Policy News & Updates
National News
Achieving the Dream Policy Accomplishments 2008
This matrix, prepared by Jobs for the future, summarizes the various policy efforts and successes of Achieving the Dream states.
State Policy Priorities, Accomplishments, and Plans, 2007-08 Program Year
These materials were distributed at the February 2008 Achieving the Dream state policy meeting in Atlanta. They summarize the work of the 15 state policy teams as they try to advance policy agendas in their states that are supportive of community college student success. The documents are:
A National Unit Record Data System: State Experience Can Strengthen this Proposal: Pat Windham of the Florida Community Colleges and Workforce Education, Chad Wick of KnowledgeWorks Foundation (OH), and Keith Brown of the North Carolina Community College System submitted testimony to the Secretary's Commision on the Future of Higher Education on August 6, 2006. In their testimony, they said, "We believe that a well-designed and implemented national system can generate more complete and useful data on outcomes for more postsecondary students than the current IPED Achieving the Dream: Trends in State Policy system or the existing patchwork of fragmented, incomplete, and incompatible state-by-state unit record systems-and that this can be done while protecting individual student's confidentiality." Read the Statement to The Secretary's Commission on the Future of Higher Education.
Testimony on Using Student Outcome Data to Improve Retention: Richard Kazis, Senior Vice President of Jobs for the Future, presented testified at the April 7 meeting of the Commission of the Future of Higher Education. Speaking on “Articulation, Alignment and The Challenge of College-Readiness,” he presented four policy recommendations from the Achieving the Dream experience: (1) strengthen longitudinal student data systems; (2) encourage additional indicators of student progress, particularly for underprepared students; (3) remove obstacles Read Kazis' testimony.
State Updates Fall 2009
Arkansas
In April 2009, the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 971, which requires the state to establish common exit standards for all developmental education courses at public colleges and universities. The Act stipulates that the state must work with public institutions to develop standards that are comparable to the equivalent ACT or SAT score indicating college readiness in English composition, reading, and mathematics by the fall semester of 2010. Act 971 is a critical step in Arkansas’s student success policy agenda. It builds on previous legislation requiring that students be assessed for college readiness using a common test and placed in developmental education should they fail to meet a common statewide cut score indicating academic proficiency. Act 971 also requires the state to collaborate with two- and four-year institutions to develop alternative methods of delivering developmental education, and to provide professional opportunities so that faculty can improve their pedagogical skills in this area. Learn more about Act 971
Connecticut
This spring, Connecticut Community Colleges formally signed a transfer and articulation agreement with the Connecticut State University System which guarantees that students completing an Associate’s degree at one of the state’s community colleges can transfer all of their credits to the four-year system. The chancellors of both systems signed the agreement, as did the presidents of the four Connecticut State University campuses and twelve community colleges. The transfer agreement includes a stipulation that both systems provide academic advising to help students make the transition from Associate’s to Bachelor’s programs. This formal cooperation between the two systems is a crucial step in Connecticut’s effort to expand access to educational opportunities through partnerships—a priority in the state’s Achieving the Dream workplan. Learn more about Transfer Opportunities in CT
Florida
The latest edition of the Florida College System’s FYI Newsletter, entitled “Florida Colleges Remain Top Producers of Associates Degrees,” profiles the high rankings that Florida’s community colleges achieved in Community College Week’s annual national analysis of Associate’s degree production. More than half of Florida’s 16 community colleges placed in the top 100 nationally in terms of total Associate’s degrees produced. Miami Dade, Broward, and Valencia all ranked in the top five. The survey also highlighted the valuable role that Florida’s colleges are playing in educating minority students. Nine Florida colleges were in the top 100 nationally in awarding Associate’s degrees to African Americans, and six were in the top 100 in awarding Associate’s degrees to Hispanics. The survey also highlights the contribution that Florida’s transfer and articulation agreements are making to degree production in specific subject areas. In the categories of Liberal Arts and Science, General Students, and Humanities, the top ten institutions nationally in Associate’s-degree production were all Florida colleges, an accomplishment credited to the programmatic alignment guaranteed by statewide transfer and articulation agreements. Florida’s institutions were also well represented in the high-demand areas of nursing and health professions. View most recent Florida Reports
Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education took a big step toward improving the transparency of credit transfer among the state’s two- and four- year institutions. In August 2009, the DHE unveiled the MassTransfer Web site, a comprehensive tool designed to help students, their families, faculty, and advisors navigate the transfer process. The DHE has identified the facilitation of student transfer as a critical element in improving retention and graduation rates statewide, and has made transfer policy reform a key element of the state’s Achieving the Dream workplan. In June 2008, a statewide task force recommended the creation of a centralized transfer Web site to provide clear and accurate information on transfer policies and processes. The new site includes relevant information on statewide transfer policy, including: how to plan for, apply to, and enroll in college; how to transfer financial aid; contact information for campus- based transfer professionals; and information on the transfer appeals process. The MassTransfer Web site also includes a variety of tools designed to help guide students through the transfer process, including a quiz to help identify appropriate transfer pathways and a “Program Finder” with information on more than 1,000 linked Associate’s and Bachelor’s degree programs in the state. View MassTranfer Web site
Michigan
The Michigan Association of Community Colleges (MCCA) convened its first annual Achieving the Dream Student Success Summit on June 11. The event featured presentations from six of the state’s Achieving the Dream colleges, a roundtable discussion with Achieving the Dream college presidents, and a briefing with state legislators on the initiative’s national activities. It also included topical sessions for participants on alternative approaches to developmental education; learning communities and supplemental instruction; advising and student success courses; and professional development for faculty. Participants included members of the Michigan Community College Caucus, legislative leadership, representatives from the governor’s office and key departments, as well as representatives from all 28 of the state’s community colleges. MCCA plans to make this an annual event to highlight best practices at Achieving the Dream colleges and to surface prominent policy obstacles or opportunities.
