Lorain County Community College
With the help of Achieving the Dream, Lorain County Community College will pursue a transformational culture of data-informed decision-making. The college hopes that Achieving the Dream Coaches and Data Coaches will assist Lorain in taking the steps necessary for genuine student-centered discussions that will help increase completion and placement rates. College leaders intend to make systematic changes to improve student outcomes by:
- Pushing to raise the school’s service area’s educational attainment rates
- Helping students of color and low-income students earn college credentials and a family-sustaining wage
- Establishing a culture of evidence
- Encouraging the use of data to meet students’ needs.
By collecting data on enrollment, successful course and sequence completion, persistence, graduation, and withdrawal rates each term, Lorain will be able to identify strategic action points to inform their future decision-making. The college will use new initiatives to identify the most successful strategies to support low-income, disadvantaged, and minority students’ learning, as well as the most effective way to direct resources to expand successful strategies.
Lorain County Community College is one of Ohio’s fastest-growing community colleges because of the variety of learning opportunities it provides. The only community college in the state that offers a University Partnership, Lorain’s partnership enables students to earn bachelors’ and masters’ degrees from any of eight Ohio universities without leaving the Lorain campus. Lorain is the first college in Ohio to build an advanced technologies center for business and industry, and students can utilize the Fab Lab, which is aligned with MIT. Lorain is the largest provider of e-learning programs in northern Ohio.
In late 2008, Lorain’s service area suffered major economic hardships. In response to the deep recessionary trends occurring locally and nationally, the college developed a significant innovation by offering scholarship money for laid-off workers. In addition, Lorain has been designated as a Veteran-friendly school. Almost 100% of Lorain’s student population was in-state while 21% of the students were minorities in the Fall 2009 semester. More than half (64%) of Lorain’s students were female and attending the college part-time and 45% of students receive grant or scholarship aid.
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.
