SAN FRANCISCO — Several thousand educators from nearly 265 community colleges throughout the nation are meeting this week to strategize over how best to support and enhance student success work at their respective institutions.
Achieving the Dream — a national network of over 200 community colleges committed to student success reform — is pushing attendees at its annual conference to adopt seven principles of a student-centered model for institutional improvement. Those principles include:
Over the past several days, policymakers, thought leaders and practitioners have gathered to share best practices on how to help community college students complete college. At a time when nearly one-half of all students in the United States are enrolled in a community college, advocates say that college completion is more important now than ever before.
In California, for example, there are 2.1 million students enrolled in the state’s 113 community colleges.
“The nature of the economy has changed permanently,” said Dr. Eloy Oakley, chancellor of California Community Colleges. “We have invested $1 billion in student success.”
The drive to improve student success rates has been encouraged by several philanthropic entities like the Kresge and the Lumina Foundation. In 2004, Lumina, along with the support from others, established Achieving the Dream, which is now operational in more than 35 states and the District of Columbia.
“We are helping more than 4 million community college students have a better chance of realizing greater economic opportunity and achieving their dreams,” said Dr. Karen Stout, president and CEO of the organization headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland.
