# FY 2016 Strengthening Institutions Program Project Abstracts

## P031A160152 Lurleen B. Wallace Community College

### Andalusia, AL

**Activity Title: Improving Academic and Student Services**

Lurleen B. Wallace Community College (LBWCC) is a public two-year college accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The College offers university transfer associate degrees as well as career certificates and associate degrees. LBWCC serves a large population of at-risk students. During the fall 2014 semester, 94 percent of credit students were classified as first-generation, low-income, or academically underprepared; this percentage is representative of the College’s student body each year. Most students reside in five counties that fall below the state average for educational attainment, and all five are at or above the state poverty level. Students face financial challenges, lack of study skills, and multiple systemic and cultural barriers. The College’s challenge is to retain these high risk students through graduation and facilitate their transfer to universities or employment in industries requiring advanced skills.

The College is proposing one comprehensive activity to resolve problems of low retention and completion by developing a college-wide student success coaching program and by improving student advising and orientation. The activity also addresses problems of low enrollment and low employment of career technical students by developing high-wage, high-demand career programs including the Occupational Therapist Assistant Program and options and certificates for the Industrial Electronics Program to include a Networking Option, an Industrial Systems Option, and an Electromechanical short certificate.

Key measures include:  (1) increasing student graduation rate from 21 percent to 31 percent; (2) increasing fall-to-fall retention from 52 percent to 62 percent; (3) improving student and faculty satisfaction with advising from 64 percent to 80 percent; (4) increasing occupational advisory committees’ satisfaction with career technical curricula and equipment from 75 percent to 90 percent; (5) increasing the number of career technical students attaining in-field employment from 64 percent to 75 percent; and (6) increasing the number of students enrolled in career programs by 10 percent. The total request for the five-year budget is $2,250,000.

The application addresses the Competitive Preference Priority: Supporting Programs, Practices, or Strategies for which there is Moderate Evidence of Effectiveness. The study cited below supports the development of a coaching program to increase retention and completion rates of college students.

Citation:  Bettinger, E.P., & Baker, R.B. (2011). The effects of student coaching: An evaluation of a randomized experiment in student advising. *Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.*Advance online publication. doi: 10.3102/0162373713500523

## P031A160277 Northwest Shoals Community College

### Muscle Shoals, AL

**Institutional Profile**:  Northwest Shoals Community College is a public two year community college in north Alabama and borders the states of Mississippi and Tennessee. The NW-Shoals service area is comprised of the rural counties of Colbert, Franklin, Lauderdale, Lawrence and the western portion of Winston. The College operates two campuses - the Shoals Campus in Muscle Shoals and the Phil Campbell Campus in Phil Campbell. The expanded service area includes Northwest Alabama, South Central Tennessee and Northeast Mississippi.

**Project Title**: Based on the Comprehensive Development Plan and the documented needs of the institution, Northwest Shoals Community College proposes to implement the **n-TRUST Initiative**: **N**orthwest Shoals **TR**ansforming **U**ndergraduate **St**udies

**Problems:**Northwest Shoals has experienced a new culture of at risk students who have enrolled and fall into the “at risk” category. The region has experienced economic depression by plant closures; however, the region is now being offered opportunity with new industry moving into the area. The displaced workers are now seeking a career and training in order to compete for a career in the highly technical automated manufacturing plants. Along with this group of students, Northwest Shoals also has a number of students who prefer eLearning. The college’s infrastructure to support this problem is inadequate, faculty members are not trained in technology utilization for course development and the students need career counseling. 

**Strategies: Strategy One**is to replace/upgrade the technology infrastructure which is essential to support and achieve the purposes of the **n-TRUST Initiative**. **Strategy Two**is to enhance student success and engagement through the implementation of a Student Success Center and a Career Development Center. The addition of virtual advising, peer mentors, early alert systems and online support will be essential to student success. **Strategy Three**will be to utilize the grant funds to hire an Instructional Designer and Distance Learning Specialist to train and assist the faculty with the necessary skills to teach in this innovative environment through the use of Quality Matters standards.

**Goals: Key Goal 1**: To develop institutional technology infrastructure and tools with an adequate capacity to support institutional data management and student support needs.  **Key Goal 2**: To increase retention, persistence, and graduation rates through implementing on-campus and online academic and student support initiatives.

**Outcomes:**Increased student retention/enrollment; Increased technology infrastructure to support all essential programs; increased student success; and increased faculty skills.

**Competitive Preference Priorities**: This project addresses the competitive preference priorities for increased success through peer mentors.

**Funds Requested**: $2,066,027

## P031A160276 College of the Ouachitas

### Malvern, AR

College of the Ouachitas (COTO) proposes a Title III project titled ***Increasing Access and Success***. The project will improve **distance-delivered instruction and support services**with a renovated **Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning**and **Transformative Teaching Fellowships**for faculty to take part in professional development in best practices for distance pedagogy and instructional design, development, and delivery. Faculty will then **convert**five traditional courses for distance delivery and **revise**19 existing ineffective distance courses to improve rates of student success. The project will also **create**new online Orientation/Readiness, Advising, Financial Aid Support, and Degree Audit services for distance and on-campus student use. Measurable outcomes include increased faculty competencies in developing and delivering distance courses, high percentages of students successfully completing new and revised distance courses, increased distance enrollment, and distance and on-campus student re-enrollment.

