Odessa College
Odessa College self-funds its student success strategies. As such, to-date, and despite the positive impact of Achieving the Dream on the campus and its student population, the college’s interventions are still in their early stages of development.
The college is pursuing three primary initiatives, which are individually and collectively intended to improve upon student success. The college continues to develop and to bring to scale an effective student success course. Odessa college is also working toward creating a standard curriculum, and toward piloting Learning Communities within the course’s curriculum.
As an Achieving the Dream institution, Odessa College is attempting to give students who are otherwise underprepared for the challenges of higher education, and who may not otherwise have the resources or the tools for securing those resources, a greater opportunity to succeed. They are doing this by creating a Student Success Center and giving the college a new “front door” via the creation of The Wrangler Express center: a one-stop which offers students access to many college and student services.
Located in rural West Texas, Odessa College’s service area includes 13 counties, covering 33,000 square miles—a service area approximately the size of the state of Maine—and is the largest service area for any community college in Texas.
Greater than 50% of Odessa College’s student population are minorities, the bulk of who are Hispanic and Latino students.
Nearly 40% of Odessa’s first-time-in-college, first year students who receive Federal Pell grants; as do nearly 25% of Odessa’s total student population. Odessa College is committed to providing exemplary educational programs and services that ensure all groups are positioned for success—racial groups, gender groups, as well as groups of people from diverse backgrounds.
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.
