Background

Zane State College in Zanesville, Ohio, serves residents of three rural Appalachian counties – Muskingum, Guernsey, and Noble – in the East-Central part of the state. The region has high unemployment and poverty rates. Its population’s average educational attainment level is significantly lower than the rest of Ohio.

Zane State shares a campus with an Ohio University regional campus. Its 25 technology programs emphasize experience-based learning in a supportive educational environment. Most of Zane State’s students are first-generation college attendees; many are women from lower socio-economic and undereducated backgrounds. Seventy percent of the college’s students receive financial aid. Each year approximately two-thirds of the incoming students require one or more developmental courses. Most of the students who take remedial classes go on to complete subsequent general education courses successfully. The college has a 55-percent graduation rate and an increasing number of its students are transferring to four-year institutions.

Achieving the Dream Goals

Zane State’s priority is identifying and analyzing factors that have an impact on student success. College leaders would like to

Track trends for ways to improve student outcomes;
Disaggregate data to understand how to assist underserved populations;
Become a data-driven, decision-making organization.

Data will determine the college’s agenda as college leaders seek to find out how the college can become more learner-centered. They would also like to know whether students, especially those from impoverished families, need access to information technology to complete traditional and distance education course work, and if changes in scheduling procedures would improve students’ goal attainment.

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