RP Group | January 2013
Being the last day of January, Happy New Year!
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse-Tyson recently wrote, "Enter a small room. Doors close.
When doors open, you're in a different place. Elevators are the next best thing to
wormholes." Wormholes surrounds us, in the form of airplanes and subways and films and
conversations. Fortunately, we can exit these wormholes.
A newsletter is also a wormhole, each click transporting you to a different space. This
month's e-wormhole (ahem, newsletter) offers the following journeys:
 Student Support (Re)defined, a multi-year study, shares findings about what
students say practitioners can do to help them succeed
 The Academy for College Excellence describes its Foundations of Leadership course
as an approach to redesigning orientation and transition to college
 The Aspen Institute releases a guide with four concrete examples from community
colleges on using labor market data to improve student success
 The BMW Scholars Program and the Kaiser Permanente Nurse Anesthesia Program
offer two approaches to provide meaningful pathways, livable wages and expanded
opportunities for students
For the record, if elevators are indeed the next best thing to wormholes, may their panels
be covered in shooting stars and may we enter them wearing our best outfits, crafted
using the fabric of space and time.
Bon voyage,
Priya.
In This Issue
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Announcements
STATEWIDE SPOTLIGHT: Students Speak Up About Effective Support Practices
RESEARCH: Rethinking Entry to College - The Academy for College Excellence
Foundation Course
PLANNING: A Guide for Using Labor Market Data to Improve Student Success
ASSESSMENT: Train and Study - Aligning the Curriculum Mismatch
Announcements
Register for the 2013 RP Conference
The 2013 RP Conference will take place on Monday and Tuesday, April 1 and 2 at the
Kellogg West Conference Center and Hotel in Pomona, CA. This conference creates a space
to exchange local institutional research and planning approaches and resources addressing
common issues, learn about the latest developments in the field and strengthen
relationships within our community. The list of sessions will be announced in mid-February.
Register for the Conference here.
RP Group Perspectives | January 2013 | Page 1
Discounted rate for new book on basic skills in California community colleges
Basic Skills Instruction in Community Colleges: Inside and Outside of Classrooms reflects
the findings of a three-year research project conducted by the University of California at
Berkeley and the RP Group. Based on 169 classroom observations and 325 interviews at 20
California community colleges, this newly published book offers insights on issues such as
reforming pedagogy, strengthening student services, creating structural coherence, and
building leadership at all levels. More details here. Use discount code ERJ60.
Statewide Spotlight: Rethinking Entry to College - The Academy
for College Excellence Foundation Course
Author: Kelley Karandjeff, The RP Group
How can we best help students to reach their educational
goals? The RP Group asked nearly 900 students from 13
California community colleges what they think supports
their educational success, paying special attention to the
factors African Americans and Latinos cite as important to
their achievement.
Student perspectives form the basis of Student Support (Re)defined--a multiyear study
(2011-2014) funded by The Kresge Foundation designed to understand how community
colleges can feasibly deliver support, both inside and outside the classroom, to improve the
success of all learners. We are now releasing two resources-primarily geared toward college
practitioners-that summarize findings from the study's first year (2011-2012).
Using Student Voices to Redefine Student Support: What Community College Students Say
Institutions, Instructors and Others Can Do to Help Them Succeed
This report provides a detailed discussion of students' perspectives on how "six success
factors"--directed, focused, nurtured, engaged, connected and valued--contribute to their
achievement. The report incorporates discussion questions to stimulate dialog about these
findings and provides several suggestions for action offered by students in the study that
can be used by different constituent groups to support their success.
What Students Say They Need to Succeed: Key Themes from a Study of Student Support
This brief presents five key themes that (1) synthesize what students say about the six
success factors and (2) share specific strategies that students suggest may improve their
achievement. This document also includes discussion questions for practitioners to facilitate
reflection and planning.
In spring 2013, the RP Group will additionally release an action guide designed to help
colleges use these findings for institutional planning purposes. Other next steps for Student
Support (Re)defined include (1) working with practitioners from the study's participating
colleges to explore using Year 1 findings to advance their students' success and (2)
collecting concrete examples of institutional strategies designed to help students experience
the six success factors at scale. For more information, please visit the project webpage or
contact project director Dr. Darla Cooper (dcooper@rpgroup.org).
RP Group Perspectives | January 2013 | Page 2
Resources:
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Student Support (Re)defined website
Report: Using Student Voices to Redefine Student Support: What Community
College Students Say Institutions, Instructors and Others Can Do to Help Them
Succeed
Brief: What Students Say They Need to Succeed: Key Themes from a Study of
Student Support
Research: Rethinking Entry to College - The Academy for College
Excellence Foundation Course
Authors: Rose Asera and Diego Navarro, Cabrillo College
Despite increasing attention to the affective aspects of learning
and policy calls to make activities such as orientation and
student support courses mandatory, orientation is rarely
designed for a student to begin constructing his/her identity as
a college student. Typically, an orientation includes an
overview of campus resources, perhaps enacted as a
scavenger hunt. Orientation may be optional or, as often, overlooked by students. In Back
to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education, Mike Rose describes the
need for a broader, more inclusive way to think about orientation and student support,
"...the focus tends to be on techniques-how to schedule your day, how to highlight your
textbook-while what I'm after here is something more of an orientation to learning, a way
of being in school."