COTO is a fully accredited, public, comprehensive two-year college serving five very diverse counties in Arkansas. Caucasians make up an average of 84 percent of area residents but vary by county from **54 percent**to **94 percent,**and African Americans comprise as many as **41 percent**of counties’ residents. Poverty is as high as **24 percent**and educational levels vary widely; most socioeconomic indicators, particularly for African Americans, are well below national averages. Yet while COTO’s students share the area’s disadvantage, they recognize the opportunity that education brings: enrollment grew more than ten-fold from the College’s founding in 1991 to 2006.

However, for the past nine years, enrollment has declined to 79 percent of its highest level. Adults with work and family responsibilities, the majority of service area residents, are underrepresented among on-campus students, but they do comprise most of the students we currently serve through distance education, and, while 95.6 percent of non-dual (high school/college) distance enrollees seek college degrees, most are part time, and many have completed only three or fewer courses. Expanding distance options will provide **more choices,**promote distance students’ **success**and all students’ **re-enrollment,**and build **enrollment**for our institution.

As directed by our mission, COTO “continually identifies and addresses the changing learning needs of the communities it serves,” and the project supports this direction. The project also addresses the **purpose of Title III**, *to increase colleges’ self-sufficiency and expand their capacity to serve low-income students by improving and strengthening academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability,*Title III **Program Performance Measures***(enrollment*and *retention),*and the **2015 Title III Competitive Preference Priority**for employing practices that have shown evidence of effectiveness.  In response to that Priority and to support the proposed project, COTO cites:

Agarwal, Rajshree & Day, A. Edward (1998). The impact of the internet on economics education, *The Journal of Economic Education*, 29:2, 99-110; and Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., Lack, K. A., & Nygren, T. I. (2013). Interactive learning online at public universities: Evidence from a six-campus randomized trial. *Journal of Policy Analysis and Management,*33(1), 94-111*.*

The five-year budget request totals $2,248,383

## P031A150135 American River College

### Sacramento, CA

**Contact Person for the Title III Proposal:**Dr. Thomas Greene, President, American River College; greenet@arc.losrios.edu; (916) 484-8211

**Institutional Background:**American River College is a State-funded two-year community college, part of the Los Rios Community College District, the second largest community college district in California. ARC is one of the largest community colleges in California, and the nation. The College currently serves over 30,000 students (full-time and part-time) from the diverse six county greater Sacramento region. Looked upon as a leader in innovative programs and services, ARC transfers many students to University of California-Davis and California State University-Sacramento.

**Project Title:**Increase Student Retention and Completion through Integrated Success Teams.

**Summary of Outcome Objectives:**Increase the proportion of first-time, full-time degree/certificate seeking students retained from first fall to spring by 3.0 percent. Increase the proportion of first-time, full-time degree/certificate seeking students retained from first fall to second fall by 5.0 percent. Increase the proportion of first-time, full-time degree/certificate seeking students retained from first fall to fall two years later by 5.0 percent. Increase the proportion of first-time, full-time degree/certificate seeking students graduating within 150 percent of normal time to 10.0 percent.

**Implementation Strategies:**Deploy predictive analytics, non-cognitive assessments, comprehensive student educational plans, academic early alert, effective communication tools and data analytics. Develop and implement timely, targeted academic interventions. Develop and implement comprehensive individual student educational plans to map student pathways to completion. Using a success coach model, engage 2,000 First-Time, Full-Time students in intensive engagement and support. Increase effectiveness of communication with students to increase their motivation to succeed. Implement a system of financial aid reminders to increase the percentage of students who complete the FAFSA, stay in college, and complete. 

**Title III Activity:**Increase student retention and completion through integrated success teams.

**This Title III project addresses the Competitive Preference Priority**through replication of one experimental research study meeting the What Works Clearinghouse standard for “moderate evidence of effectiveness.”  Bettinger and Baker (2014) demonstrate a statistically significant increase in retention at 12 months through the use of student success coaches.

**Research Study Citations: Bettinger, E.P., Baker, R. (2011)**. The Effects of Student Coaching in College: An Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Mentoring*.*

**Student Body Characteristics: Total Enrollment Fall 2014:**30,242. **Race/Ethnicity:**White - 46.8 percent; Hispanic/Latino - 20.7 percent; Black or African American - 10.6 percent; Race/Ethnicity Unknown - 2.7 percent; Asian - 8.7 percent; Pacific-Islander - 0.8 percent; Filipino - 1.9 percent; Native American - 0.7 percent; One or More Races - 6.2 percent.

**Five-Year Project Budget:**$2,247,553

## P031A150157 Columbia College 

### Sonora, CA

**Contact Person for the Title III Proposal**: Amy Nilson, Director of Development, 11600 Columbia College Drive, Sonora, CA 95370. Telephone: (209) 588-5055; e-mail: nilsona@yosemite.edu

**Institutional Background**: **Columbia College**(CC) and **Lake Tahoe Community College**(LTCC) are the partners of this Title III Cooperative application. Both colleges are small, public, two-year community colleges in Northern California. Columbia and LTCC are logical partners for a cooperative Title III arrangement based on their similarities – they serve similar populations, share similar strengths, weaknesses, and obstacles to achieving goals. They are the 7th (LTCC) and 9th (CC) smallest colleges among the 110 community colleges in California.  CC and LTCC both serve approximately 3,000 students annually, the majority of which are first generation students. Located in mountainous areas with industries largely based on tourism, the colleges’ surrounding communities suffer from a variety of socio-economic challenges, such as far lower than statewide average median household income levels and educational attainment among adults. Each college offers Associate’s degrees in more than 40 disciplines and over 30 different certificates that prepare students for successful employment.

