Institutional Planning and Assessment
Our Single Goal - Student Success
Our students succeed when they achieve their individual positive academic outcomes through dynamic integration of relevant, effective instruction and curricula, student engagement and community connections. These outcomes include completion of a degree or certificate, successful transfer, and new or enhanced employment.
Three vital components are at the core of what we do as a College, and at their intersection is our single, unifying goal, student success.
- Instruction and curricula that are relevant, effective and aligned with positive academic outcomes
- Student Engagement evidenced by a high level of involvement in and enthusiasm for opportunities both inside and outside the classroom
- Community Connections that build and maintain partnerships to support learning, cultivate resources, respond to local community needs and prepare students for citizenship in the global community
Inherent in each of these three components is the assumption that students learn and grow best when they are actively engaged in their learning and have a strong belief that the activities that lead to their learning are meaningful and important. To achieve our goal, we must engage students who are actively involved in both their own learning and the context in which it occurs. Those who do so are much more likely to achieve success than those who see learning as an isolated, largely passive enterprise. And we as an institution will create the conditions for that learning by eliminating the traditional barriers that have limited the interaction of these three vital components.
Student Success Assessment metrics:
- Direct indicators of student success, e.g. graduation, transfer, employment
- Intermediate indicators (indicators that can lead to the ultimate outcome or increase the likelihood of it occurring), e.g. course and program learning outcomes, retention, maintenance of academic standards, developmental student success in college-level courses, increases in engagement and hope measures
- Initiative-specific measures, both formative and summative.