Muskegon Community College
Muskegon Community College wants to provide more students with successful higher education experiences as a way of improving the quality of life throughout the region.
Achieving the Dream will help the college:
- Increase developmental math success and the rate of progression from developmental to college-level math by accelerating developmental math courses and instituting Required Group Supplemental Instruction
- Improve developmental education success and the progression rate from developmental to college-level courses, and increase the fall-to-winter and fall-to-fall persistence rates of first-time students through interventions such as Revised Orientation, Mandatory Attendance by Developmental Students, Increased Participation to 100% of All First-Time Students, Revised College Success Seminar, and Professional Development for Faculty
- The college has a culture of inclusiveness, with all employees involved in strategic planning. It also has a history of using data to identify problems and develop solutions. For example, when students scored lowest on "critical thinking" in the Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress, the faculty added an emphasis on critical thinking and reading to many courses.
Muskegon Community College serves residents of the city of Muskegon and the western counties along the coast of Lake Michigan. The college was founded in 1926 as a junior college and became a community college in 1951. Its 111-acre campus includes a higher education center where students can take upper-level courses from three universities. In Fall 2009, 5,150 students attended MCC; 31% were students of color.
More than 60% of the college's students are low income. A similar percentage of students are first-generation college students, which is not unexpected given that only 9% of the city's residents and 17% of Muskegon County residents hold bachelor's degrees. The low level of education has contributed to the region's high unemployment rate, which was over 12% in 2010. It also appears to be a factor in the performance gap among the college's students. The college's institutional researchers have found that while 60% of non-low-income, non-first-generation, full-time students transfer from Muskegon Community College to four-year universities, only 34% of low-income, first-generation, full-time students accomplish this.
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.
