North Seattle Community College
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Abstract
The Institution and Its Students: North Seattle Community College was established in 1967 as part
of the three-college Seattle Community College District. The college serves students from throughout
the metropolitan Seattle area, with the majority coming from the city’s north end. North Seattle
awards associate transfer degrees, a wide range of professional-technical degrees and certificates, and
a high school completion certificate. In 2007-08, the college employs 85 full-time faculty and
approximately 200 part-time faculty to serve over 6,000 credit-seeking students (approximately 3,200
FTE students) each quarter (excluding summer quarter whose figures are much smaller). The student
body comprises 62% female, 35% students of color, 71% part-time, 58% employed, x% evening and
x% distance learning. The college serves nearly 1,000 ESL (English as a Second Language) students
each quarter. Fifty percent of students taking the English placement exam place into developmental
(below college-level) English; 75% who take the math placement exam place into developmental math
(is there a better data point we can use for the developmental population statistic?)
Project Title:
Strengthening Academic Programs and Services to
Promote Student Engagement and Success
The Problem:
Inadequate enrollments affect the long-term sustainability of North Seattle Community
College. Inadequate enrollments are the result of (1) declining enrollments in several
professional-technical programs, and (2) large numbers of students leaving the college before
completing their academic goals.
o Declining enrollments in several professional-technical programs
o Xxx
o Yyy
o Zzz
o Large numbers of students leaving the college before completing their academic goals
o Forty percent of students who intend to study for a year or more leave after only
one quarter never to return.
o Of degree/certificate-seeking students, only 30% earn a minimum of 45 credits or
an award.
o While one-third of them express the desire to do so, only 4% of ESL students
progress into college-level coursework.
The Solution: The proposed activity—Strengthening Academic Programs and Services to promote
Student Engagement and Success—is driven by five inter-related goals: (1) Revitalize BEIT
programs to meet current industry standards (thereby attracting more students) (2) implement a “first
quarter success initiative” to include mentoring, enhanced advising, and a “College-Ready Seminar”
integrating student support services and academic success strategies for the new student; (3) increase
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instructional supports targeting key student transition points and “high risk” courses – methods
proposed include Supplemental Instruction (SI), tutoring, and a self-paced language lab for ESL/Basic
Skills students; and, (4) support and expand innovative, student-centered instructional models and
methods to accelerate the campus-wide shift from a traditional “teaching paradigm” to a “learningparadigm”.
This Proposal: Drawing on state and national research conducted by the Washington State Board for
Community and Technical Colleges, North Seattle requests $2.0 million over five years to (1) increase
enrollment in BEIT from xx to xx (2) decrease from 40% to 25% the number of students who leave
after only one quarter, (3) increase from 30% to 45% the number of degree-seeking students earning
45 college-level credits or an award, and (4) increase from 4% to 15% the number of ESL students
who progress into college-level coursework. All measures are over the five-year duration of the grant.
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Academic Strengths:
1. Well regarded and award winning Coordinated Studies program (examples here)
2. Well regarded and award winning Undergraduate Research program in the sciences (three NSCC
students selected to present research findings at the 2007 “Posters on the Hill” event held by the
National Council for Undergraduate research. NSCC was the only Community College invited to
participate in this national event)
3. Since early 2007, a cross-disciplinary General Education Task Force, supported by the AAC&U
Institute on General Education, is leading a campus-wide review of general education requirements
and outcomes (x members participating from x # of depts.)
4. Reputation for a strong Transfer Degree program, especially in math and science (stats about
NSCC grads going to UW)
5. A regional leader in Distance Learning (something showing we’re leaders in the state – number of
courses or something?)
6. New energy, vitality and commitment from a new generation of full- and part-time faculty (xx new
faculty hires over the past 5 years)
7. Strong tutoring services in The Loft Writing Center and the Math/Science Learning Center
(serving an average of xx students per quarter. The Loft received one of four institutional
accommodations during NSCC’s recently completed 10-year accreditation visit)
8. Multiple competitive grants awarded in the past three years: Department of Labor Communitybased Jobs Training Grant for an expansion of healthcare training programs (2005 - $1.3 million
for 3 years); National Science Foundation planning grant for developing a Nanotechnology
program (2005 - xx ); Lead agency for The Seattle Transition Math Project funded by WA State
and private foundations. Project works to align math curriculum and assessments across the K-12
and higher education systems in Seattle (2006 and renewed in 2007 - $x ). Recruiting Washington
Teachers Grant to increase the diversity of students entering a career in teaching in our region
(2008 - $128,000)
Academic Weaknesses:
1. A number of Professional Technical Programs have not kept pace with the rapid changes in
industry trends resulting in outdated curriculum.
2. High student attrition rates across college programs
3. High student failure rate in “gatekeeper” courses
4. No systemic information literacy/technology literacy curriculum
5. No program-level or college-wide system for assessment of student learning outcomes
6. Lack of attainable, well designed, step-by-step pathways for students to advance beyond ABE/ESL
programs creating barriers for low-skilled and ESL students to transition into college-level courses.
Institutional Management Strengths:
1. A strong, respected Teaching and Learning Center that supports faculty and staff professional
development
2. Strong Student Development Services offering a wide range of student support programs and
resources (stats here)
3. Extensive self-knowledge and campus-wide planning through recently completed (1) three-year
institutional self-study and (2) four-year facilities master planning study. The self study for
college ten year accreditation completed xx and Master Planning study completed xx – both with
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multi-year planning processes soliciting input from stakeholders across campus and the local
community)
4. Stable executive-level leadership (stats on our executive team’s tenure)
5. Strategic Enrollment Management Initiative begun in Winter 2008 (data for this?)
6. Highly diverse campus faculty, administration and staff supporting a commitment to multiculturalism, anti-bias and tolerance as an institutional value (stats here of employee to student
ratios, DAC and Director position for multiculturalism student programs)
Institutional Management Weaknesses:
1. Too few Full time faculty especially in the ESL/ABE department (stats on this?)
2. Lack of systemic, pro-active first quarter supports to help identify and address the needs of
potentially at-risk students
3. History and culture of “siloed” student services that result in duplication of efforts and/or
piecemeal or disconnected services (student support services offered through workforce education
programs for special populations, international student programs, advising services at the
departmental level and through student services; department level tutoring as well as centralized
tutoring, etc.)
4. Lack of off-hours services to support evening, weekend and distance-learning students (x% of our
population)
5. Lack of integrated, campus-wide system to build a student-centered master schedule. Too many
students report not being able to enroll in the classes they need to complete their course of study.
This is reportedly due to frequent overlap in course scheduling or classes simply not being offered.
6. Lack of resources in institutional assessment and research office to drive the shift towards a data
driven cultural focused on student outcome assessment.
Fiscal Stability Strengths:
1. Recently emerged from significant financial debt to a position of growing financial reserves (stat?)
2. Recently “right-sized” the college budget by releasing xxx FTEs and reducing x# faculty positions
accordingly through an offer of early retirement
3. Strong and growing international student program which generates additional resources for the
college at $xx per student over the state funded formula.
4. BPT?
Fiscal Stability Weaknesses:
1. Continuing to miss quarterly enrollment targets creating a danger of losing more FTEs
2. No funding to replace/upgrade campus technology and equipment
3. High number of students in Basic Skills programs which generate a fraction of tuition revenue
compared to traditional college-entry students (xx compared to xx per full time student). These
same students tend to require a high level of support services to succeed on campus but come with
fewer resources.
4. Insufficient and declining funds available for staff and faculty professional development (can we
compare budgets)
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5. Growing number of ‘unmet needs’ requests over the past x years during the campus budgeting
cycle.