Lane Community College
For the past three years Lane has been working closely with the state’s two-year colleges and the department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development to grow the institutions’ ability to gather and track student information. One of Lane’s main goals is to improve policies and programs at the college with changes grounded in hard data collected by the state and the college itself. With the help of Achieving the Dream, Lane hopes to:
- Make student success their main priority
- Move toward diagnosing problems based on data
- Take the appropriate steps toward developing and implementing strategies to address priority problems
- Improve students’ progression and completion rates quickly and skillfully
The college’s involvement with Achieving the Dream will help them paint a new picture, one where their most disadvantaged students receive degrees or transfer at much higher rates than at present. Lane also wants their students to attain their educational goals promptly, and successfully move into fulfilling careers.
Lane Community College was founded in 1964 by a vote of local citizens, and the main campus opened in 1968. The college has received many awards and accolades for its innovative programs and high-quality instruction, and is a member of the League for Innovation in the Community College. With the third largest enrollment of the 17 Oregon community colleges, more than 36,000 students take credit or noncredit classes at Lane each year.
Many of Lane’s 12,690 students who enrolled in Fall 2009 urgently need improved strategies and programs to successfully complete a college degree. The college serves some of the most vulnerable individuals in the surrounding county, with 62% of all transfer and degree-seeking students being low-income, first-generation, or disabled. Lane also serves a higher percentage of students of color than the county as a whole. In the Fall 2009 semester, 37% of the total student population were minority students with 9% of them being Hispanic. Less than 10% of degree- and transfer-seeking students test into college-level math and less than 20% of students earn associate degrees.
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.
