CR Title III Grant
"Strengthening Decision-Making by Integrating Data and Research"College of the Redwoods will realize 1.6 million dollars over five years (October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2010) to develop a sustainable Institutional Research function integrated across CR's academic programs, institutional management, and fiscal planning. In response to what the CR community has been seeking for a long time and identified as a critical need in CR's Strategic Plan, WASC Accreditation processes and the CR research study "The Underprepared", focusing the Title III Grant on Institutional Research will enable CR to produce, analyze, plan from, and manage by real data. Examples of decisions at CR that are informed by data and research can be found below. Decisions at CR, whether made or recommended by a small committee with limited focus, or by a decision-maker with broader responsibility, should: consider what data or research are already available that can help inform the decision; specify goals and measurable objectives; and indicate what research will be undertaken to help determine whether the outcomes meet the specified objectives.
We Need You! In order to provide a forum for members of the CR Community to share their decision-making processes with each other, Title III needs you to provide updates on your activities. Whether you are redesigning a course packet based on data collected regarding student learning outcomes or are incorporating data and research into planning decisions made at the division or institutional-level, give Title III a chance to share your activities with your colleauges. Please send a message to roxanne-metz@redwoods.edu with examples you would like to share, or give Title III a call at ext. 4569 to discuss your ideas. Data-Informed Decisions at CRData-Informed Decisions at CR Del Norte Campus Daily course section enrollment reports: Del Norte administrators have been able to use this report to determine which classes are under enrolled and should be cancelled early enough prior to the start of the semester to notify the students in time for them to enroll in another class that interests them. This also allows administrators to reassign the faculty to newly created additional sections of classes that are more likely to have stronger enrollments. Math classes that have poor retention/pass rates: Del Norte administrators have been able to use data to identify those Math classes (and hopefully others in the future) that have poor retention rates and high failure rates so that we can find ways to assist those students to increase their success rates. As a result CRDN has developed the Supplemental Instruction program for two math classes in the previous semester and are doing so for the current semester as well. As a result, the success rate for the last semester class was substantially higher than the semester prior. Daily District Enrollment Reports: This report allows folks to see how enrollments are going on a day-by-day basis district wide. It provides faculty and administrators the opportunity to track enrollments and question what happened on certain days that the enrollment changed. As a result of this information administrators are able to ask questions about why enrollments changed and identify ways to control or reduce the change if enrollment drops. CR Mendocino Campus Scheduling Decisions: Mendocino administrators have been able to use the daily enrollment report detail illustrating enrollment trends to show that students in Mendocino generally register for classes late in the registration window. Understanding that some Mendocino courses generally don’t gather enough enrollments to remain open until close to the day classes start has helped administrators at that campus make decisions about when and whether to cancel classes due to low enrollment. Math Department Decisions: The Math Department offered two similar math courses (Math 105 and Math 106), but Math 105 had one fewer unit and did not have as many activities as Math 106. The Math Department considered making Math 105 inactive and to continue offering only Math 106. The IR Department provided data on completion rates for both courses going back to the term in which Math 106 was first offered. Since students in Math 106 had a higher completion rate, a decision was made to inactivate or ‘sunset’ Math 105.
2007-08 Revenue Projections:Using the Census Day Enrollment report, Fiscal Services Director Ron Cox was able to update his previous trend-based 2007-08 budget projections. Trend-based projections indicated that enrollments in 2007-08 would continue to decline and that annual FTES projections would fall to a little over 3,400 FTES. Data from the Census Day Enrollment report were used to show that enrollments for Fall 2007 are higher than Fall 2006 enrollments, indicating a reversal of the steady downward trend CR has experienced in enrollments over the past several years. Based on data from IR, the FTES projection for 2007-08 was revised from less than 3,500 FTES to over 3,600 FTES. Data-Driven Decision-Making in CR’s Nursing Retention, Assessment, & Preparation (RAP) Project
Did you know that California is 50th among all states with respect to the number of nurses per capita? As California’s population increases and ages, this nursing shortage is expected to worsen even more. In response to this growing shortage, the State Legislature adopted SB1309, an initiative designed to graduate an additional 3,000 nurses per year. Through this legislation, CR’s Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) - RN Program has received a grant to take steps towards improving the retention and success levels of students in the program. Sally Urban, RN, MSN, is the RAP Project Manager working under Pat Girczyc, the Health Occupations Director, to achieve the grant objectives.
The grant objectives include:
· Developing a student assessment and remediation program
· Assessing student readiness for the ADN program and requiring that students demonstrate readiness
· Developing and providing access to educational pre-entry coursework (tutoring and/or instruction) for students who fail to demonstrate readiness for nursing coursework
· Ensuring that students required to participate in educational pre-entry coursework are not disadvantaged in the program enrollment process
· Planning, developing, and implementing a retention program for students enrolled in the ADN program Data collection and analysis activities for the Nursing Retention, Assessment, and Preparation Project include: · Piloting a diagnostic assessment tool and plan for remedial instruction and support
· Developing and implementing a tracking system for all identified students and their progress
· Monthly evaluation of instruction and tutoring plans
· Conducting formative evaluations to assess faculty and student feedback regarding pre-nursing coursework
· Developing and conducting a survey of current program students to assess their experience with campus support services
· Conduct exit interviews with all students who do not enroll in the RN program
· Developing and implementing an evaluation strategy for every intervention
RAP Project staff collaborated and coordinated the research activities of the grant with the Institutional Research Department staff to ensure high quality data collection and analysis is conducted. RAP staff have requested support from the IR Department to consult on the data retrieval and analysis plan for determining ‘cut scores’ for admissions and tracking, as well as survey development support.
Data-Driven Decision-Making in Student Services Did you know that interactions with student services impact learning outcomes? A student’s college experience starts the moment they apply for enrollment and is further enhanced by the interaction with counseling, assessment, financial aid, and others. Students rely on these services to continue their study, and these interactions influence their learning experiences. Close to a quarter of the reasons students leave college are related to counseling, admissions and registration, and financial aid issues (Luan, Jing. “Pragmatic Assessment of Student Services in Community Colleges” ijournal: Insight into Student Services, No. 4, March 2003).
As part of the program review process at CR, Student Services managers engaged the IR Department in administering a series of surveys. Over a two-week period in February 2007, IR’s Temporary Survey Manager, Adrian Chevraux-Fitzhugh, conducted a survey research study of 873 students across the district to assess student satisfaction with various student services programs. In May 2007, the IR Department conducted a preliminary survey of 243 students to assess the scheduling needs and preferences of CR students. In collaboration with IR, Student Services is administering a survey to entering students to assess the preparedness and needs of incoming students.
The data that was obtained through the completed surveys was immediately recognized to be useful in conducting planning and making other decisions in the area of Student Services. The survey data will be used to inform the ongoing program review process, but the Student Services Division was able to take some immediate steps to address items that were identified in the survey.
In Admissions and Records, for example, a process to maintain uniform, supportive student contact was implemented to improve the level of satisfaction students have with the information provided by the Admissions Office. The new process includes a welcome letter, a new brochure, a follow-up welcome letter including a new orientation booklet, a “WebAdvisor Awareness” postcard, and a third follow-up letter from the Athletic Director with complimentary tickets to the college’s first home football game. In the Counseling and Advising Department, survey results indicating some dissatisfaction with advisors’ knowledge about the transfer process and career opportunities led to a decision to provide in-service trainings to counseling and advising staff. Survey results indicating that only 56% of students are familiar with the policies of student discipline led the Judicial Affairs Department to develop and disseminate student conduct publications.
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