An Early Alert Student Success Program

1. An Early Alert Student Success Program Presented by: Dr. Sharon Blackman and Angie Gomez Dallas County Community College District Innovations 2013 Dallas, Texas March 12, 2013 2:30-3:30pm

2. The Journey to Success (JTS) program was created by DCCCD to help students achieve their academic and career goals by CONNECTING students with services and information they need to be successful.

3. A major contributor to student success is to make students feel personally connected with college. • JTS is a free service that teams students with a Success Coach. • Success Coaches are trained to help students identify and overcome obstacles on their path to success. • JTS is a collaborative approach between faculty and college employees. • JTS leverages DCCCD’s workforce attributes to help students get connected.

4. About DCCCD Seven Separately Accredited Colleges Brookhaven College *Cedar Valley College *Eastfield College *El Centro College Mountain View College *North Lake College *Richland College Community Center and *Community Campuses North Lake College North Campus North Lake College South Campus North Lake College West Campus Richland College Garland Campus Cedar Valley College Center at Cedar Hill Eastfield College Pleasant Grove Campus El Centro College Bill J. Priest Campus El Centro College West Campus Dallas Colleges Online – provides distance learning services to all seven colleges!

6. Events That Spurred JTS • Achieving the Dream • Board Support and Funding • District-wide Initiatives

7. Initial Ahas • Need to EMPOWER all students • Retention is everyone’sresponsibility • Need more collaborative efforts • Colleges duplicating efforts • Need ongoing and sustainable processes • Need more IT support • Personal obstacles also affect retention

8. Development of JTS • July 2009 - Demo of Colleague’s Retention Alert (CRA) module • ENLIGHTENEDDCCCD Executive Staff about the tool (CRA) that could “connect” faculty and other employees. • Requested names from each location to serve on RA team: • Faculty • Enrollment Service Personnel • Retention Personnel • IT • Established Unrealistic Implementation Goal – January 2010 Connecting through collaboration!

9. Development of JTS (cont.) • Team met weekly beginning September 2009 • SHARED current processes at each college • Determined commonalities • Established a workflow • Agreed upon a new workflow for entire district • Assignment of cases to Success Coaches • RA categories, case types, and closure reasons • Last day to make a referral

10. Designing the Program • Identified JTS Players: • Retention Coordinators • Contributors • Success Coaches • Identified Support Needs: • Training • Assessment & Evaluations • Reporting Connecting students to college success!

11. Retention Coordinator

12. Contributor

13. Success Coach

14. Training Design • Establishing needs • Available training tools • Designing the training program • Delivery of the training program

15. Training Video

16. Mid-semester pulse check Assessment and Evaluation • Focus groups, • Surveys, • Team discussions • End of semester evaluation • Set goals for next term

17. 2010 • Spring – Pilot • Faculty teaching developmental courses • Two section in each area of developmental: Reading, Writing and Math • Assignment on alphabetical sliding scale • Success Coaches varied by college JTS Path

18. 2011 • Fall & Spring – Expansions • Fall 2011 – Expansion • Expanded courses to high risk college-level courses • Assignment by each alphabet • Expanded Success Coaches • Spring 2011 - Expansion • Opened it up for Student Self Referral • Fall 2011 - Expansion • Expanded courses – determined by college • Allowed one college to pilot course initiated cases verses faculty initiated case openings • Allowed college to close cases at will. JTS Path

19. JTS Path • 2012 • Spring & Fall – Expansions • Spring 2012 - Expansion • Open to all faculty (including adjunct) • Open invitation for Success Coach (excludes part-time) • Allowed colleges to pilot cohort initiated cases • Added case type for Self-referrals (reporting purposes) • Changed case assignments for one college – course driven verses alphabet • Fall 2012 • Add a few more cohorts

20. Recruitment Activities

21. JTS E-mail Blast COURTESY NOTICE FROM THE DALLAS COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT ***PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS AUTO-NOTIFICATION MESSAGE*** Dear @XPST.D06.STUDENT.NAME , Attending college is an exciting time in life, but it can also be overwhelming trying to balance your course work, a job, and family responsibilities.  As a college student, things don't always go as planned.  That is why the DCCCD has many services to support students to identify and overcome obstacles during the pursuit of their academic career. A new program, Journey to Success, is a free service which teams you with a Success Coach who can help you: **Identify and solve challenges that are keeping you from achieving your dreams. **Connect you with college services you need to be successful, ie.tutoring. **Create plans that effectively balance your schedule. **Strengthen your study and time management skills. You may be referred by your instructor to Journey to Success or you can request a Success Coach. Visit www.dcccd.edu/JourneyToSuccess for more information and a list of Journey to Success Coordinators at each DCCCD college. (Note: If you are viewing this e-mail through eConnect's "My Messages" feature, please copy and paste the above URL into your browser to access this site.) We are delighted to have you participate in the program and look forward to supporting you on your personal journey to success! Respectfully, The Journey to Success Team

