Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence

Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence Round 2 Application

Your community college has been determined eligible for the $1 million Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. Congratulations!

OVERVIEW

The Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence aims to reward and shine a spotlight on community colleges that deliver exceptional student results, to stimulate replication of successful campus practices and leadership, and to contribute to the development of high-quality measures and benchmarks for assessing community college student outcomes. The $1 million Prize, awarded every two years, has brought a new level of public attention to community colleges, defined new measures of excellence in outcomes for community college students, and uncovered and disseminated practices that help exceptional colleges ensure great outcomes for their students.

In March 2013, the Aspen Institute announced the Co-Winners of the 2013 Aspen Prize, Santa Barbara City College (CA) and Walla Walla Community College (WA). Valencia College, in Orlando (FL), won the inaugural Prize in 2011.

The Prize is administered in three rounds. Round 1 of the Aspen Prize was used to determine your eligibility and identified 150 community colleges in the U.S. based on institutional performance, improvement, and equity on student retention and completion measures. Your institution and 149 others are invited to complete and submit – UPDATE: by 5 PM ET March 12, 2014 – this Round 2 application for the 2015 Aspen Prize.

After the submission of Round 2 applications, some college leadership teams will be interviewed by phone to answer clarifying questions. An expert selection committee convened by the Aspen Institute will select 10 finalists: community colleges that have produced outstanding outcomes for students, routinely collected data demonstrating a full range of student outcomes, and effectively and systematically used those data to continuously improve practices and policies impacting student success. This application is the first step in documenting high and improving levels of student success (and submitting corresponding data) as well as narratives describing concrete examples of practices that have led to your excellent student outcomes. Recognizing that not every applicant will collect and report all data requested, we are seeking available information in the following four areas:

 Completion Outcomes: Indicating that the community college excels at helping students earn an associate’s degree, attain a certificate with demonstrated value in the labor market, or transfer to a four-year college, as well as ensure that students make timely progress towards degree/certificate completion.

1  Labor-Market Outcomes: Indicating that the degree and certificate programs at the college improve employment and earnings of graduates and that the college collects and uses data on such outcomes and future labor market needs to improve courses and programs.

 Learning Outcomes: Indicating that the college gathers information to assess student learning, and that this information is used to continually improve and strengthen courses and programs.

 Equitable Outcomes: Indicating that the college ensures access and success among students who are often under-served, including those from three underrepresented racial/ethnic groups—African American, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian—and students from low-income backgrounds.

In Round 3, Aspen will conduct site visits to all finalist campuses. A prominent Prize Jury will select the winner(s) and finalist(s)-with-distinction, to be announced and celebrated in early 2015.

Additional information about the Prize, including Round 1 selection criteria, can be found at www.AspenCCPrize.org.

2 INSTRUCTIONS AND DEADLINE

Please complete the following fill-in sections for narrative responses and use the attached templates to provide data. Definitions of the requested metrics are contained in the attached templates. For additional assistance, please email Leigh Arsenault at [email protected].

In each response, please provide:

 Data on outcomes. The attached templates ask for specific data on outcomes, disaggregated by sub-group. While proxies for some outcomes may be the best measures available, direct evidence of completion, learning, and employment/earnings should be provided whenever it has been collected. When available, all data should be disaggregated by race/ethnicity and gender. In any case in which requested data are not available, please briefly note the reason, indicating any plans that are in place to collect the missing data.

 Information on the use of data. Please provide specific descriptions of the data-use practices at your institution – noting specifically by whom, with what frequency, and for what purposes data are used within the college to inform plans and actions to continuously improve student outcomes.

 Information as to the scale of student success-focused reforms and initiatives. For any practices and reforms that you cite as having significant impact on improving student success, indicate the scale at which those initiatives are currently implemented within your institution. Include the number of students as well as the percentage of target groups (and number of students) that are directly affected by any noted practice or policy.

 Information on evaluation practices. For any practices or reforms that you cite as having significant impact on student success, describe the evidence you have of that impact and how you evaluate their effectiveness over time. Also describe how the institution makes use of evaluation results.