**Title III Project**: ***Improving Institutional Effectiveness and Student Retention through Increased Engagement and Data-Informed Decision-Making.***

**This Title III project will: (1) increase retention rates**for first-year students; **(2)**develop **comprehensive data warehouses**and reporting capacity; **(3) increase access to information**for enhanced decision-making; **(4) train staff, faculty and administrators**to use new resources effectively; and **(5)**develop a **culture of inquiry**by integrating the use of data into all decision-making processes. This will be accomplished through a combination of hiring additional institutional research and information technology personnel, consulting with institutional effectiveness experts, professional development for faculty and staff, and utilizing available data storage, extraction, analysis, and reporting technologies. 

The project addresses **tie-breaker priorities**in response to: **(1)**student services **(2)**faculty development; (**3**) development and improvement of academic programs and **(4)**funds and administrative management. 

This Cooperative Arrangement Development proposal addresses the **Competitive Preference Priority**(study is attached), modelling project activities based on the *Freshman Year Financial Aid Nudges*model that Castleman and Page studied in 2014.

**Evidence of Moderate Effectiveness, Study Citation**:

Castleman, B. L., & Page, L. C. (2014). Freshman year financial aid nudges: An experiment to increase FAFSA renewal and college persistence. EdPolicyWorks Working Paper Series No. 29. Charlottesville, VA: EdPolicyWorks.

**Five-Year Project Budget:**$3,250,000

## P031A160061 College of Central Florida

### Ocala, FL 

*StartSmart@CF*

The College of Central Florida is a primarily two-year public college governed by the State of Florida through the CF District Board of Trustees. Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, CF is the only comprehensive, open-door institution of higher education within 50 miles of most service area residents. For the vast majority of residents, CF is the most visible doorway to higher education in the service area. The largely rural area that the College of Central Florida serves faces a series of challenges. The tri-county area has a per capita income that is 65 percent to 82 percent of the national average and poverty rates that are 109 percent to 153.9 percent of the national average. Only 16.7 percent of residents have a bachelor’s degree, compared to the statewide average of 26.4 percent. Reflective of the local population, approximately 17 percent of students entering CF are identified as First Time In College (FTIC), and more than half of CF students (5,785 out of 10,919) receive Pell grants, revealing a substantial proportion of low-income students.

**Comprehensive Development Plan**

The primary challenges CF faces as an institution are related to success in gateway classes, student retention and four-year graduation rates. CF has developed a three-tiered strategy to address these challenges and help students improve academic performance, persist and successfully matriculate. Called *StartSmart@CF*, the plan focuses on enhancing student experience, integrating support services and enhancing teaching and learning. When the elements of *StartSmart@CF*are combined together, a synergy is created that leads to substantial student success improvements. CF expects to meet the following objectives by the end of fiscal year 2019/2020 with receipt of this grant:  1) Improve the fall-to-fall retention of first-year students by 6 percent (relative increase of 10.9 percent); 2) Increase the success rate for key first-year classes by 5 percent (relative increase of 7.5 percent); and 3) Increase the four-year graduation/transfer rates by 5 percent (relative increase of 12.8 percent).

**Competitive Preference Priority**

CF addresses the Competitive Preference Priority by building upon evidence from two studies. For the **enhance student experience**element, CF utilized the successful implementation framework of a First Year Experience that results in improved retention and grades as described in *The Freshman Year Experience: Student Retention and Success*(Sidle, M.W. & McReynolds, J. (2009). 

For the enhanced teaching and learning portion, CF used lessons learned and reported in *Faculty Do Matter: The Role of College Faculty in Student Learning and Engagement*(Umbach, P.D., & Wawrzynski, M.R. (2003) to shape the role faculty play in increasing student engagement and helping them achieve postsecondary success.

## P031A160231 State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota 

### Bradenton, FL

State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (SCF) is the region's first and largest public college, serving 15,000 college credit students annually at campuses in Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch and Venice, and via online classes. In 2009 SCF expanded its mission to include workforce baccalaureate degrees while continuing to focus on highly respected associate degrees that prepare graduates for university transfer and professional careers. Based on a thorough analysis of institutional strengths, weaknesses and problems, the College is proposing a single, comprehensive activity, ***Paving Academic Pathways for Student Success***, with three components to resolve its key problems:

**THREE MAJOR COMPONENTS OF THE SINGLE TITLE III ACTIVITY**

1. Academic and Career Pathways: Establish guided academic pathways including career and/or transfer degrees. These pathways will ensure faster completion and provide the information and tools necessary for successful advising and student engagement.

2. College-Readiness Program: Provide free access to college readiness curriculum and options. These options will utilize adaptive learning technology and tutors for those students who do not have the academic preparation for college-level work.

3. Student-Success Analytics: Establish the organizational capacity for integrating student success analytics into every day work practices of the institution including comprehensive advising software, predictive analytics, and a business information system (data dashboard). This includes the ability to capture, store, aggregate, and combine data and then use the results to perform deep analysis and develop data-driven student success initiatives.

**Target Population:**9,000 first time in college, credential-seeking students with zero college credits (includes part-time and full-time students).

**Key measures of success:**The percent of first time in college (FTIC) students who receive a credential within three years will increase from 19 percent to 26 percent; the percent of FTIC students who persist from their first year to their second year will increase from 56 percent to 69 percent; the percent of first-time students earning 12 college credits within their first year of college will increase from 48 percent to 55 percent; and the percent of students who complete five courses in their programs of study within two years will increase from 35 percent to 41 percent.