New Mexico
In its 2009 session, the New Mexico Legislature made a significant change to the amount of need-based financial aid available to students attending the state’s public colleges and universities. Senate Bill 28 requires that the proportion of statewide President’s Scholarships awarded based on need double over the next two years. Currently, one-third of these scholarships, which are awarded to three percent of all students at public colleges and universities, must be need- based. Under Senate Bill 28, this percentage must increase to one-half by fall 2010 and to two-thirds by fall 2011. In their summary of the bill, the Legislative Education Study Committee cites evidence of the connection between need-based aid and student success as one of the motivating factors behind its enactment. This increase is an important step in the New Mexico Higher Education Department’s efforts to expand need-based assistance available to students, a key goal in the state’s Achieving the Dream policy agenda.
Learn More about Senate Bill 28
Ohio
The Ohio Legislature has approved a new performance funding system for the state’s public colleges and universities that rewards institutions for achieving key student success factors and includes a dedicated student success funding formula for community colleges. The system was included in the state’s budget for fiscal years 2010-2011, also known as House Bill 1. HB1 commissions a study by the office of the Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents and the state’s community colleges on the use of student success measures in funding these institutions. The results of the study, which are due to the chancellor in April 2010, will include a list of recommended student success factors for Ohio’s community colleges. With the chancellor’s approval, these factors will then be used to guide the allocation of 5 percent of state funding for community colleges for fiscal year 2011. Student success factors and a timeline for phasing in the performance funding system that was proposed by the Ohio Association of Community Colleges in 2008 will directly inform this process. Under the association’s proposal, the proportion of public funding allocated according to these factors would increase to 20 percent by fiscal year 2015, with the allocation of an additional 10 percent of public funding based on an institution- specific goal negotiated with the chancellor’s office.
Learn more about House Bill 1
Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Legislature recently passed two bills to support key elements of the state’s student success policy agenda. In May, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 222, which addresses the availability and use of student achievement data. The bill provides funding for the creation of a statewide student database and for a P-20 task force that will oversee the use of this information and compare Oklahoma’s student success standards with those of other states. The legislature also addressed dual enrollment in Oklahoma’s secondary and postsecondary institutions through Senate Bill 290. The bill requires high schools to allow student participation in dual enrollment and to grant academic credit for these courses. It also requires public colleges and universities to enroll qualified students in credit-bearing courses. Under the terms of the bill, students participating in dual enrollment are entitled to a tuition waiver for up to six credit hours per semester.
View State of Oklahoma Press Release: May 22, 2009
View the Oklahoma Senate Week in Review: May, April 27 to Thursday, Apr. 30, 2009
Texas
On May 22, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board sponsored the first annual Texas Transfer Success Conference. The event was organized by the University of North Texas’s National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students and Center for Higher Education. During the event, three colleges received STEP (Successful Transfer Enhancement Program) Awards for institutional practices that are highly effective in promoting student transfer:
• The University of Texas at Dallas’s Comet Connection program offers potential community college transfer students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with campus services prior to transferring.
• The University of Houston at Clear Lake’s Transfer Student Scholarship program ensures that incoming com- munity college transfer students are automatically eligible for the scholarship when they apply and that the scholarship is automatically renewed for a second year for students completing at least 18 credits and maintaining their community college GPA.
• El Paso Community College has worked with the University of Texas at El Paso to provide reverse transfer students with counseling and academic advising, and to award Associate’s degrees to the significant portion of them that have completed sufficient credits prior to transfer.
Learn more
Virginia
The latest issue of the Virginia Community College System’s Student Success Snapshot series outlines the valuable role of dual enrollment in helping students reach postsecondary outcomes. Dual enrollment programs are playing a rapidly growing role in helping students make the transition to postsecondary education. From 2003-04 to 2007-08, the number of students taking advantage of dual enrollment statewide nearly doubled, as did the proportion of community college graduates who had previously participated in dual enrollment. On average, more than two-thirds of dually enrolled high school seniors went on to enroll in postsecondary education, with the percentage enrolling in community colleges doubling to more than 20 percent over that period. These students have been successful in Virginia’s community colleges. An analysis of the 2004-05 cohort revealed that approximately 60 percent of the dually enrolled students in community colleges earned an Associate’s degree or certificate; more than 40 percent transferred to four- year colleges and earned their Bachelor’s degree.
Student Success Snapshot: June 2008
Washington
The Washington State Legislature took steps to broaden the array of postsecondary opportunities available to students during its 2009 session. It passed House Bill 1328, which granted the state’s technical colleges the authority to offer academic transfer degrees. Previously, Washington‘s technical colleges could only offer technical degrees designed for direct entry in to the workforce, and had reserved academic transfer degrees for community colleges. The state’s new regulations allow technical colleges to offer select academic transfer degrees that align with specified Bachelor’s of Applied Science programs at four-year institutions. The legislature also approved applied Bachelor’s degree programs in high-demand fields of study at three additional community colleges. Seven Washington community colleges now have the authority to offer at least one Bachelor’s degree program. Both reforms guarantee that prospective students will have more postsecondary educational options available to them in the coming years.
Learn more about House Bill 1328
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