Students Aren't Just Data Points, but Numbers Do Count

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Students Aren't Just Data Points, but Numbers Do Count LUMINAFOUNDATIONL U M I N A F Winter 2008 Lessons Students aren’t just data points, but numbers do count Lessons: on the inside Page 4 ’Equity for All’ at USC 12 Page Chicago’s Harry S Truman College Page 22 Tallahassee Community College Writing: Christopher Connell Editing: David S. Powell Editorial assistance: Gloria Ackerson and Dianna Boyce Photography: Shawn Spence Photography Design: Huffine Design Production assistance: Freedonia Studios Printing: Mossberg & Company, Inc. On the cover: Indonesia-born Kristi Dewanti attends Tallahassee Community College, where a concerted emphasis on outcomes data is boosting student success. PRESIDENT’SMESSAGE Our grantees wield ‘a powerful tool:’ data Having spent most of the last two decades as a higher education researcher and analyst, I’ve developed some appreciation for the importance and value of student-outcomes data for colleges and universities. Such information is used for a variety of purposes, from informing collaborative action planning on campus, to the actual implementation of those plans, to the assessment or benchmarking of results based on the work undertaken. Robust, reliable data are vital for institutional decision mak- ing and accountability. Compelling data can be the driving force in fostering a “culture of evidence,” leading to measur- able impacts on students and lasting campus change. Too often, casual observers might think that a data-driven institution is one that focuses mainly on the processes of collection and analysis. But at Lumina Foundation for Education, we have always considered data a power- ful tool to better meet students’ needs. From the Achieving the Dream initiative – which has done ground- breaking work to support data-driven decision making at community col- leges – to the important results that have been attained at minority-serving institutions under the Building Engagement and Attainment for Minority Stu- dents (BEAMS) project, Lumina’s investments in data-driven campus change have been gratifying. In this issue of Lumina Foundation Lessons, we highlight the work of grantees at three distinct postsecondary institutions: Tallahassee Community College in Florida, Harry S Truman College in Chicago and the University of Southern Califor- nia. In unique and impressive ways, leaders from these insti- tutions are demonstrating that data can be the difference between a good and a great institution – between moder- ately successful students and those with the potential to be transformative leaders in their communities. As the new president and CEO of Lumina Foundation for Education, I celebrate these successes in our ongoing work to support data-driven decision making on campuses. I believe that data can be even more useful, however, when seen as a critical tool that helps to inform people who make decisions that can have a broad impact – including state and federal policymakers, influential experts in the field and many others. As we embark on the next phase of Lumina’s work to expand access and success beyond high school, we will be looking at new Lumina Foundation Lessons is an occasional publication and better ways that data can be used. Our goal is to foster in which we share the results of our grantees’ work. innovation and support scalable change, building on the excit- By thoughtfully evaluating the programs we fund ing successes of the grantees highlighted in this publication. and then sharing what we learn, we hope to broaden the impact of our grant making, while also boosting the effectiveness of the organizations and individuals who do the vital work of increasing students’ access to and success in college. Jamie P. Merisotis President and CEO Lumina Foundation for Education ’Equity for All’ at USC Going under the microscope to create macro-level change stela Mara Bensimon considers her work a return to her Eroots as a community organizer working on behalf of Puerto Rican youth in New Jersey’s poorest cities in the early 1970s. These days, Bensimon isn’t a street-level activist, she’s a researcher – the founding director of the Center for Urban Education (CUE) within the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education. Still, CUE specializes in what Bensimon calls “action research” and reflects the professor’s determination “not to write anymore only for people like myself. I wanted to do something that brings about change.” 