SCF will address the **Competitive Preference Priority: Modeling a Successful College- Readiness Program**, based on a study conducted at Southeastern Community College in Lincoln, Nebraska.

**Total funds requested: $2,246,013**

## P031A160094 Iowa Lakes Community College

### Estherville, IA

*Raising collaboration and student engagement through updated technology, redesigned curriculum, and flexible course-options*

Iowa Lakes Community College is dedicated to serving the educational needs of rurally isolated northwest Iowa and the surrounding region.  The College mission is *to provide quality lifelong learning and promote economic development within each community.*

The Iowa Lakes Community College Title III Strengthening Institutions Program Project will achieve the following activities and institutionalize all project processes:  [a] implement two active learning classrooms in two distinct pilot programs, shared college-wide, to integrate technology necessary to continue each program; [b] engage distinct personnel to create and engage faculty with technology updated within curriculum; [c] establish comprehensive hybrid ­course training procedures to attract, retain, and graduate more students; [d] update technology in arts and science classrooms on all five campuses with the most up-to-date technology to match competitors and encourage alternative instructional delivery.  Technology, curriculum revision, and faculty/staff development anchor this project.  

The Iowa Lakes' Title III Program Narrative and Competitive Preference Priority references the study found on What Works Clearinghouse.  The study details are: Bowen, W.G. Chingos, M.M., Lack. K.A., & Nygren, T.J. (2013). "Interactive Learning Online al Public Universities:  Evidence from a Six­ Campus Randomized Trial." *Journal of Policy Analysis and Management*33(1), 94-111.

The Title III Project, *Raising Collaboration and Student Engagement through Updated Technology, Redesigned Curriculum and Flexible Course-options,*will implement key updates and changes to current processes to reassess faculty pedagogical practices in n the classroom, improve flexible learning scenarios, and ultimately improve student learner outcomes. Overall, the project objectives are to raise collaboration between student and faculty and provide flexible course options for students within key academic programs.

The budget request of $ 1.685.885 is necessary to achieve and institutionalize project goals and sustainable processes. The budget includes personnel, incrementally decreased beginning project year three, travel, equipment, supplies, contractual, construction, and other needs for assessment. Iowa Lakes' will contribute committed resources to ensure the sustainability of project processes and achieve the overall project objectives.  The Iowa Lakes Title III Project impacts each campus, program, faculty member, and each student.  The Project will assist with improving overall student and faculty collaboration, and increasing student engagement.  As a result, the Iowa Lakes Community College Title III Project will impact and increase enrollment, retention and successful completion rates.

## P031A160194 Northwest Iowa Community College

### Sheldon, IA

Northwest Iowa Community College is a public, two-year postsecondary institution located in rural northwest Iowa. NCC is the only public institution of higher learning in its four-and-a-half county service area encompassing the extreme corner of the state – an area about twice the size of the state of Rhode Island – and serves a population of 69,290.

Established in 1966 as a pilot of the Iowa Community College system, NCC is a comprehensive community college offering associate degree transfer curricula and technical programs. Students can graduate from 46 different programs with Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, or Associate of Applied Science degrees, diplomas, and certificates. The college is accredited by the Iowa Department of Education and the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).

*According to NCC data pulled from the 2013-14 MIS year-end data.*

· 19.5 percent of total enrollments are full time students (512).

· 2,631 full- and part-time students attend classes through NCC.

· 57.6 percent of students are female.

· 77 percent of our student body is traditional aged (22 years old or younger).

· 87 percent percent of the student body lists its ethnicity as white. The college’s minority population has quadrupled in the last four years.

· 1:13 is the average faculty/student ratio in face-to-face courses.

· 1:21 is the average faculty/student ratio in online courses.

· 40 instructors are full time.

· 105 instructors are considered adjunct faculty.

**Activity 1:  *Strengthening online student success through expanded advising and recruiting of online students, enhanced technology infrastructure, and expanded online program development.***NCC will improve online student success through:  *a*) expanding the advising, recruitment, and orientation of online students; (b) enhancing Web-based technology and integrated digital systems; and (c) expanding student-learning opportunities through the development of model online technical programs.

Northwest Iowa Community College is applying to the Competitive Preference Priority – Supporting Strategies for which there is Moderate Evidence of Effectiveness and submits the following reference: **Bettinger, E. P., & Baker, R. (2011). *The effects of student coaching in college: An evaluation of a randomized experiment in student mentoring*(Working Paper No. 16881).**

Five-Year Project Cost:  $2,246,310.37; including $365,754.91 in project management/evaluation and $150,000 in endowment.

## P031A160278 College of Southern Idaho

### Twin Falls, ID

The **College of Southern Idaho***(CSI)*is a comprehensive, public, two-year community college.

Established in 1965 and accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), CSI is located in rural south central Idaho and it serves eight counties – a nearly 12,000 square mile area that is roughly the size of Maryland. CSI had a Fall 2014 enrollment of 8,357 students (2,507 Full-time, 3,906 Part-time, and 1,944 Dual Credit).