Students begin college with hope and optimism. But research finds that by the third week
they tend to be disillusioned and discouraged. What would make it possible to draw on
students' initial enthusiasm yet ground their hope in experiences that effectively prepare
them for college? Click here to read an article on the Academy for College Excellence (ACE)
Foundations of Leadership Course (Foundation Course), one example of a redesigned
orientation and transition to college. It is an intensive, immersive experience during the
first two weeks of the semester or beginning part of a summer bridge. The content focuses
on 21st century professional skills of collaboration and communication, which are taught
experientially. Affective classroom experiences are the foundation for students to grow into
academic competence and maturity. Along with individual growth, the Foundation Course
fosters a strongly bonded community--a virtual dormitory--that provides ongoing support
as students proceed in college.
Resources:
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Rethinking Entry to College, a paper describing the ACE Foundation Course and
research on its effectiveness
ACE Webinar on the Rethinking Orientation to Community College, Friday, February
1 from 11am to 12:30pm
At the Achieving the Dream Conference there will be two ACE events:
Diego Navarro's Spotlight presentation on Wednesday, February 6th from 3:15-5:15
titled 'Intrinsic Engagement and Student Support', and
A discussion with three ACE partner colleges about their implementation of the ACE
RP Group Perspectives | January 2013 | Page 3
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orientation in a Workshop on Thursday, February 7th from 9:30-10:45 titled 'A
Curriculum Based Intrinsic Model of Student Engagement: Examples from the Field'
Videos of a two-part webinar series on the affective precursors to academic
performance
Planning: A Guide for Using Labor Market Data to Improve
Student Success
Author: Joshua Wyner, The Aspen Institute
Increasingly, higher education institutions are thinking
about how to use labor market data to ensure stronger
outcomes for every graduate. Because they deliver
many credentials tied to specific jobs, community colleges have a particular interest in doing
so. It should come as no surprise, then, that some of the best examples of labor market
data use in higher education can be found in community colleges. Nor should we be
surprised to see community colleges--including those in California and New York--clamoring
for their states to provide them greater access employment and earnings information about
their graduates.
Over the past year, we, at The Aspen Institute, have learned a lot about how college
graduates' employment and earnings outcomes relate to the degrees they earn and the
colleges they attend. Federal "gainful employment" reports, new data out of Tennessee and
Virginia on the earning power of recent graduates in those states, and studies from
Georgetown University all point to the same conclusion: what students choose to study
matters, as does the college they select to deliver that education. And many initiatives over
the past decade, including the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, have shown
wide institutional variation in graduation rates -- even among similar colleges with similar
student bodies.
Aspen Institute's College Excellence Program has released a guide designed to advance the
use of labor market data among community colleges. "A Guide for Using Labor Market Data
to Improve Student Success" offers concrete examples of how five community colleges have
used labor market data to assess educational programs, better align them with employment
opportunities, and inform students. In addition, the guide describes six specific data sources
that colleges can access today to understand relevant labor market demands as well as the
employment/earning outcomes of their graduates.
In the months and years ahead, ever increasing amounts of employment and earnings data
will add to what we know about the value of a college education. Our hope is that this guide
will help colleges understand this data, not just to answer inquiries from the press or
legislators, but to assess and improve the quality of education they are providing students.
Some argue that current labor market data are imperfect, and they are right. Many recent
analyses, for example, fail to fully reflect the long-term value of liberal arts degrees. Our
expectation is that this information will get better over time. But even today's employment
and earnings information tells colleges something important about the quality of the
education they provide -- namely, how well it is setting students up for success after they
graduate. Surely, that is something every college cares about and will inspire even greater
use of labor market information to improve student success in the years to come.
RP Group Perspectives | January 2013 | Page 4
Resource:
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A Guide for Using Labor Market Data to Improve Student Success
Assessment: Train and Study - Aligning the Curriculum Mismatch
Author: Robert Pacheco, MiraCosta College
New connections based on old ideas are emerging between colleges
and industry to address a common complaint: what the students are
learning does not connect with what employers tell us they need.
These new initiatives are designed to provide more meaningful
pathways, livable wages and expanded opportunities for students.
Here are two examples from manufacturing and health care.
In South Carolina, BMW (Bavarian Motor Works) has had difficulty filling technical jobs in
fields such as robotics and advanced electronics. A solution? The BMW Scholars Program.
This program is an apprentice-like model run through three community colleges providing
an opportunity for students to train part-time while they study. Borrowing from emerging
European training models (especially from Germany), the BMW program provides about 25
hours-a-week of work at the nearby plant while students hit the books in courses related to
the work. Certainly, a match made in the 'new industrial corridor in the South.' BMW
provides a supply of qualified training professionals as faculty and state-of-the-art facilities
in which students can learn. Community colleges offer the awards and verify the integrity of
the degree or certificate.
In California, Kaiser Permanente has established a Nurse Anesthesia Program in cooperation with California State University, Fullerton. The combined academic and clinical
program results in a Master of Science degree in Nursing with a concentration in Nurse
Anesthesia, awarded by Cal State Fullerton, with tuition kept reasonable as a result of
Kaiser's foundation arm of the organization. Like BMW, Kaiser offers highly skilled
professionals as instructors, teaching students in the very latest health learning
environments. Furthermore, Kaiser Permanente is now partnering with Pasadena City
College to offer an anesthesia technician program recognized by the American Society of
Anesthesia Technologists and Technicians.
These more targeted, industry-driven programs are becoming the new face of curriculum
development in the career and technical fields. Direct instruction to meet direct industry
needs. Nimbleness in design and openness to new educational curriculum models will likely
separate the wheat from the chaff in this ever-accelerating information economy.
The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges | www.rpgroup.org
RP Group Perspectives | January 2013 | Page 5