22. What We Discovered • Success Coaches - Limit assignments to no more than five cases. • Most students do not respond! • FTF meetings most effective. • Once connection is made, obstacles become manageable. • Self-Referrals - exceptional option for students. • Great professional development for employees.

23. Self-Referrals Student requests… • “I look forward to working with the program. I will need a tutor for my COSC 1415 class. I am going to reach out to the tutor for our class. However, I can tell I am going to need plenty of help.” • “I want a success coach. I am juggling school, work, and chemo. I am working towards an associate degree in nursing.” No red flags!

24. Self-Referrals (cont.) Significance.. I didn't realize until today after our meeting the significance of having students do self referrals. I would like to share with the team 3 students that were in crisis and had to be referred to Counseling Services. I didn't document what was told to me in Datatel  because of FERPA but did inform their coaches that they will need extra attention. • Student #1- Had a 6 year old daughter to die last fall. Stay-at-home mom whose husband doesn’t want her to return to school. She is attending college to refocus her energy on school and not on her daughter's death. Lately, she had been having thoughts of joining her daughter in heaven. Askedher what she wanted from a JTS coach and she indicated that she wanted someone to be proud of her efforts (she had a 3.4 GPA) and just to encourage her to continue with her educational pursuits.  • Student #2- Older student with one leg amputated due to diabetes. Having transportation issues since he can’t drive himself to school. Was becoming discourage and depressed. Ask what he wanted from a JTS coach and he indicated that he just wanted someone to encourage him not to give up-his GPA was 2.9  • Student #3- Young student that had been out of prison for about a year. Was discouraged with FA; had drug addiction issues; feeling depressed and just didn't feel like they belonged in a college atmosphere. Asked what she wanted from a JTS coach and she indicated that she just wanted someone to say that she belong here and could do it. What do you want from a JTS Coach?

25. Professional Development • It was a great experience. I couldn’t provide enough resources to my student because student had a death in the family and had to situate everything with the family. • My interaction with the student was very helpful. I found myself learning a lot about other areas that I was not familiar with. The student felt comfortable coming to me to ask for help on a consistent basis, and even though I could not answer every question the student asked. I made sure that I found out the answer for the student, instead of sending student from office to office. I felt almost like a liaison between student and services.

26. Measurements of Effectiveness Main objective is connecting students to college success… http://vimeo.com/50983365 Quantitative Measures: Fall 2011: 74 % Persisted to Spring 2012 Qualitative Measures

27. JTS Stats

28. JTS Influences – Flows Two Ways • Texas Completes (Completion By Design) • New Advising Model – Academic Advising Syllabus, including Advisor and Student expectations • Competency-Based Learning • Advance to next level after mastery of a concept • Verses advancement after completion of traditional course

29. JTS Influences – Flows Two Ways (cont.) • Completion Agenda • Program of Study (HB 3025) • Clear pathways to completion • Automatic Graduation • Reverse Transfer • Gainful employment • Faculty Best Practices: From Day One and 16 Week Plan

30. Future Plans • Expand cohorts and batch opening of cases • Auto open cases for JTS students enrolled next term on Academic Probation • Review services required to support student success: tutoring services, outside organizations • More incentives for Success Coaches • Nominations for Coach of the Year • Request full-time position for Coordinators • Increase opportunities to earn staff development hours

31. Future Plans (cont.) • Expand Communications • Designated JTS areas • JTS socials • Diagnostic Testing • Non-cognitive behavior testing for FTIC

32. Questions?

33. Thank you! Please complete the online evaluation for this conference. Not only does it help future League for Innovation conference planning, you will also earn a chance to win a complimentary registration for a future League conference! For more information, contact: Dr. Sharon Blackman sblackman@dcccd.edu Angie Gomez angieg@dcccd.edu