*The goal of the proposed Title III project is to*strengthen institutional academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability for CSI and CSI students through augmentation of the CSI Student Success Initiative. The basis of the goals, activities and tasks of the Student Success Initiative are founded on the “Completion by Design Loss and Momentum Framework,”

*Projected Outcomes and Results*: Increase “On Campus Enrollment” for Dual Credit Students annually by five percent (from 237 to 302); Decrease the total number of credit hours to graduation by 10 percent (from 92.8 to 83.5) by project completion; Increase the number of Dual Credit Instructors participating in professional development by 5 percent annually (from 46 to 74); Increase the total number of ESL credits taken annually by 12 percent (from 76 to 116); Increase Hispanic student enrollment by 2 percent annually (from 16.5 percent to 26.5 percent by project completion; Qualify as a “Hispanic Serving Institution” by project completion; Increase enrollment of Non-Traditional students by three percent annually (from 3,243 to 3,650); And increase the FAFSA completion/retention rate between student years 1 to 2 by 5 percent fall to fall. *The project has 4 main objectives and 14 key tasks.*

**Objective 1: Refocus Dual Credit Enrollment and Advising Strategy:**(1) Institute transferable academic (General Education) certificate; (2) Implement “On-Site” advising visits for Dual Credit Students at regional high schools; (3) Provide two new meaningful professional development training opportunities for Dual Credit instructors.

**Objective 2: Increase Services Targeted to Under-served Regional Hispanic Population:**(4) Implement a Hispanic/Latino council to represent specific needs of students and community; (5) Update advising process and marketing material to meet bi-lingual and cultural needs; (6) Refocus satellite campus locations to include ESL/ELL instruction; (7) Hire a bi-lingual advisor.

**Objective 3: Improve Programs and Systems for Non-Traditional Students:**(8) Extend business hours for Student Services; (9) Implement targeted “after-hours” pilot course programs; (10) Develop “Career in a Year” concept courses with Workforce Development.

**Objective 4: Strengthen Technology and Communication Access and Structures across 5 campus locations:**(11) Increase critical internet bandwidth across all 5 campus locations; (12) Institute automated “Texting/Nudging” system for student communication; (13) Implement “Predictive Analytics” software system; (14) Develop a “Near-Field Communications” (NFC) virtual campus tour system.

**Competitive Preference Priority**– “Supporting Strategies for which there is Moderate Evidence of Effectiveness” is also addressed in this project (*Objective 4: Key Task 12*)

## P031A160220 Elgin Community College

### Elgin, IL

Expanding ICAPS (Integrated Career and Academic Prep System): Preparing for Tomorrow Today

The proposed project consists of one activity: Expanding the ICAPS (Integrated Career and Academic Prep System) model to increase Career and Technical Education (CTE) student success.

The project has three goals:

Goal A: Increase the number of CTE students enrolled in ICAPS.

Goal B: Increase the number of CTE students who persist and graduate with a certificate or degree.

Goal C: Reduce time to complete a certificate or degree.

The project will be implemented through one comprehensive strategy: develop an institutional infrastructure that leverages ICAPS programming in order to increase student completion of CTE credentials. This strategy will touch all members of the ECC community – students and their families, faculty, staff, and administrators.

The project is designed to help students complete a college certificate or degree in order to increase their earnings and the well-being of their families. A Strengthening Institutions grant will allow us to scale-up and institutionalize practices that are already making a difference for students at Elgin Community College. Since spring 2012, 96 (69 percent) students have successfully completed an ICAPS pathway and 50 students (36 percent) have enrolled in further education after completing an initial certificate, which is over half of those who graduated. These results show that the ICAPS program is meeting its goals by helping students that are not college ready to succeed and then continue their education beyond an initial college credential.

Elgin Community College (ECC) is the sixth largest of 48 community colleges in Illinois, serving 400,000 people and 11,000 businesses within a 360 square-mile district, located 40 miles northwest of Chicago. Community College District 509 includes parts of five counties and 34 communities ranging from rural to suburban to urban. ECC serves four public school districts and 16 high schools. ECC is located in Kane County which is second only to Cook County in the percentage of families living below the poverty level in the Chicago metro area. According to the 2010 census, Kane County’s population grew 28 percent, from 404,119 in 2000 to 515,269 in 2010. Hispanics increased from 24 percent of the population in Kane County in 2000 to 31 percent in 2010. 17 percent of Kane County residents age 25 or older do not have a high school diploma or GED; this is the highest percentage in the ten counties of northeastern Illinois. 31 percent of Kane County residents age 5 or older live in households where a language other than English is spoken at home.

The application addresses the Competitive Preference Priority. Moderate evidence of effectiveness citations: Educational outcomes of I-BEST, Washington State Community and Technical College System’s Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training Program: Findings from a multivariate analysis. Jenkins, D., Zeidenberg, M., and Kienzl, G. Community College Research Center Working Paper No. 16. (2009)

Doubling Graduation Rates: Three-Year Effects of CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) for Developmental Education Students. Scrivener, S. Weiss, M.J., Ratledge, A. Rudd, T., Colleen Sommo, C., and Fresques, H. MDRC. (2015)

## P031A160186 Lincoln College

### Lincoln, IL

**Project Title: Improving Academic Support and Infrastructure to Increase Retention, Persistence, and Graduation Rates at Lincoln College**

**Institutional/Student Profile:**Lincoln College, chartered Lincoln University, is an independent, private, liberal arts college primarily offering two-year, transfer-oriented associate degrees. 604 students are served by 28 full-time and 24 part-time faculty members. 41 percent of our students are admitted conditionally. Their average ACT score is 15.9, the average high school G.P.A. is 2.16, 60 percent have less than $1,001 Expected Family Contribution for college, and 50 percent are first-generation college students. 21 percent of these students are Caucasian and 79 percent are students of color. For regularly-admitted students, or 59 percent of our students, the average ACT is 19.4, the average high school G.P.A. is 2.67, 48 percent have less than $1,001 Expected Family Contribution, and 47 percent are first-generation students. 58 percent of these students are Caucasian and 42 percent are students of color.

