Richland College
Richland College is truly dedicated to student success. Despite being the only community college to receive the 2005 Malcolm Balbrige National Quality Award, the college continues to create strategies to close achievement gaps; particularly those gaps that persist among the college’s African American and Latino male student populations.
Richland’s student success initiatives include:
- The implementation of the Learning Frameworks Steering Committee’s EDUC 1300 student success skills course.
- The creation of the African American/Latino Male Mentoring Program (AALM).
- Participating in the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) experimental program designed to increase student success in developmental math and college-level statistics.
- Implementing and pursuing multiple and various gateway course interventions.
- Caring Behaviors teaching strategies for classroom faculty.
- Developmental Mathematics Course Sequence strategies, including the Center for Success in Mathematics.
Located in the state of Texas, Richland College, much like other colleges and universities located throughout the state, is charged with paying special attention to closing achievement gaps of its African American and Latino Male student populations.
For more than 39 years, Richland College of the Dallas County Community College District has focused on teaching, learning and community building. In recognition of these efforts, the White House and the Department of Commerce named Richland a 2005 recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the only community college to have received this award. Richland helps students build their future through courses that can be applied to the first two years of a baccalaureate degree, one-or two-year certificates in a number of career fields, and training in the latest technology for students who want to advance in their current careers.
The Fall 2009 student body of approximately 18,200 students was richly international and ethnically diverse, speaking more than 79 different first languages.
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.