 Current plans to sustain or expand practices. Describe your institution’s plans to scale and sustain effective practices and reforms over the long term.

Three other notes regarding the application:

 You must make Aspen aware if your institution is not in good standing with your regional accrediting body. We recognize that accreditation reviews are ongoing and request that you notify us if your institution has any current unresolved issues with accreditors so we can assess eligibility.

3  You may wish to indicate the extent to which noted practices and reforms represent a fundamental restructuring of the way the college delivers education.

 In order to promote information sharing, the Aspen Institute reserves the right to make Round 2 applications – including all data and narratives – publicly available.

. ROUND 2 APPLICATIONS ARE DUE BY 5PM EST ON MARCH 12, 2014.

. COMPLETED APPLICATIONS SHOULD BE EMAILED TO: [email protected]

. PLEASE LABEL YOUR SUBMISSION USING THE FOLLOWING FORMAT:  APPLICATION NARRATIVE: [FULLCOLLEGENAME]-APPLICATION-2015.DOC  APPLICATION DATA TEMPLATE: [FULLCOLLEGENAME]-DATATEMPLATE- 2015.XLS

For questions regarding the application or requests for technical assistance, please email Leigh Arsenault at [email protected].

4 INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION AND PROFILE

Please complete the following contact information, and provide enrollment data for your institution in the attached “Enrollment Profile” template.

INSTITUTION NAME: DESIGNATED CONTACT PERSON/TITLE: CONTACT TELEPHONE: CONTACT EMAIL: INSTITUTION ADDRESS: CITY, STATE, ZIP: WEBSITE:

PRESIDENT’S NAME: PRESIDENT’S EMAIL: NUMBER OF YEARS CURRENT PRESIDENT HAS HELD THE POSITION: PRESIDENT’S ASSISTANT: ASSISTANT’S EMAIL:

INSTITUTIONAL MISSION: In 120 words or less, describe your mission, the populations you serve, and the programs you offer.

FACULTY COMPOSITION NUMBER OF FACULTY PERCENTAGE OF ALL FACULTY FULL-TIME FACULTY PART-TIME FACULTY

External Partners: On no more than one page total, please list between three and five external entities (including individual and consortia from K-12, business, non-profit, research, four-year colleges or other sectors) with which your community college is engaged in partnerships that are

5 important to the student outcomes your institution has achieved. Provide a brief explanation of the role these partnerships have played in student success:

PARTNER KEY CONTACT DESCRIPTION ENTITY NAME/TITLE AND EMAIL OF PARTNERSHIP

6 SECTION 1. ABSTRACT (NO MORE THAN 1 PAGE OF WRITTEN RESPONSE TOTAL FOR THIS SECTION)

Please provide a statement explaining how your community college defines and has achieved excellent student outcomes, is positioned to continue improving such outcomes in the future, and should win the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.

7 SECTION 2. COMPLETION OUTCOMES (NO MORE THAN 3 PAGES OF WRITTEN RESPONSE TOTAL FOR THIS SECTION)

1. Please use the attached templates to provide data on student progression, transfer, and completion (including those who begin in developmental education) across your college.

2. In 500 or fewer words, summarize the specific programs or factors that you believe have contributed to college-wide success in student completion, improvements over time in student completion, or specific achievements demonstrated in your completion data and evaluations.

3. For your completion data, please describe, in 500 words or fewer: o How data on student outcomes are used on your campus, and specifically by whom, with what frequency, and for what purposes. o Any program or other changes you have made in response to these outcomes data, the scale of the changes (how many and which students are impacted), and plans to implement and sustain those changes. o How you assess the effectiveness of those changes.

SECTION 3. LABOR MARKET OUTCOMES (NO MORE THAN 4 PAGES OF WRITTEN RESPONSES TOTAL FOR THIS SECTION)

8 1. Using the sample template provided, please provide data on the earnings and employment outcomes of students who have completed, at your institution, an associate’s degree or certificate of one year or greater length, including: a. Absolute student earnings and employment for those who have completed, at your institution, an associate’s degree, a certificate/program of one year or greater length (i.e., percent of graduates employed within one year of completion and average annual/annualized salaries), or a bachelor’s degree, and b. Improvements in earnings and employment resulting from completing, at your institution, an associate’s degree or certificate/program of one year or greater length (i.e., increases in earnings and employment measured from the time prior to enrollment to the time after completion).

