College of the Sequoias
College of the Sequoias’ Student Success Course addresses a variety of learning styles and motivates students to take greater responsibility for their education, which has shown a positive impact on student academic success and retention.
Aligning the college’s Strategic Plan with Achieving the Dream was a calculated step, designed to facilitate institutional support for student success. College of the Sequoias is also codifying and clarifying the objectives toward, and furthering dialogue on driving the success of its students.
The college’s Academic Senate assigned task forces to each intervention to ensure appropriate faculty involvement.
Despite financial constraints and barriers to receiving funding for new program development, college leadership continues in their efforts to develop and scale the following core initiatives:
- Developing and implementing Mandatory Orientation.
- Developing General Studies 120: a mandatory college success course for students placing into Math and English developmental classes.
In addition to these primary interventions, the college is working to implement initiatives that will:
- Enhance the culture of teaching and learning.
- Drive new student success practices.
- Shepherd an efficient progression through the basic skills sequence
- Bring to scale a refocused counseling and advising system.
College of the Sequoias serves the residents of two counties in Central California whose local economies are dominated by agriculture. Unfortunately, poverty pervades the lives of many residents of the college’s service area and nearly 50% of the region’s families speak English as a second language, with a language other than English being spoken in the home.
College of the Sequoias operates in a region where one-third of all teens drop out of high school, and only 25% of recent high school graduates attend any post-secondary institution. As an Achieving the Dream institution, the college is dedicated to breaking the barriers of and increasing student success. Sixty-five to seventy-five percent of the college’s student population are students of color.
The Achieving the Dream Model
Achieving the Dream community colleges commit to our Student-Centered Model of Institutional Improvement. Based on four principles, the model frames the overall work of helping more students, particularly low- income students and students of color, stay in school and earn a college certificate or degree.
Each college approaches the work differently, but Achieving the Dream’s five-step process provides practical guidelines for keeping the focus where it belongs and building momentum over time. Throughout the process, Achieving the Dream coaches offer customized support and help each college’s core team implement data-informed programs and policies that build long-term, institution-wide commitment to student success.
