Ivy Tech Community College
The combined effect of Ivy Tech Community College implementing three statewide interventions improved first-semester persistence among participants by 20 percentage points compared to a control group.
During its first Achieving the Dream implementation year, Ivy Tech mandated new student orientation for the 10,000 new students who registered for Fall 2010 classes on or after July 1, 2010. The students in this cohort with developmental course placements were required to receive academic advising and enroll in a student success course.
- 83% of students who participated in all three interventions persisted from fall to spring, compared to 63% persistence by a control group of non-participants.
- 78% of orientation participants persisted versus 72% of non-participants.
- 61% of participants passed first-semester courses versus 58% of non-participants.
- 59% of participants passed remedial courses, versus 53% of non-participants.
- African-American students showed greater-than-average gains in persistence attributed to participating in new student orientation.
- The student success courses' effect on course completion was more pronounced for students who needed the fewest developmental courses.
Ivy Tech is a 23-campus, singly accredited statewide college. In Fall 2010, it had 106,000 students.
Achieving the Dream is an Indiana-wide initiative led by a 32-person council of faculty, staff, and administrators representing Ivy Tech's 14 regions and the college's leadership. Regional councils involve another 200 college employees. By its second year in Achieving the Dream more than 1,000 college employees were directly involved in Achieving the Dream initiatives.
The integration of Achieving the Dream's metrics in Ivy Tech's strategic plan and budgeting includes adding 150 new faculty and support staff positions in order to scale orientation, advising and student success courses for all new students in Fall 2011.
In addition to scaling three major Achieving the Dream interventions for all new students in Fall 2011, Ivy Tech is involved in other initiatives to promote credential completion.
These include:
- Piloting Ivy Tech Institute of Technology programs.
- Developing a common general education core for transfer degrees.
- Simplifying degree structures.
- Revising curricula to eliminate regional variations.
- Compressing developmental writing, reading, and mathematics programs.
- Improving financial aid and student payment processes.
- Testing programs that accelerate associate degree completion, improve adult education completion, and establish stackable certificates for manufacturing education.
- Reducing variability in required textbooks.
- Offering textbook rental.
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.