**Problems:**The College's student body profile has changed dramatically in terms of diversity and academic preparedness over the last eight years. Several years of strategic program analysis and planning have defined the strengths and weaknesses, and identified the significant challenges of the College. Primary among these are: low student persistence rates which lead to low tuition revenue, seriously curtailing institutional sustainability; student academic achievement in developmental courses and the FYE course is too low; academic advising is inefficient and ineffective; lack of faculty and staff professional development and low staffing levels in key support areas; and, lack of appropriate data collection and analysis.

**Strategic Activities:***Activity one:*Implement Embedded Tutoring in All Developmental Courses to increase student success; *Activity two:*Develop a Formal Transition to College Program through FYE course redesign tied to an extended new student orientation; *Activity three:*Develop Intrusive and Proactive Academic Advisement Model that effectively serves at-risk students; and *Activity four:*Engage in Appropriate, Meaningful, and Robust Data Collection and Analysis through the hiring of an Institutional Researcher.

**Goals:**(1) Enhance student success and engagement through increased excellence in educational programs; (2) Provide proven academic strategies and on-going professional development opportunities responsive to the needs of the faculty; (3) Improve the infrastructure essential to support and achieve the purposes of the Center for Student Success and Academic Advisement; Use data to make strategic decision; and (5) Achieve fiscal stability.

**Explicit Outcomes:**Lincoln College will pursue three objectives through this grant opportunity which directly support the College's strategic plan, *Experience Outstanding.*

· Improve retention of first-year students from 59.1 percent to 75 percent by September 30, 2020

· Improve our on-time graduation rate from 27 percent to 50 percent by September 30, 2020;

· Achieve fiscal stability by September 30, 2020.

**Competitive Preference Priority:**This project addresses the competitive preference priority for supporting strategies for which there is a moderate evidence of effectiveness.

**Funds Requested:**$2,200,729

## P031A160217 Moraine Valley Community College

### Palos Hills, IL

Moraine Valley Community College (MVCC) is a public community college in the southwest suburbs of Illinois serving a densely populated area of twenty-six communities with more than 390,000 residents. A third of these residents represent a variety of minorities with Hispanics and African-Americans representing over 57 percent of minority populations, and one of our communities, Robbins, is 95 percent minority. Over the past 10 years, the Hispanic and African American populations increased 77.8 percent and 31.3 percent respectively. The Chicago Metropolitan Planning Agency forecasts a 21 percent population increase for the college district from 2010 to 2040. Specifically, the Hispanic, African-American, and other populations, and households where English is not the primary language, are expected to continue, increasing in the next five years and further expand the district’s diversity. (Institutional Research, 2014)

The mission of the college is to educate the whole person in a learning-centered environment, recognizing responsibilities to one another, to the community, and to the world. As the second largest community college in Illinois, MVCC offers 45 degree programs and 104 certificates. In addition, MVCC successfully operates two education centers to serve those residing in communities located furthest from its main campus. The Education Center at Blue Island (ECBI) opened in 2004 and the Southwest Education Center (SWEC) opened in 2010.

Moraine Valley is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and governed by an elected Board of Trustees.

The 2013-14 annual enrollment was 27,929 made up of African American – 9 percent, Hispanic – 22 percent, Asian - 3 percent, White – 55 percent, and Other – 11 percent. The ratio of faculty (213 full time and 952 part time teaching faculty) was: 1 to 26. 

Contact: Sharon Katterman, Director, Resource Development and Institutional Effectiveness, (708) 974-5205, katterman@morainevalley.edu.

**Activity:**Increasing Access to Career Pathways Student Success. One component: $2,250,000 over five years. Declining enrollment rates are the result of limited capacity to meet the demand for health care degrees and certificates, High attrition rates result from barriers, such as part-time status and need for developmental education, faced by the increasingly diverse student population. Institutional Management deficiencies include limited capacity to provide student services, limited access to student data, and inadequate fiscal resources.

The proposed Activity establishes new career programs leading to career pathways at the college’s Education Center at Blue Island, and Establishes new student success interventions, support by technology-enhanced tracking systems, to improve student retention and success. New career programs and improved student success and retention will increase enrollment-based revenues to fund the ongoing incorporation of new practices and improvements into MVCC operations.

**Project Management/Evaluation:**Personnel will be hired to administer, assess and ensure effective project implementation and compliance with Title III regulations. MVCC is not addressing the competitive preference priority in this proposal.

## P031A150047 Robert Morris University Illinois

### Chicago, IL

**Implementation of a Service-Approach Learning Community to Improve First-Year Outcomes**

The proposed project at Robert Morris University Illinois, a minority serving institution, is addressing the *competitive preference priority of implementing a program with moderate evidence of effectiveness*. RMU plans to implement University of Utah’s LEAP program, a service-approach to a first-year learning community. Longitudinal research of this program, along with similar learning communities, has demonstrated statistically significant improvements in first-to-second year retention rates, grade point averages, and four-year and six-year graduation rates. Robert Morris University is confident that implementing this model can achieve the objectives of the grant: improve retention by three percent each year, for a combined first-to-second year improvement in retention of 12 percent, increase the grade point average of first year students, as well as increase the 4-year graduation rate by five percent.

