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New Insights Are Driving Change
At IEBC, we are fortunate to support motivated community colleges,
dedicated to
addressing
significant educational challenges and
moving the
needle on student success. While their goals may differ, all
benefit from
our partnership in building data-informed college cultures based on broad, inclusive involvement. At the same time, colleges learn to focus on specific goals and objectives with carefully constructed evaluation tools to measure their success.
These case studies are a treasure trove of ideas developed in a thoughtful, effective way.
We have assembled four recent case studies on the IEBC website. While the focus here is on community colleges, the work is applicable to all segments of education. Overviews are provided in this newsletter for your winter break reading.
If these articles inspire ideas for potential partnerships with IEBC, we look forward to hearing from you. Contact us at [email protected]
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Southwestern College Focuses On Results
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The well-used Cesar Chavez Student Services building at Southwestern College is a backdrop for these students.
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The effort among America's community colleges to improve student equity is a truly monumental challenge. Recognizing the scope of the changes needed can seem overwhelming.
Dr. Angelica Suarez, Southwestern College's Vice-President of Student Affairs, quickly realized successful creation of a student equity plan required two key elements: think big, start small to avoid getting overwhelmed; and establish the infrastructure first to support your plan.
Dr. Suarez looked to IEBC to assist Southwestern College in framing the conversation around student equity and developing an intentional approach that involved faculty and staff at all levels. IEBC President/CEO Dr. Brad Phillips led the Southwestern College team through the process with a data-informed focus, leading to the implementation of a successful supplemental instructional program employing embedded tutoring.
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Cuyamaca College Seeks Success Via Evaluation Research
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Cuyamaca College STEM Summer Boot Camp students practice running measurements
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When Cuyamaca College wanted to maximize its Guided Pathways outcomes under its new five-year STEM grant, it turned to IEBC.
Vice President Jordan Horowitz is working with program directors Laurie LeBlanc and Kathryn Nette and their team to understand the drivers of the grant's positive outcomes during program implementation, and not after, so they are able to take action on the findings more quickly.
At the conclusion of the program's initial STEM summer boot camp, instructor Laurie LeBlanc said, "We were surprised how well it worked. (Students) were almost universally positive about the experience for themselves. The faculty mentors worked so hard, it was a shot in the arm."
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Contra Costa College Applies Innovative Data Use
California's community colleges are in the process of undergoing a major transformation in the
way their work is done. Rather than relying on anecdotal experiences to make significant decisions, Contra Costa College brought IEBC and Dr. Brad Phillips to campus to support faculty and staff on how to use their data to be more effective.
Ken Sherwood, Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs, worked through similar challenges with IEBC's guidance at his previous assignment at Oxnard College. Sherwood said it doesn't take long for educators to become enthusiastic about the value of data-driven decisions.
"He teaches people how to use data while recognizing where resistance comes from. He helps people ease in and understand it's not a threatening experience. IEBC is here to give you tools to work better."
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Alamo Colleges: Making Pathways Work For All
Leaders at the Alamo Colleges District in Texas are wholeheartedly embracing the approaching changes surrounding the Pathways movement at its five campuses
serving the San Antonio region.
In a bold move, Alamo did away with majors.
Transfer students were asked to declare a "pre-major" and the colleges would ensure all courses would count upon transferring.
Dr. Jo-Carol Fabianke,
Vice Chancellor for Academic Success, knew Alamo needed guidance to construct ways to make it work. Dr. Brad Phillips, President/CEO of IEBC, worked with a small leadership group to develop learning-focused pathways incorporating student learning outcomes (SLOs) with College to Career Pathways.
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The Difference Between Data and Information
December's Education Policy Fellowship
Program (EPFP) Alumni Blog features Jordan Horowitz's "Data Use Principles for Education Leaders," which draws recommendations from our recently published book,
Creating a Data-Informed Culture in Community Colleges: A New Model for Educators, co-authored by IEBC Vice President Horowitz with IEBC President/CEO Brad Phillips.
"Educational leaders have a central role to fulfill in improving the use of information to support student success," writes Horowitz. "There are many lessons to be gleaned from our book."
Read the five most important lessons here.
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Rave Reviews Roll In For Our New Book
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IEBC's new book, based on decades of working with colleges across the United States on increasing effective data use, continues to receive rave reviews in the weeks since its September release by Harvard University Press.
Written by IEBC's Brad C. Phillips and Jordan E. Horowitz, our intention in publishing
Creating A Data-Informed Culture In Community Colleges: A New Model For Educators is to provide educators practical tools which can be used immediately to identify leading indicators and inform current discussions, affecting positive changes in student outcomes before failure occurs.
Read some of our reviews from Amazon buyers:
"This is a must read ...The ideas provided on how to best present data so that it is readily understood and engaging for faculty and staff are practical and easy to put into action ... The process the authors outline to direct our focus on leading indicators versus lagging indicators is a new way of thinking about the data that we collect and present."
-- Julie Marlatt, Dean of Enrollment Managament, Parkland College
"Phillips and Horowitz have written a must-read book for anyone interested in understanding and using data regarding student success in higher education, particularly in community colleges. They offer practical guidance, real-world examples, and clear information about key concepts such as leading and lagging indicators."
-- Trudy Bers, Past President, Association for Institutional Research
"This book explains how to mine and then analyze data in a clear and concise manner. And then it explains how to use data to guide decisions about change or new initiatives needed to improve student performance. It is an outstanding contribution to the field."
-- David Hartleb, President Emeritus, Northern Essex Community College
Creating a Data-Informed Culture in Community Colleges: A New Mod
el for Educa
t
ors
by Brad C. Phillips and Jordan E. Horowitz is now available from Harvard Education Press.
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IEBC Announces New Projects
IEBC's newest project contracts continue to demonstrate a growing interest in Data Use engagement to support academic success for all students and also our Education to Career work (CtCC), and includes new and ongoing clients such as
Contra Costa College, Cuyamaca College, Southwestern College, Victor Valley College, and the
Kern High School District in California. IEBC is working with Long Beach Community College (California) presenting a series of leadership workshops.
University of Nevada Las Vegas engaged IEBC for a recent workshop on cultural competency.
Let IEBC know how we can help you with a workshop or project focusing on your most urgent needs. Contact us at
[email protected]
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Institute for Evidence-Based Change |
(
760
) 436-1477 | www.iebcnow.org
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