JAMESTOWN, N.C. – Three faculty and staff members from Guilford Technical Community
College will give presentations at DREAM 2014: The Achieving the Dream Annual
Institute on Student Success Feb. 24-27 in Orlando, Fla. Achieving the Dream (http://www.achievingthedream.org)
is a national reform network dedicated to community college student success and
completion. GTCC is one of its leader colleges.
Representing GTCC at the
conference will be: Kristi Short, implementation
director for Completion by Design, a five-year Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation initiative that works with community colleges to increase completion
and graduation rates for low-income students under 26; Clark Wright, research associate for Completion by Design; and Tim Boyd, research associate for Walmart
PRESS (Persistence, Retention and Student Success) for Completion, a
competitive grant program funded by the Walmart Foundation and administered by
Achieving the Dream to address a common community college reform challenge:
engaging full-time and adjunct faculty in student success efforts.
This year more than 1,600
participants will attend the Achieving the Dream conference to share and
discuss methods to increase student success. Short, Wright and Boyd will
present, "Using Multiple Measures
to Predict Academic Success through Remediation: HSGPA, Motivation and You."
The presentation will outline a
research study conducted at GTCC that suggests a multiple measures approach to remedial
(developmental) placement. The study shows that the inclusion of previous
success (in the form of high school GPA) and motivation alongside placement
testing makes for more accurate, less error-prone remedial placement.
In addition, Short will
co-present on the following topics:
·
Pre-Conference Workshop: "Connecting the Dots: A Public School
System, the Local Community College and a State University Work Together to
Enhance Student Success" - The Early
College High School model advocated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
seems particularly beneficial to low-income students. The showcase community
for this concept appears to be in Greensboro, N.C. where the high schools are
located on college campuses. Not only does Achieving the Dream leader college, GTCC,
have early college high schools on three of its campuses, but also a local
four-year institution, North Carolina A&T State University, has two such
programs located on its campus. The session will identify the steps taken to
create a coordinated approach so that the local school system, GTCC and N.C. A&T
work in harmony to provide lower cost/high quality educational experiences for
students. (Co-presenters: William Harvey, dean of the School of Education, N.C.
A&T; Stacey Alston, principal, STEM Early College at N.C. A&T; Marcus
Gause, the Middle College at N.C. A&T; Tony Habit, president, North
Carolina New Schools)
·
“Accelerating Developmental Students into Programs of Study: Making Headway
in North Carolina” - As determined by standard
placement tests, most students who enroll in a community college require at
least one developmental education course. However, developmental education has
been identified as a loss point and a barrier to program entry. In order to
provide students with necessary foundational knowledge and support while
accelerating their progression into programs of study, North Carolina has made
major changes in developmental education. (Co-presenters: Cynthia Liston, associate vice president, North
Carolina Community College System Office; Daniel Price, mathematics instructor and
implementation director, Completion by Design, Martin Community College; Laura Kalbaugh, dean of Academic Success and Transition
Resources, Wake Technical Community College)
·
"Strengthening Transfer Pathways: Tips and Tools for Faculty
Engagement" - Most community college students want a bachelor's degree, yet only
one in five transfers to a four-year institution. Colleges are redesigning academic
programs and student services to create more structured paths designed to guide
students to transfer with junior standing in their major and earn an associate degree
on the way. This workshop will be led by a team that has worked with colleges
across the country to strengthen transfer pathways. (Co-presenters: Davis
Jenkins, senior research associate, Community College Research Center, Teachers
College, Columbia University; Alison Kadlec, senior vice president, director of
public engagement programs, director of Center for Advances in Public Engagement,
Public Agenda; Isaac Rowlett, senior public engagement associate, Public
Agenda).
Guilford Technical Community College is the third
largest of 58 institutions in the NC Community College System. GTCC serves more
than 40,000 students annually from four major campuses and three specialized
centers. Learn more at www.gtcc.edu.
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