Key components of the LEAP program include the development of a three-quarter curriculum in which each cohort is partnered with the same faculty member for the entire period (one academic year). The curriculum will include a typical FYE course and additional courses in social sciences and humanities. A service learning component will be integrated in one of the latter two courses. Faculty development will be provided to assist in the incorporation of more innovative and effective methodologies for first-year students. Additional support components include a peer mentoring program, targeted tutoring sessions, external speaker series, counseling/support groups, and intentional academic advising. This project also includes matched funding for the University’s endowment fund.

Upon completion of this program, the University will compile the results of the program and analyze them by race/ethnicity, SES, gender, and incoming GPA. These results will be submitted to related peer-reviewed journals in order to share the outcomes with other higher education constituencies and build upon the available learning community research as it pertains specifically to minority and low-income students.

***Evidence Studies:***

Bliss, C., Webb, J. & Andre, M. (2012). The impact of the University of Utah’s LEAP program on student performance. *The Journal of General Education,*61(1) pp.39-58.

Popiolek, G., Fine, R. & Eilman, V. (2013). Learning communities, academic performance, attrition, and retention: A four-year study. *Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 37,*pp. 828-838.

## P031A160195 Manhattan Area Technical College

### Manhattan, KS

Manhattan Area Technical College (MATC) is a public technical college located in Manhattan, Kansas, offering 14 technical programs leading to an Associate of Applied Science degree or Technical Certificates. In addition, 14 general education courses and some technical courses transfer to Kansas’ seven public universities. In Fall 2014, 766 students were enrolled (unduplicated annual enrollment averages about 1,100), over 60 percent full-time and degree-seeking, 56 percent qualifying for Pell Grants, and 66 percent working. About a quarter took at least one online course, and demand for access to additional courses is strong among our time- and place-bound students. MATC is the only two-year postsecondary institution serving a ten-county area in northeast Kansas. About a quarter of the area’s total population (218,432) lives in Manhattan (population 54,082), the county seat of Riley County (population 73,243). Nearly one in four area families with children below age 18 are low income, and while most area residents aged 25+ (92.3 percent) have completed high school, average adult baccalaureate attainment outside of Riley County is only 22.1 percent. In comparison, the U.S. rate is 28.2 percent and the Kansas rate a strong 30.3 percent.

With key area employers engaged on degree program advisory committees, it is not surprising that average job placement for MATC degree and certificate completers is 94 percent. Programs like Biotechnology Laboratory Technology (Biotechnology), CyberSecurity/Information and Network Technology (INT), Dental Hygiene, Electric Power and Distribution, Medical Laboratory Technology, and Nursing are unique in the region. But MATC must limit access because its landlocked campus offers no space to add more classrooms, which are currently at capacity in many areas, and its technology infrastructure is not adequate to support additional online access. Faculty development resources are also limited, despite strong faculty interest in gaining skills in distance course delivery. Meanwhile, as MATC’s enrollment grows, its student services remain underdeveloped, with rudimentary advising systems and tutoring offered only in cramped on-campus space, ill-configured for individualized or collaborative assistance and work.

Through *Project AIMS: Accessible Instructional Modalities and Services,*MATC proposes to dramatically increase student access to general education courses and technical courses in Accounting, CyberSecurity/INT, and Biotechnology through new and revised online and hybrid course options supported by a new, more user-friendly Learning Management System. MATC will also develop a suite of interactive student services, including Tutoring (campus based and online), Advising (campus-based and online), online Interactive Degree Audit, and online Early Academic Alert/Referral. A new Teaching/Learning Center (TLC), developed through renovation of space in MATC’s Learning Resource Center (LRC) will include new faculty studio space for professional development and online/hybrid course development/delivery, an area appropriately configured and equipped for tutoring, and collaborative space and resources.

Proposed initiatives necessitate infrastructure upgrades, including servers, switches, cloud storage, storage area networks, wireless access points, and increased bandwidth.

MATC is exercising the endowment option, seeking $103,225, to be matched by the MATC Foundation. The proposal also addresses the **Competitive Preference Priority**, citing the following two studies (separately uploaded): *H. F. Thomas, R. J. Simmons, G. Jin, A. A. Almeda, and A. A. Mannos, “Comparison of Student Outcomes for a Classroom-based and Internet- based Construction Safety Course,” Journal of SH&E Research, Spring 2005*and *Rajshree Agarwal & A. Edward Day, “The Impact of the Internet on Economic Education,” Journal of Economic Education, 29:2, 1998.*Year 1 request:  **$449,966**.

## P031A160252 Ashland Community and Technical College

### Ashland, KY

Ashland Community and Technical College (ACTC) is a public, open-access rural-serving community college offering 30 certificate and associate degree programs to residents in the Appalachian foothills of northeast Kentucky and neighboring southern Ohio and western West Virginia. The College enrolled 3,356 students during fall 2014 and has a strong commitment to meet the education needs of its community. For rural residents in the Tri-State area, who are place and time constrained, distance access to education is critical. ACTC is a partner in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) Consortium to provide distance learning. Among ACTC students, 64 percent were enrolled in online courses during 2013-2014.

**Student Profile**: Among first entering students, a majority is low-income (Pell grant recipients - 74 percent). Four in ten first year students (43 percent) are first-generation college and half (50.6 percent) of entering students require remediation. The median age of students is 28 years. Students are challenged to persist in college as indicated by low second year retention (54 percent) and certificate or degree completion within 150 percent of time (19 percent). Too many students are failing to succeed in gateway courses, contributing to low student retention. Thus, ACTC has been experiencing declines in enrollment revenue, threatening fiscal stability and the ability to support continuous improvement of programs for the many ACTC students who have at-risk characteristics.

