Pierce College
Student success and equity are the preeminent priorities of the college's strategic plan, educational master plan, and key performance indicators. Pierce College wants Achieving the Dream's guidance to collect evidence and distribute that evidence widely to engage more stakeholders, faculty, and staff in program planning, evaluation, and improvement. With Achieving the Dream the college will:
- Develop outcomes measures of student success and then analyze outcomes measures and implement the results in planning and program evaluation
- Develop a strategy for providing basic skills instruction for all students needing these courses based on their placement tests
- Increase the number of degrees and certificates awarded and number of transfers to four-year universities
- Increase the number of students seeking career development services and finding employment after goal completion
- Improve preparation of high school students attending Pierce College from feeder high schools
- Develop specific retention strategies that assist all students
Other student success efforts at Pierce College include a Freshman Success course, a Summer Bridge program with English and math learning communities, and contextualized courses and workshops to create applied learning opportunities.
Founded in 1947, Los Angeles Pierce College provides students with almost 100 areas of study and teaches more than 23,000 students each semester. It is one of the nine colleges of the Los Angeles Community College District and serves the people in eight San Fernando Valley communities, where at least 1 in 5 residents live in poverty. Located on 426 acres in the western San Fernando Valley of southern California, Pierce College has served as an agricultural college for more than 60 years. The college remains unique in the greater Los Angeles area because of its farm and instructional programs.
Pierce College has one of the highest transfer performances in Southern California and Pierce Honors students have the enviable record of having never been turned down for admission to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In the Fall of 2009, Pierce enrolled 21,930 students, with 73% of them attending part-time. Almost two-thirds of Pierce’s students are of color and a little over one-third (33%) of the college’s total student population are of Hispanic or Latino backgrounds. The college reflects a truly diverse environment with hundreds of international students mixing into the student population each year.
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.
