Los Angeles City College
The primary mission of Los Angeles City College’s addition into the Achieving the Dream Network is to increase student success, academic excellence, and diversity. College leaders have identified several goals and strategies they plan to implement with the help of Achieving the Dream coaches and data coaches:
- Increase Associate degrees awarded and transfers to four-year colleges for all students
- Expand Career Technical Education (CTE)
- Expand the role of Staff and Organizational Development and create opportunities that assist faculty in addressing students’ academic preparedness
- Create a distance education program that offers online certificates, degrees, and transfer requirements
- Complete the implementation of student learning outcomes and assessment processes
- Create additional programs and activities that encourage student engagement and lead to greater student success
The college currently analyzes data to identify students for program planning purposes, which include first year experience and basic skills math programs. LACC hopes that Achieving the Dream will provide an infrastructure to facilitate a refocusing on the central role of student success for organizational success. Data are currently used for operational decision making and reporting purposes, but the college would like to build standardized and centralized systems for the data and reports.
Los Angeles City College (LACC) opened its doors to students in 1929 and was the original location for UCLA before it moved to Westwood, CA. The college facilities include more than a dozen multistory classroom buildings, including a library and several computer labs. The college’s vision to “celebrate community” includes one of the most diverse communities in the world, with a service area that includes Koreatown, Little Armenia, Thai Town, Filipinotown as well as large communities of Central and South Americans. The college recognizes the highly immigrant nature of these populations (54% of LACC students are immigrants to the U.S., and 41% speak a language other than English at home) and reaffirms its commitment to ESL and essential skills.
LACC identifies the specific goals of improving student population diversity and success among underrepresented student populations. To emphasize this, the Fall 2009 semester’s student population was comprised of 40% Hispanic, 16% Asian, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 12% African American students. The overall graduation rate for Hispanic students was only 13% for those who graduated within “normal time” of completion of their program. About 71% of the undergraduate population was enrolled part-time.
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.
