferro, Instructor, Social
Sciences.
The institutional goal for
under-represented students states that “Under-represented students will be
provided services that support their learning and promote student
success.” The goal statement is clearly about serving students once they
are at Green River, whereas recruiting and enrolling various student
groups is the purview of the institutional goal on student access.
The goal statement,
however, does not specify which student groups should be considered
“under-represented.” In light of this ambiguity, the Working Group that
developed the Monitoring Report and is currently working to identify
appropriate core indicators related to the goal, decided to initially
focus on students of color and students with disabilities. These two
groups obviously confront many societal disadvantages, and particularly
since postsecondary education is a critical pathway to socioeconomic
achievement, it is important that Green River provide various forms of
assistance to insure that they have every opportunity to successfully
obtain a college education.
Students of color and
students with self-reported disabilities account for 25% and 4%,
respectively, of the college’s student population. How likely are these
students to graduate in a timely manner? The most recent graduation rate
statistics examines the three-year completion rates of freshmen who
matriculated in fall 2001. (The U.S. Department of Education requires
community colleges to track their fall cohort of entering full-time
freshmen to determine and report the number that graduate within three
years.) The three-year graduation rate for the cohort overall was 39%.
Asian and Pacific Islanders had the highest graduation rate, 45%, followed
by non-Hispanic whites at 40%, and 38% for the “other” group (which most
likely includes students of mixed race backgrounds). Hispanics and
African-Americans had considerably lower rates, 29% and 10%,
respectively. The three-year rate among students with disabilities was
25%, well below the overall rate of 39%. In effect, there are sizable
group disparities in completion rates. And while these outcomes are
consistent with national data, they suggest that Green River’s
African-American and Hispanic students and students with disabilities
encounter particularly difficult challenges in their pursuit of
postsecondary credentials.
In light of the
difficulties faced by these students, it is encouraging that the college
takes a broad approach to serving under-represented groups. As is
discussed below, the provision of services includes various student
support services as well as curricular and instructional initiatives.
The President’s Commission
on Diversity
One of the most important
efforts is The President’s Commission on Diversity. With representatives
from across the campus and the local community, the Commission is
examining how the college’s institutional processes impact students of
color and students with disabilities. Included among the areas that the
Commission is examining are access, financial aid and scholarships,
assessment testing and related course placements, student services,
instruction, student progress and retention, and staff and faculty
recruitment and hiring. The Commission will make recommendations to the
president in June, 2006. More information on the Commission may be found
at the following website:
https://www.gatornet.greenriver.edu/evp/Commission%20on%20Diversity/index.htm
Student Services
Student Services’
personnel recognize that for many of Green River’s under-represented
students, college is a cultural journey. Not only do these students often
come from families where neither parent attended college, but typically
few if any friends or acquaintances from their peer networks also attend
GRCC. As such, it is especially important for them to connect with role
models and develop friendships with peers on campus. As newcomers to the
institution, many also need assistance in understanding and navigating the
numerous and frequently complex college procedures and
systems.
In addition to the full
array of services available to all students, Student Services developed
two targeted programs to assist under-represented students, Diversity
Services and Disability Support Services. Included among Diversity
Services’ initiatives are:
-
Outreach to local
organizations representing our diverse communities, such as the African
American Cultural Center and El Centro de Amistad
-
Mentoring/peer
mentoring, which is open to all students but has been specifically
designed to assist students of color
-
Mid-quarter achievement
assessments
-
Recommendations and
referrals to, for example, Study Skills 110, the Math
Learning
Center, and the Writing
Center
-
Orientations and
presentations, such as the Student Success Orientation which is geared
to students of color and is offered at the beginning of the school year
-
Advocacy assistance
Disability Support
Services (DSS) provides direct services and accommodations to students
with disabilities. More specifically, DSS:
-
Assists students with
disabilities in gaining equal access (as mandated by law)
-
Works with faculty to
insure that students with disabilities have appropriate accommodations
-
Fosters campus-wide
access to students with disabilities by working collaboratively with
campus departments
-
Provides referrals to
other programs or community agencies as appropriate
Another program that
serves under-represented students is the college’s TRIO Student Support
Services Program. Briefly, the federally funded TRIO programs are
educational opportunity programs that are designed to motivate and support
students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The programs serve and assist
low-income, first-generation college students, and students with
disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school
to postbaccalaureate programs. GRCC’s TRIO program aims to increase
degree completion and rates of transfer to four-year institutions. Serving
a maximum of 200 eligible students per year, our program provides
comprehensive support services to participants and seeks to foster a
personalized and meaningful connection to the college.
