South Texas College
Achieving the Dream college readiness strategies and dual enrollment programs are helping to reduce the proportion of students in developmental education courses at South Texas College (STC).
The percentage of STC students in developmental studies decreased to 20.3% in Fall 2010.
With dual enrollment excluded, the proportion of students in developmental courses during Fall 2010 was 31%, significantly lower than the 45% in 2006 despite the addition of 9,500 students.
STC uses dual enrollment as an incentive for college preparation. To take tuitionfree credit courses, high school students must be college-ready in the academic area in which they want to enroll. Postsecondary enrollment by more dual enrollment students lowers first-timein- college developmental placement rates.
STC’s five campuses serve residents of two counties on the U.S.-Mexico border. Founded in 1993, STC awards applied baccalaureate degrees, associate degrees, and certificates. As an economic development catalyst, STC helps lead the North American Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education Initiative.
STC is a federally designated Hispanicserving institution. In Fall 2009, 93% of STC’s 26,340 students were Hispanic, 74% were under the age of 24, and 40% received Pell grants. Most STC students are the first in their families to attend college.
In 2010, STC’s college readiness strategies received special recognition in the Leah Meyer Austin Institutional Student Success Leadership Award competition.
STC generates synergy between Achieving the Dream and its other improvement strategies with management processes that connect departmental planning to the college’s strategic plan.
Cohort Success Initiatives marshal several interventions and all academic divisions to assist first-time-in-college, full-time, degree-seeking students whose progress determines the college’s graduation rate.
The Beacon Mentoring Program Study and the Male Ethnographic Qualitative Study are national research projects that include STC innovations.
STC’s annual College Readiness Summits bring several hundred educators, government officials, and community organizers together to share college-readiness data. Collaborative activities evolving from summits are reducing the number of students who need developmental education.
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.
Achieving the Dream Leader Colleges
Leader Colleges are demonstrating the power of the Achieving the Dream Student-Centered Model of Institutional Improvement. They show us it is possible to raise persistence and graduation rates, close achievement gaps, and change lives. Leader Colleges embody the ultimate goal of Achieving the Dream, and as such, serve as mentors within our community of learners.
To be eligible for Leader College distinction, colleges must show three or more years of improvement on one or more of these five measures:
- Course completion
- Advancement from developmental to credit-bearing courses
- Completion of college-level math and English courses
- Term-to-term and year-to-year retention
- Completion of certificates or degrees
