Five other community colleges were honored as
finalists for the MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence
Award: Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute (Albuquerque,
New Mexico), Bunker Hill Community College (Boston, Massachusetts),
San Jacinto College North (Houston, Texas), San Juan College (Farmington,
New Mexico), and Tallahassee Community College (Tallahassee, Florida).
Winner of the 2004 MetLife Foundation
Community College Excellence Award
Over 106,000 students take credit and non-credit
courses at City College of San Francisco’s Ocean campus,
nine neighborhood campuses, and over 150 other sites. Although
CCSF is huge, its leaders have charted a clear direction for the
institution through strategic planning that guides program development,
improvement priorities, and budget decisions. The college collects
data on program performance and student outcomes routinely and
makes this information available to college faculty, staff, and
others through a versatile Web-based Decision Support System.
In 2003, the college completed a five-year strategic plan, identifying
eight priorities that guide the college. Annual reports on key
performance indicators drive changes in instructional practice,
student support services, and resource allocation.
The CCSF student body reflects San Francisco’s
diversity. About 40 percent of new students take the English as
a Second Language (ESL) placement test, and ESL is the largest
department, serving as many as 25,000 students a year. About half
of the new students in degree and certificate programs are first-generation
college-goers; 75 percent require at least one pre-collegiate
developmental education course.
CCSF has developed a sophisticated and varied
education program to serve the city’s immigrants. At one
end of the spectrum, the college provides ESL citizenship classes:
90 percent of students pass their naturalization exam. At the
other end, vocational and ESL programs help doctors, dentists,
engineers, nurses, and other foreign-born professionals to improve
their English, gain valid credentials, and find employment in
their fields. In between, diverse programs serve students with
different language needs and educational goals. Innovative Vocational
ESL programs—established with local community and business
partners in hospitality, health care, child care, construction,
food service, and other growth industries—enable students
to move quickly into employment and, potentially, move up. Near
the Mission campus, predominantly Hispanic day laborers who do
not get work on a given day can go to literacy classes that the
college holds in a trailer-classroom.
The results of CCSF’s approach to ESL
and immigrant education are impressive. The proportion of immigrant
students among Associate’s degree-earners has risen steadily,
reaching 49 percent in 2001. The number of ESL students who transfer
to four-year institutions has increased 63 percent in five years.
Other CCSF innovations have improved student
retention. The college reorganized its counseling department into
separate groups tailored to new students, continuing students,
and those who signal their intention to transfer when they enroll.
A tutoring center served 12,000 students for an average of 12
hours each in fall 2003. An Early Alert system for new ESL students
having trouble in developmental courses has doubled course completion
rates in classes where it is in place. CCSF offers classes in
evenings and on weekends, with times and locations across the
city customized to meet the needs of particular groups of job
seekers and students.
While state funding has declined steadily over
the past four years, enrollments have risen. Despite these pressures,
the college is making steady progress on many of its key performance
benchmarks. Student success in credit courses is rising, as is
completion of vocational courses and occupational certificates.
CCSF’s transfer rate places it among the top community colleges
in California: about 1,200 students a year advance to four-year
colleges, a number that is steadily rising.
CCSF has channeled its remarkable entrepreneurial
energy by using data to assess progress and identify service gaps
and by soliciting input from community leaders and residents.
Its commitment to improvement and to serving an incredibly diverse
community is evident across both the credit programs and the non-credit,
pre-college programs that make up a large proportion of CCSF offerings.
Community College of Denver
Winner of the 2004 MetLife Foundation
Community College Excellence Award
Community College of Denver serves more than
13,000 full- and part-time students on its main and branch campuses.
It is the most ethnically and racially diverse higher education
institution in Colorado, with 58 percent minority enrollment,
primarily Hispanic and African-American. More than 60 percent
of CCD students are first-generation college-goers.
CCD is recognized nationally for its efforts
to address a serious attainment gap between white and minority
students. In 1990, college leaders made a commitment to eliminating
variances in persistence and degree completion. As a result of
changes in student advising, developmental education and student
support services, the percentage of graduates from minority groups
soared from 20 percent in 1987 to 50 percent in 2002.
Self-reflection and continuous improvement,
based on performance data, are built into the fabric of the college.
A cross-functional, collegewide team meets monthly to identify
barriers to student success and recommend solutions to the president
and her Executive Staff. CCD also uses faculty action research
to identify weaknesses, assess options and set priorities for
improving practice.
CCD aggressively has pursued expansion in recent
years, determined to increase its visibility and impact. Despite
a nearly 30 percent budget cut since 2001, CCD enrollment climbed
20 percent in 2002-03.
The cornerstone of CCD’s achievements
is the integration of instructional innovation with case management
and support services. All incoming students take the Accuplacer®
assessment. Assessment ensures that students start at the level
for which they are prepared. For “gatekeeper” classes
that present serious barriers to success in degree programs, the
college introduced learning communities that provide underprepared
students with extra academic support. Case management, pioneered
in the college’s branch campuses, First Generation Student
Success, and other support programs targeted to low-income, first-generation
students have been expanded college-wide. All students are assigned
an academic advisor at admission, with many low-income and minority
students receiving additional, targeted advising.
These and other supports make a difference.
For example, retention in gatekeeper biology classes is 87 percent.
The completion rate in developmental education programs, enrolling
44 percent of CCD students at any given time, is 70 percent. About
three-fourths of developmental education students earn a C or
better in college-level English composition and algebra courses.
Degree and certificate completion rose 14 percent from 2002 to
2003, and students who advance to four-year colleges from CCD
perform better than those who enter those schools as freshmen.
CCD has a long history of innovative partnerships
with local industry and governments. Examples include: an online
LPN-to-RN Health Academy, a short-duration skills development
program that has placed more than 250 low-income individuals in
jobs with high retention rates, and a dislocated worker program
that has trained hundreds of older students in certificate or
degree programs.
CCD recently made an institutional commitment
to expand its services to two important groups: out-of-school
youth and students in Denver high schools. CCD has one of Colorado’s
largest GED instructional programs, enrolling around 1,800 students
who earned a GED from a variety of providers. New short-term training
programs for out-of-school youth are giving 17- to 21-year-old
dropouts their first taste of college courses, college credits
and college success.
CCD has determined that improving the academic
readiness of prospective students can reduce the need for remediation.
It now recruits high school students for, and supports them in,
dual enrollment CCD classes. It also helped to create Colorado’s
first two early college high schools/middle colleges, and the
Denver Public Schools’ Summer@CCD program has brought 200
high school students to campus to take college-credit courses
alongside older students. A pilot initiative provides individualized
learning, mentoring and support for high school students who might
otherwise not be ready to succeed in college.
###
MetLife
Foundation, established in 1976 by MetLife, supports
health, education, civic, and cultural programs throughout the
United States. The Foundation has contributed more than $90 million
to education programs that facilitate change and cultivate effective
learning environments at school and at home. For more information
about the Foundation, please visit the Web site at www.metlife.org.
Jobs for the Future seeks to accelerate the educational and economic advancement of
youth and adults struggling in today's economy. JFF partners with
leaders in education, business, government, and communities around
the nation to: strengthen opportunities for youth to succeed in
postsecondary learning and high-skill careers; increase opportunities
for low-income individuals to move into family-supporting careers;
and meet the growing economic demand for knowledgeable and skilled
workers. For more information about Jobs for the Future, please
visit the Web site at www.jff.org.
Click here to go back
