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 employed 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. 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.
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
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
North Seattle Community College
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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.
North Seattle Community College
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Academic Strengths:
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AS Breadth of services to support student academic success (stats here)
IMS Extensive self-knowledge and planning through recently completed (1) three-year
institutional self-study and (2) four-year master planning study. The self study for college ten year
accreditation completed xx and Master Planning study completed xx – both with multi-year planning
processes soliciting input from stakeholders across campus and local community)
AS History of and reputation for strong transfer program (xx students transfer to 4-year
college each year compared to some average? UW has highest CC transfer rate from NSCC?)
AS Models of Service Learning and I-BEST (some soft of stats on this)
New energy, vitality and commitment from a new generation of full- and part-time faculty
(xx new faculty hires over the past 5 years)
IMS Stable executive-level leadership (stats on our executive team’s tenure)
IMS Statewide community/technical college system supporting the Student Achievement
Initiative that lays the groundwork for our proposal (based on David Prince Research, supported by
Ford Foundation initiative xxx)
IMS Strategic Enrollment Management Initiative begun in Winter 2008 (data for this?)
AS Strong and renowned Coordinated Studies program (learning communities) – (awards,
data for this?)
AS Strong tutoring services in The Loft Writing Center and the Science/Math Learning
Center (serving an average of xx students per quarter)
AS A trusted and respected Teaching and Learning Center supporting faculty and staff
professional growth (established in xx with Title III funding support and Carnegie Foundation
Funding, serving xx faculty per year and/or offering xx training programs per week/month, etc.)
AS The transition from a teaching to learning paradigm has begun, although it is not yet
completed (stats for this, somehow?)
AS A strong distance learning program and support for faculty teaching DL courses. (xx
courses offered each quarter with a full or hybrid distance learning options)
AS A team of highly qualified advisers (X% with M degrees or above).
AS Highly qualified faculty who represent a wide range of ethnic/racial diversity (stats of
faculty degrees and ethnic/racial balance)
AS A cross-disciplinary faculty and administrative team is leading a comprehensive review
of all general education requirements and the assessment of general education outcomes. Work has
been supported since xxx with technical assistance from xxx institute).
FS Recently emerged from serious financial crisis in xx and currently experiencing a new
period of fiscal stability with increasing reserves (data?)
FS Strong and growing international student program which generates additional
resources for the college at $xx per student over the state funded formula.
Institutional Weaknesses/Challenges (AW/IMW/FW)
Beliefs about ESL students that limit their ability to learn and progress (stats?) Maybe a
way of expressing this is to say there’s a lack of institutional integration between the faculty and
programs serving ESL/ABE students and the college-level systems and it could be an institutional
weakness?
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High numbers of part-time faculty with less connection to/involvement in the college than
is the case for full-time faculty (something about committee participation among PT faculty?) IW
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North Seattle Community College
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High numbers of under-prepared and ESL students (stats) IW or AW?
High percentage of non-traditional students—older, part-time, working, with “stop-in, stopout” patterns—whose lack of homogeneity challenges traditional service-delivery models (stats on the
number of students who enroll out of HS and/or go to school FT) (IW or AC?)
History and culture of “siloed” services that result in duplication of services and/or
piecemeal or disconnected services (student support services offered through workforce education
programs for special populations, international student programs, advising services at the departmental
level and through student services, department level tutoring as well as centralized tutoring ) IW
Lack of clearly defined educational and career pathwaysin many programs (stats on this)
(AW)
State funding model for community/technical colleges that does not provide for the
addition support required by under-prepared and ESL students (only 25$ tuition collected for xx % of
our students…..) IW
Student attrition before achieving educational milestones/goals (what about something like
xx % of students entering college without a clear educational goal and only xx% accessing services to
create a IEP during the time they’re enrolled) AW
The advising center is understaffed (stats for this….talk to advising) IW
More than one-half of the faculty report that they do not have sufficient time to engage in
professional development activities. (based on xxx survey contributing to the self study) AW?
Scheduling hurdles – lack of integrated process that is driven by student needs IW
Goals/Objectives
This section is under construction as of Jan 18, 2008.