5 L UMINA F OUNDATION L ESSONS W INTER 2 0 0 8 From offices high above USC’s cam- what to do with all of the information. The eight-member Long Beach evi- pus, Bensimon and her team are work- While enrollment and graduation data dence team examined the records on all ing to help colleges and universities usually are available by race and ethnic- 43,547 first-time college students come to grips with their shortcomings, ity, seldom do institutions look closely enrolled between 1999 and 2005. Han- especially in achieving equity for under- enough to identify which students dis- nah Alford, the college’s research ana- served minority students – not just appear into the lowest level of develop- lyst, ran the numbers and produced equity in admissions or in theory, but mental courses and never come out. PowerPoint slides with the raw data. “equality as a fact and equality as a As Marshall “Mark” Drummond, chan- The team sat around a table, and “ques- result,” as President Lyndon B. Johnson cellor of the Los Angeles City Colleges tions begat more questions,” says Fred put it in a famed 1965 commencement and former chancellor of the California Trapp, administrative dean for Institu- address at Howard University. Community Colleges system, puts it: tional Research and Academic Services. Bensimon’s path-finding work – first “Our ‘back door’ (is) much less diverse The biggest surprise was how many on her Diversity Scorecard project and and equitable than our ‘front door.’” students dropped off the radar screen now on an effort called Equity for All – The Equity for All project took Ben- just one or two courses shy of being has drawn national attention and the simon and her researchers out to a dozen ready to transfer to a four-year college. support of Lumina and other major community colleges in and around Los Many were stymied not by math, but foundations, including the James Irvine by requirements for courses on critical Foundation, the Ford Foundation and thinking and speech communication. the William and Flora Hewlett Founda- The pass rate in Beginning Algebra, the tion. It involves working closely with “These institutions lowest-level remedial course, was 35 faculty, counselors, deans and researchers percent. A third of those 43,547 enter- to mine their own institutional data were already diverse; ing students had indicated their goal about how many students move up the was to transfer to a four-year institution academic ladder, and to break down the they didn’t have a and earn a bachelor’s degree. But only data by race, ethnicity and gender. problem with access. 659 – 1.5 percent – made it in the six Bensimon is less concerned about the years that the LBCC team reviewed. large, four-year institutions and more The problem was One finding was particularly startling. worried about what happens at the There were 87 students who completed urban community colleges and compre- with success – and transfer requirements in three years – hensive universities that enroll minority practically warp speed at LBCC – but students in the largest numbers. “These no one was really who never transferred. They were institutions were already diverse; they looking at that.” dubbed “the missing 87.” didn’t have a problem with access. The “Equity for All gave us the validity problem was with success – and no one and credibility to move forward with was really looking at that,” says Bensi- Estela Mara Bensimon, this agenda,” says Leticia Suarez, dean mon, a native of Argentina whose fam- Center for Urban Education, for Learning Resources, Teaching and ily moved to New Jersey when she was University of Southern California Technologies. “Nobody could question 12. Now, thanks to CUE, more institu- this data. It was solid. And at the same tions are putting their data under the time, it was borne out by what the fac- microscope. More often than not, they Angeles. They trained “evidence teams” ulty and students themselves were are surprised by what they find – and of faculty and administrators on how to sift experiencing. We all knew this was motivated to do something about it. through existing data and raise new ques- happening, but now we know why.” “Researchers aren’t supposed to have tions. Invariably, there were big surprises. The numbers harvested for Equity for an agenda, but we do have an agenda,” Bensimon herself attended monthly All sent shock waves through the insti- says Bensimon. “Our agenda is to bring team meetings at Long Beach City College tution. The evidence team made pre- to light that there are inequalities and (LBCC), 25 miles down the freeway from sentations to different academic (to show) that something can be done Los Angeles. Almost two-thirds of Long departments and returned with requests about them.” Equity for All is not Beach’s 27,000 students are minorities; for more data. They published three merely a search for data. Indeed, it is one in three is Latino. Long Beach had newsletters explaining their findings. based on the idea that the most impor- tried to produce a student equity plan in Shauna Hagemann, counselor for Dis- tant thing is for a team of faculty, staff 2002, but faculty members were skepti- abled Students Programs and Services, and administrators to engage in the cal about the data the college produced. says, “We went through all of the process of inquiry, jointly deciding “Equity for All gave us the opportunity different phases: disbelief, shock, anger.
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