Additional Student
Services initiatives that assist under-represented students are:
-
Providing support to the
college’s diversity-related Student Clubs and Associations
-
Promoting a welcoming
environment and enhanced customer service through required diversity
training for all Student Services personnel
Student Services is
currently exploring the feasibility of instituting a number of new
initiatives to improve the success rates of under-represented
students. These include:
-
Developing a CLEO-style
peer leadership/success program for students of color and students with
disabilities
-
Collaborating with ABE
faculty on Universal Design for Learning (UDL is an application of the
Universal Design approach to architecture to instructional issues. The
idea is to use instructional approaches that are more accessible in
order to enhance the success of students with learning disabilities.)
-
Expanding the analysis
and dissemination of student success data for the TRIO program
Diversity in the
Curriculum and Classroom
The Instructional
Diversity Committee (IDC), a committee of the Instructional Council and a
subcommittee of the Multicultural & Equity Council, is the principal
committee for facilitating faculty efforts in the teaching of diversity.
The IDC promotes the view that diversity in the curriculum is relevant and
valuable across many disciplines, not just in the most obvious fields such
as literature and the social sciences. Indeed, there is evidence that
diversity in the curriculum not only improves the success rates of
under-represented students, but improves critical thinking skills among
students in general by providing access to multiple perspectives.
Furthermore, it enhances students’ ability to work collaboratively,
respectfully, and thus more effectively as they enter the increasingly
diverse labor force.
Diversity in the
curriculum is concerned with representation – insuring that students see
themselves represented in the curriculum. Examples include looking at
writers of color in a literature class, or paying attention to
marginalized histories in a history course. Frameworks for investigating
diversity typically must confront and transcend mainstream,
dominant analyses and constructions of reality, which can often be
distorting and oppressive. In effect, under-represented students need to
feel that their experiences, histories, and struggles are being
represented fairly and equitably as opposed, for example, to hearing
themselves presented as being to blame for their own marginalization.
The primary objectives of
the IDC are:
-
Continue to define and
develop the “Examining Diversity” learning outcome and its component
competencies at the course and program level; provide resources for
faculty seeking to incorporate this learning outcome into their
curriculum; and work in conjunction with the Learning Outcomes
Committee.
-
Facilitate the expansion
and coordination of course offerings focusing on U.S. and global
diversity.
-
Collaborate on an
ongoing basis with divisions, the Holman Library, and Media Services to
expand campus holdings and resources in relevant areas.
-
Evaluate and present for
consideration to faculty a range of strategies relating to
multiculturalism, diversity, and equity that have been developed and
implemented at Washington colleges in order to assess what model is most
suitable for GRCC.
Included among the
initiatives that the IDC is either currently or plans to pursue are:
-
Provide training and
workshop opportunities for faculty
-
Support more courses
focusing on diversity
-
Develop a Diversity
Certificate
-
Propose a diversity
requirement at GRCC
-
Encourage the hiring of
more faculty with background, expertise, and experience in teaching
diversity across divisions
-
Promote Learning
Communities and other methods of delivering instruction
Diversity and the Social
Sciences
The nature of human and
cultural diversity is an area of scholarly inquiry in various social
science disciplines, particularly anthropology, psychology, history and
sociology. As such, the Social Science Division is especially
instrumental in the college’s efforts to promote a more thoughtful and
informed understanding of diversity. Scientific considerations of
diversity – such as the examination of the societal contributions of
diverse peoples, or the ways in which gender, racial, and social class
differences shape individual life chances – are taught in numerous social
science courses. These courses provide students with an informed,
scholarly foundation with which to understand society, culture,
relationships, and history.
Yet despite the scientific
imprimatur, instructors who teach diversity occasionally encounter
ingrained student biases which contribute to the pedagogical challenge of
teaching these classes. Another challenge is the lack of interest among
many students in the courses that specialize in minority issues. Indeed,
low-enrollments often result in cancelled courses.
The key initiatives in
this area that the Social Science Division is undertaking are:
Possible Core Indicators
of Effectiveness
The
college has formed Working Groups to identify appropriate core indicators
and quantitative performance measures for each of the college’s
Institutional Goals. The Working Group on under-represented students, in
addition to assisting on developing the Monitoring Report presentation, is
continuing its efforts to identify appropriate indicators to assess our
success in achieving this goal. Below are some examples of core
indicators that the group is considering:
-
Student academic
progress
-
Degree or certificate
completion
-
Time to degree or
certificate
-
Ratio of employees of
color to students of color