The sample template may be modified to match the collection and reporting of your data. Aspen recognizes that the available sources of employment and earnings data will vary considerably by state and institution. For this reason, no particular employment and earnings data from defined sources are required to apply for the Prize. If you use unemployment insurance data, please report those data along with summary data and information for all other methods you use to gauge labor market outcomes.

2. In 500 or fewer words, describe how you ensure that students achieve labor market success after graduation, including through the use of data or information you use regarding the match between regional labor market demand and the degrees/credentials

9 produced by your institution. Cite the source of your information, indicate how frequently the information is collected, and describe how the information is used to improve curricula or practice. Also, specify if students are placed into employment, and whether data on employee performance are collected from employers.

3. In 500 words or fewer, please describe what your institution provides to currently employed and/or unemployed workers in the areas of non-credit workforce courses and industry-recognized credentials (i.e., courses and programs leading to licensure, a third- party validated certification, or occupational certificate). In this summary, include specific examples of: o Data the college collects on non-credit workforce courses and industry credentials and how it uses the data in decision-making. o How the college engages employers in non-credit workforce course design and assessment of the training or credentials provided. o What efforts the college makes to translate non-credit courses and programs into credit for participating students, and the number of students who are granted such credit each year. 4. In 500 or fewer words, please describe: o How the labor market data discussed in response to questions 1, 2, and 3 above are used on your campus (to inform programming, instruction, budgeting, planning, etc.), and specifically by whom. o What program or other changes you have made in response to these outcome data or other evidence of students’ labor market success. o How you assess the effectiveness of those changes and how you plan to scale and sustain any changes. o Whether there is anything particular about the labor market in your region that might inform or contextualize reviewers’ understanding of the employment and earnings outcomes you provide.

10 SECTION 4. LEARNING OUTCOMES (NO MORE THAN 3 PAGES OF WRITTEN RESPONSES TOTAL FOR THIS SECTION)

1. Please list any evidence you collect regarding student learning in academic programs, vocational certificate programs, and/or in general education courses, indicating the source of evidence (i.e., standardized or locally-developed examinations, licensure exams, portfolios, surveys), including: a. Absolute student learning outcomes (e.g., number and percent of students passing licensure examinations or attaining a given score or level on other assessments), and b. Improvements in learning while students are enrolled (e.g., pre/post tests or repeated assessments).

2. In 500 or fewer words, describe: o How frequently the assessments are conducted, what percentage of students are included in the assessment(s), and if the data apply only to a specific population (transfer track, developmental students, degree-seeking only, etc.).

11 o Your estimate of the validity and reliability of the assessments used to measure learning outcomes (include description of the assessment(s) and the actual instrument if possible).

3. In 500 or fewer words, describe, o How the evidence on the attainment of learning outcomes you collect is used on your campus (to inform curricular design, instruction, budgeting, planning, etc.), and by whom. o What programmatic or other changes you have made in response to this evidence. o How you determine the effectiveness of those changes, and how you plan to scale and sustain them.

12 SECTION 5. EQUITY (NO MORE THAN 2 PAGES OF WRITTEN RESPONSES TOTAL FOR THIS SECTION)

1. In 500 or fewer words, please describe the most significant gaps in achievement between different groups of students (e.g., by race, ethnicity, native language, remedial needs, age) at your institution and what data you have used to identify and address those gaps including: o How information/data on achievement gaps is used on your campus and by whom. o What programs or other changes you have employed to narrow or eliminate those gaps. o How many students you have directly helped through each strategy.

2. In 500 of fewer words, please describe the most significant efforts your institution makes to promote affordability, including those (1) to improve/increase financial aid for students in need and (2) to reduce costs for lower income students to attend college and/or attain a credential. Please describe: o Why your institution chose the particular affordability strategies employed. o How many students you have directly helped through each strategy. o How you determine the effectiveness of those strategies, and how you plan to scale and sustain those deemed most effective.