Tulsa Community College
Tulsa Community College (TCC) students who take the Academic Strategies course persist at higher rates than their peers.
The Academic Strategies course is open to all students but it is required of all “Tulsa Achieves” participants. Tulsa Achieves covers up to 100% of TCC tuition and fees for recent graduates of Tulsa County high schools.
- In 2009-10, 89% of the 1,283 students who took Academic Strategies persisted from fall to spring, compared to 61% of the 1,559 students who did not take the course.
- Fall-to-fall persistence of Academic Strategies students was 57%, compared to 37% for students who did not take the course.
Summative data suggest that gains in persistence are traceable directly to Academic Strategies and cannot be explained by the financial assistance granted to students who are required to take the course. Students who do not receive the financial assistance but who took Academic Strategies also persisted at significantly higher rates than students who did not take the course.
Tulsa Community College is Oklahoma's largest community college. Its four campuses served 19,700 students in Fall 2009. Ten percent of students were African American, nine percent were American Indian, four percent were Hispanic, and two percent were Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander.
The African American Male Student Success Team offers mentoring and academic, social, and community service activities to support and retain African-American male students.
Learning effectiveness and student success is the first goal in TCC's new strategic plan. College leaders have identified Achieving the Dream interventions as the primary means to achieve its three strategic goals. All college units must show how their budget requests support the strategic plan.
In 2011, Tulsa Community College began pilot testing
- Orientation for students who enroll late and are not required to take Academic Strategies.
- Academic Advising to engage students in educational planning and motivate them to complete developmental courses.
- Collaborative Learning in Beginning Algebra.
- A Developmental Mathematics Refresher Course that targets the specific academic deficiencies of students whose test scores place them in developmental math. After 16 hours of instruction by TCC's Continuing Education Department students retake the placement test and
- EXCELerate, a college readiness program with K-12 districts that delivers a modified Academic Strategies course to high school sophomores.
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.
