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Toolkit

How Do I Operate a Center?

At a Glance

What does it take to run a Student Success Center? This toolkit will assist SSC executive directors in Center operations by covering focus areas like management, policy, and strategic planning.

Published jan. 01, 2000

Sections

Management
Staffing
Communications
Strategy & Sustainability
Policy
Data & Evaluation

Management


A Center is a unique type of organization. The 16 Student Success Centers are situated in both community college systems and community college associations. They system or association office functions as the “host” organization for the Center, and supports the Center in different ways depending on the state. The relationship between a Center and the community colleges in that state is different depending if the state has a community college system or association.


Individual Center Activities

Connecticut

  • Agenda – Connecticut Student Success Center Convening: Guided Pathways and Scale of Adoption Assessment

Michigan

New Jersey

Texas

Staffing


Centers are led by executive directors and, depending on the state situation, sometimes additional staff members.


Below are sample job descriptions for positions at various Centers, to aid Centers as they develop their own staffing strategies.

California

Michigan

New Jersey

Texas

Advisory Boards

California

New Jersey

North Carolina

Texas

Communications


JFF and national provider Next Chapter Communications create messaging and materials; offer training related to storytelling and communications strategy; and provide direct, customized support to individual Centers.

Click here to view a short webinar and the accompanying slides featuring SSC stories of how they engaged with communications services to address communications challenges in their states.

Services

Student Success Centers, as well as the SSC Network as a whole, produce and curate resources for a wide range of audiences. This section includes communications materials developed for the Network, as well as resources put out by individual Center states.

JFF and national provider Next Chapter Communications create messaging and materials; offer training related to storytelling and communications strategy; and provide direct, customized support to individual Centers.

Network Materials

The following communications materials were developed for the Student Success Center Network.

SSCN Logo

SSC Network Logos and Guidelines: Centers have access to the professionally designed SSCN logo. There are 3 logo types (Network, Member, and Center) available in vertical and horizontal; and in color, black and white, and reversed. Use the PNG versions of the logo in Microsoft applications, online applications, and other on-screen applications; and use the EPS versions for printed materials. Please contact us at sscn@jff.org if you would like another type of logo or if you have any questions.

SSC Network Logo – For use on any and all SSC Network materials.

  • PNG File (save the image (right click on the image) and insert as an image into document): Vertical - color
  • EPS File: Vertical - color

State Version of Logo – SSCs that do not already have a Center logo, or would like to udpate their existing logo, may request a version of the Network logo adapted for their state. See this example with the state name for New York added. Please contact David Altstadt at daltstadt@jff.org to request a state-specific logo for your Center.

JFF Branding

Centers have the option of co-branding their materials with both JFF and SSCN branding. If you have questions about how to use the JFF branding or need another version of the logo, email us at sscn@jff.org.

JFF logo (Vertical, Color, PNG)

SSCN map (PDF)

SSCN reach graphic (PDF)

JFF Boilerplate language: JFF is a national nonprofit that drives transformation in the American workforce and education systems. For 35 years, JFF has led the way in designing innovative and scalable solutions that create access to economic advancement for all. Join us as we build a future that works. www.jff.org

JFF's relation to SSCN: "[Your state]'s Student Success Center is a proud member of the Student Success Center Network (SSCN), a national Network of 16 Centers. JFF manages the SSCN and provides support to Centers."

SSC Resource Websites

Center Resources

Student Success Centers put out publications on topics relevant to colleges and also compile and curate resources for colleges and other stakeholders. Many Centers have developed communications materials and online resource centers that include national and local research, recorded webinars, presentations from conferences, and links to national organizations dedicated to advancing student success. Examples of communications materials and resource repositories created by Centers are included below.

California

Connecticut

Hawaii

Michigan

New Jersey

North Carolina

Ohio

Oregon

Texas

Washington

Strategy & Sustainability

JFF provides consultation and guidance to Student Success Centers on strategy and sustainability.

JFF also partners with two national providers in this area:

  • with Baldwin Consulting to help Centers develop or revise strategic plans for long-term sustainability and lasting impact.
  • with the National Center for Inquiry and Improvement (NCII) to help Centers identify and refine TA strategies for supporting guided pathways design and implementation for colleges.
Baldwin Consulting Services
NCII Services

Tips for Talking to Funders - by Caroline Altman Smith

North Carolina Student Success Center Reports to Presidents Council

Strategic Planning and Initiative Alignment

Hawaii

  • Evolution of Student Success Work timeline

Michigan

New Jersey

North Carolina

Texas

Policy

Advocating for Supportive State Policies

Drawing from our experience as policy lead for multiple nationally recognized community college completion initiatives over the past decade, JFF has developed a suite of policy and advocacy services to help Student Success Centers and their partners at state systems, associations, and institutions to inform and influence education and public policy decisions affecting community colleges, their students, and vitality of communities and regional labor markets.

Services

Policy and Advocacy

JFF helps Centers understand policy development and influence the policy debate in their states. As a result, Centers are better equipped to identify favorable policy opportunities that they can leverage on behalf of their colleges.

JFF Policy Papers and Frameworks

  1. National Elections Update
  1. Smart Postsecondary Policies that Work for Students and the Economy
    • Policy Indicators (2019)
    • Companion slide deck (2019)
    • Annotated 15-state policy scan (2018-2019) – unpublished, provided directly to SSCs
    • National report (forthcoming, 2019)
  1. White Paper Series
    • Effective Pathways Depend on Collaboration (Blume, Yeh, 2018)
    • Financing Pathways for Students and Community Colleges (Johnson, 2018)
    • Measuring What Matters (Washington, 2018)
    • Supporting Students Along Their Pathway (Liston, 2018)
    • Policy Discussion Guide (2018)
  1. Policy Leadership Trust For Students Success

Policy Services Delivered to States

Florida

Michigan

  • Memo (Postsecondary Analytics, 2019) – In-District Tuition Discounts and Free Community College

New York

  • Keynote (JFF, 2019) – Lessons from a Decade of Policy Reform
  • Pathways Institute Workshop (JFF, 2019) – Pathways Friendly Policies: How Practitioners can Engage and Guide the Policy Conversation – PowerPoint and Worksheet (downloads to Word document)

Virginia

SSC Examples

Michigan

Data & Evaluation

JFF provides strategic guidance to meet Centers' growing needs in evaluation design, analysis of student outcome data, use of key performance indicators, and return-on-investment analysis.

JFF is partnering with Research for Action (RFA) to help Centers track activities, outcomes, and impact based on the SSC Theory of Change they developed with JFF and Centers. JFF is partnering with ASA Research to help Student Success Centers and their colleges use data to drive change.

Services: Evaluating Center Impact

RFA developed with SSC and JFF input the SSC Progress Toolkit to facilitate data collection for Centers on the services and programs they provide, as well as to generate reports that Centers can use in communicating with stakeholders.

Services: Strategic Data Use

In October 2018, ASA developed a workshop for the NC Center which was designed to help college teams develop a data plan that actively supports decision-making and planning regarding their college’s student success initiatives. ASA provided workshop participants with a toolkit that contains assessments, templates, illustrations and guides to help college teams develop their data plan. These new example resources are linked here:

Evaluations

JFF provides strategic guidance and is building partnerships to meet Centers' growing needs in evaluation design, analysis of student outcome data, use of key performance indicators, and return-on-investment analysis.

SSC Examples:

Michigan

Ohio

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