North Lake College
North Lake College has an abundance of data that it wants to analyze and utilize systematically with faculty and staff to build a culture of student success.
With Achieving the Dream, the college will ensure college readiness using the following interventions:
- Implementing a Learning Frameworks course, in which students use assessment instruments to help them identify their own strengths and weaknesses as strategic learners, then integrate and apply the learning skills discussed;
- A Student Success course that will examine factors that underlie learning, success, and personal development in higher education and apply to all disciplines. Topics covered will include memory, motivation, career planning, time management, note taking, library skills, preparing for examinations, and more;
- Introducing Journey to Success, a program using the “Early Alert” module of the Datatel system, which provides faculty the opportunity to intervene as soon as a student is identified as struggling in the class. This retention strategy can help students complete their program and achieve their goals;
- Revising the developmental math curriculum by analyzing data from the new and old versions of the courses as well as organizing student and faculty focus groups to assess ways to improve the program in the future.
The college has numerous assessment activities and several student success initiatives underway. Instructional leaders are tracing faculty interventions with disadvantaged students for a college-wide effort to increase in-course retention. The college collaborates with other colleges on college readiness activities, interactive developmental math modules, and the African- American Male Student Success Program. It is working with two school districts improving high school students' preparation for college-level courses.
North Lake College, founded in 1977, is part of the Dallas County Community College District. In addition to its 276-acre campus in the Las Colinas area of Irving, it has two satellite campuses. It also features Academic Skills Centers and Labs for students to work in various disciplines, a Student Resource Center providing students with access to current technology, and a TRiO student support program for at-risk students. In Fall 2009, the college had 11,640 students; 56% were students of color. Seventy-five percent of that semester’s incoming Achieving the Dream cohort were referred to at least one development course.
The college has a strong history of partnerships, particularly with the city of Irving and the Irving Independent School District. The library, Olympic-sized natatorium, and Irving High School Academy are community assets located on the college's main campus. As part of the agreement to provide the land for the academy, which voters approved in a 1997 bond issue, the college operates evening college centers in all of Irving's high schools. All the academy's programs coordinate with and articulate to companion North Lake College programs.
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.
