Life after TAACCCT: Scaling and Sustaining Reform

1. Life after TAACCCT: Scaling and Sustaining Reform National Council on Workforce Education October 25, 2017 Salt Lake City, Utah Christian Lagarde, AACC and CSU Skills Commons Heather A. McKay, EERC Michelle Van Noy, EERC

2. What is Sustainability? Institutionalization Institutional change Incorporation Permanence Scale Adoption Endurance

3. Factors Contributing to and Inhibiting Sustainability Century, et. al. (2012) identify numerous factors… • Type of innovation • Participants in innovation • Relative to the innovation • Apart from the innovation • Perceptions of innovation • Background characteristics • Leadership • Characteristics of organization • People in organization • How the organization operates • Strategies • Environment • Networks Century, J., Cassata, A., Freeman, C. & Rudnick, M. (2012). Measuring Implementation, Spread and Sustainability of Educational Innovations: Innovating for Coordinated Collaborative Research, American Educational Research Association.

4. Processes to Promote Sustainability Transformative Change Initiative (OCCRL, 2016) identified several guiding principles: • Leadership • Adoption and adaptation • Evidence • Storytelling • Networks • Dissemination • Technology • Spread and Endurance Office of Community College Research and Leadership (2016). Guiding Principles for Scaling Transformative Change, Urbana-Champaign, IL: author.

5. Institutional Reform in Community Colleges A short recent history… • Achieving the Dream • Completion by Design • TAACCCT • Guided Pathways American Association of Community Colleges (2017). The Movement Towards Pathways, Washington DC: author.

6. Connecting Guided Pathways and TAACCCT • Guided pathways (from Bailey, Jaggars & Jenkins, 2015) • Clear program mapping, milestones, learning outcomes, scheduling, and pathways • Academic plans, exploration of majors, targeted supports and foundational skill needs • Clear learning outcomes and assessment; support for motivation and metacognition • Close monitoring of progress with feedback and coordinated intervention when needed • Emphasis on college-wide restructuring • TAACCCT innovations can support and spur these efforts • Some observations from Round 4 grants Bailey, T., Jaggars, S., & Jenkins, D. (2015). Redesigning America’s community colleges: A clearer path to student success. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.`

7. Sustainability Examples from Prior TAACCCT Grants

8. Developmental Education Redesign • Colorado Community College system used TAACCCT to redesign developmental education • New pathways for College Composition and Reading and Math were created by faculty led committee • Redesign was supported by leadership at the state and the system. • Leadership support from institutions varied • Implementation occurred in years 2 and 3 of TAACCCT • CCCS invested in professional development throughout the grant

9. Sustainability of Developmental Education Redesign • Policy was required for all CCCS institutions • Course numbering was changed in data systems • Implementation varied by college • Departments and faculty also played a role in varied implementation • Advising structures were important • Some college chose to innovate and go further

10. Factors for Sustainability Challenges • Support of leadership • Faculty led • Policy change • Did not require funds to continue • Data to support change • Continued innovation • Implementation varied by both institutions and faculty member • Fear • Lack of buy-in for acceleration by some

11. Navigator/Career Coach Role • Help prospective and registered students to understand the career pathways available to them and identify the credentials they need to complete the pathway they choose, • Advise and support students to increase their rates of retention and completion, • Help students to navigate the college’s processes, including the awarding of earned certificates, • Provide referrals and support for nonacademic needs, such as housing or childcare issues, that may impair students’ ability to complete their coursework, • Identify internship and employment opportunities, • Help students matriculate from associate degree to bachelor’s degree programs, and • Prepare students to engage in employment searches and enter the job market.

12. Impact of Navigator in CHAMP Grant • CHAMP students who contacted a navigator had a completion rate 5 percentage points higher than those who did not contact a navigator—33 percent versus 28 percent • Navigator-served CHAMP students had a higher graduation rate than those not served by navigators regardless of their original declared goal of study • There was a higher rate of navigator-served students who stacked credentials than of those who had not been served

13. Methods for Sustaining • Invest in the position • Keep position and share with other departments • Keep the strategies and infuse into other work or areas of the college • Employer outreach • Intensive advising • Marketing and recruitment • Transcript review and follow-up • Program focused orientations • Keep the person but place them into another role • Have faculty adopt some of the methods and roles

14. Electronic Badging • Digital badges are a form of credential, stored and shared online, that represents knowledge and skills individuals acquire in formal and informal settings. • They allow students to showcase what they’ve learned; • Make it easier for employers to identify applicants whose skills match up with job requirements; • They help academic institutions explicitly represent the skills that students acquire in a particular course or program.

15. Badges Awarded • The colleges created 50 badges and awarded a total of 671. • As of May 2017, the badges had been viewed more than 79,500 times on social media or by direct link. TABLE 1. MACHINING LEVEL 1 BADGES AWARDED BETWEEN 28 MAY 2015 AND 3 APRIL 2017[1] Note. Data retrieved May 22, 2017, from Credly database. [1] 2015 totals include the students, mostly from FRCC, who retroactively earned a digital badge based on their NIMS certifications.

16. Sustainability • The Colorado Community College System secured funding for Credly through September 2018. • They established and funded a new position that will oversee digital badging. • Individual colleges are working with employers to refine existing badges and develop new ones in subjects including drone manufacturing and civil engineering. • Some are beginning to sponsor training programs or workshops for students to help spread the word about digital badges.

17. Perception is a Challenge • Students are not aware of the badges or how to use them in their job search. • Employers are interested in ways to accelerate the credentialing process but are not yet familiar with the badges or the terminology associated with them. • Faculty members were optimistic about badging’s potential, but are concern it will compete with other credentials. Drawing students away from certificate and degree programs

18. For More Information, Contact Us: Christian Lagarde 985-502-7714 clagarde@skillscommons.com Heather McKay 848-445-4735 hmckay@rutgers.edu Michelle Van Noy 848-445-4734 mvannoy@rutgers.edu EERC website: www.eerc.rutgers.edu TAACCCT sustainability toolkit: https://taaccct.workforcegps.org/resources/2016/07/25/13/22/Resource_TAACCCTSustainabilityToolkit