Spokane Falls Community College
At both Spokane Falls Community College and the Institute for Extended Learning, the campus culture values data and supports data-informed decisions. The college has recognized the need for technical assistance from Achieving the Dream to help develop the best procedures and the most appropriate research questions to create the best solutions to improve student success rates. Working with Achieving the Dream data coaches will assist the college in the implementation of timely interventions and help expand SFCC’s use of evidence in decision-making for proactive deployment of institutional resources that best serve their disadvantaged students.
Incorporating Achieving the Dream will be an institution-wide process that coordinates all of SFCC’s ambitions, endeavors, and current programs into a comprehensive agenda to create a learning environment that produces successful outcomes and provides substantive opportunities for students and the communities served.
The college’s preliminary goals include:
- Continue retention studies to determine why students and specific subgroups of students discontinue their education
- Identify the resources and support students need to pursue their educational goals
- Integrate successful outcomes to improve student completion rates, especially among disadvantaged, low-income students
Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC) is one of two accredited institutions that comprise the Community Colleges of Spokane. The college opened in 1967 in west Spokane on a 113-acre campus and serves a large urban and suburban population, as well as provides educational services to rural communities throughout a six-county, 12,000 square-mile region through the Institute for Extended Learning (IEL). IEL facilitates the delivery of SFCC’s credit professional/technical courses throughout five counties surrounding Spokane County.
The college’s student success strategies are designed specifically to reduce achievement gaps related to socioeconomic status, uneven educational experiences, and ethnic diversity. Both IEL and SFCC serve large percentages of students who live in poverty and/or are first-generation college students, and a large percentage of IEL’s basic education students are first in their family to earn a GED or high school diploma. In the Fall 2009 semester, 39% of students received Pell grants.
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.
