Temple College
Temple College has shifted its focus from access to success. The college has combatted the view by some on campus that, individually, many of its student success initiatives are temporary, by centralizing the various strategies around a theme of developmental education.
The college has created and continues to scale the following student success interventions:
- Zero Week: A week without classes that provides faculty and students time to prepare for the academic year. Zero Week is the week following registration and prior to the first day of classes each fall.
- Attendance Accountability—Peer Involvement Program: A modification to the college’s mandatory attendance policy created by the Student Success Division to address the specific needs of and challenges to students enrolled in developmental education.
- Continuous Student Orientation: Provides ongoing exposure to student and academic services throughout the semester; particularly targeted toward students in developmental English students.
A spirit of equity has been embedded in the programs, policies and campus community culture of Temple College since it was founded in 1926. In the fall semester of 2009, 19% of Temple’s student population was African American, and another 19% were Hispanic. Fifty-five percent of the college’s first-time, first-year students received Pell grants.
Temple College encourages active learning through diverse instructional methods, enhancements in pedagogy, and advancements in online instruction. Temple College also plans to pursue systematic institutional improvements that will promote success for all students. The college has been collecting, aggregating and making available the results of various pertinent quantitative data.
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.