**Title III Activity: Strategies for Strengthening Academic Programs and Student Support**

*Assuring High Quality Standards for Gateway and Technical Courses—*Key activities will be adopting high quality standards for online courses and developing a peer review system, redesigning low success gateway courses as interactive and technology-supported for online and face-to-face instruction and converting technical programs courses to the hybrid format. To support interactive and collaborative learning, six traditional-designed classrooms will be converted to “learn labs” to better engage students in learning. An eLearning Faculty Emporium will be developed to provide faculty access to multimedia instructional tools and for conducting training and redesigning courses and converting technical programs courses to the hybrid format. *Developing Individualized Student Support for the eLearner—*New student support services will be developed with peer success coaching (mentoring) and improved alert/intervention capabilities to be piloted with students enrolled in the redesigned gateway and technical courses. Peer Success Coaches will make constant contact with students (in person, by phone, texting, email and social media). Two eLearning Centers (at the College Drive Campus and Technology Drive Center) will be developed so students will have access to individualized support in a setting also modeled on the learn lab concept with groups workstations and wireless tablets.

**Competitive Preference Priority:**Meeting moderate evidence of effectiveness as recognized by the What Works Clearinghouse (USED), the intervention involved coaches contacting students via phone, email, text messages and social networking over the course of two semesters to identify individualized strategies for overcoming barriers to academic success. The ACTC individualized coaching activity will be modeled on this intervention: Bettinger, E. P., & Baker, R. (2011). *The effects of student coaching in college: An evaluation of a randomized experiment in student mentoring.*

## P031A160071 Elizabethtown Community and Technical College

### Elizabethtown, KY

**Profile:**Elizabethtown Community and Technical College (ECTC) is an open access, public postsecondary institution serving central Kentucky students from 12 counties. One of 16 colleges in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), ECTC has three campuses and a center on nearby Fort Knox. The college offers associate degree, diploma and certificate programs; provides continuing education, adult education and customized training for business and industry partners; and actively partners with school districts, organizations, businesses, industries and universities to advance educational attainment and economic vitality for the region. ECTC is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

**Problems:**The majority of ECTC students are nontraditional, first-generation and/or low income. In fall 2014, of 7,353 students, 51 percent were age 25 and over; 60 percent were first generation; 49 percent received Pell funding; and more than 80 percent received financial aid including loans, grants and scholarships. A comprehensive institutional analysis showed that many ECTC are also underprepared for the academic, social, and behavioral expectations of college, which impacts their ability to successfully persist and complete a degree. In a given semester, as many as 23 percent of students receiving financial aid will enter academic probation because they fail to meet satisfactory academic progress (successfully completing two-thirds of attempted credit hours with a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher, and on track to receive a credential before financial aid expires.) According to 2014-15 data, about 48.5 percent of all students (fulltime and part time) are retained from one year to the next and 28.2 percent of fulltime, first time, credential-seeking students complete a degree within three years.

**Project Title:**ECTC Student Success Initiative

**Goals:**1. Increase student success by adding orientation course to academic programming.

2. Increase retention through improved and restructured academic advising.

3. Increase completion (3-year) through improved and restructured academic advising.

**Activities:**The guiding idea behind this project is to provide enhanced academic and advising support to students, primarily in their first year, to help them successfully complete college. The initiative involves two key activities: 1) professional advising to support first-year students in navigating college processes, track their performance during the year, intervene with support when needed, and then transition to faculty advisor for their second and later years; and 2) a one-credit mandatory orientation course modeled after First Year Experience to acquaint students with the demands of college and provide tools, habits and skills for success.

**Funds Requested: $1,614,096**

**Competitive Preference Priority:**This proposal addresses the Competitive Preference Priority.

Garza, Edgar and Bowden, Randall. “The Impact of a First Year Development Course on Student Success in a Community College: An Empirical Investigation.” *American Journal of Educational Research*, vol. 2, no. 6 (2014): 402-419. Doi: 10.12691/education-2-6-13

## P031A160214 Maysville Community and Technical College

### Maysville, KY

Maysville Community and Technical College (MCTC) is an open-door, comprehensive, public two-year college serving 17 counties in Kentucky and two in Ohio, the heart of Appalachia. It is one of 16 institutions that comprise the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). Besides its main campus in Maysville, the college has three additional sites: the Rowan campus (45 miles) southeast, the Licking Valley Campus (47 miles southwest), and the Montgomery Campus (49 miles south. Within the MCTC service region (total pop: 312,327), a quarter of individuals live in poverty, a quarter of adults have not completed high school, and less than 14 percent have a bachelor’s degree. Unemployment reached 11.8 percent in some counties, and 13 counties within the Appalachian region had an unemployment rate exceeding the state rate of 5.3 percent (Feb. 2015, BLS). The region is rural, many towns with populations of less than 3,000. Paris and Maysville, with populations of 8,553 and 8,920 respectively are the largest cities in the region.

Over half (58 percent) of 3,510 students in fall 2014 were part-time. Some 60 percent were first generation in college, 76 percent received need-based aid, and 89 percent entered underprepared for college-level work. Retention, graduation, and transfer rates are low, with just 13.8 percent of most recent cohort class completing an associate degree within three years of first enrollment. Fall to fall retention for first-time/full-time students enrolling in 2013 was just 46.8 percent for fall 2014. Success rates are low for developmental and several key first-year gateway courses. Limited access to complete and timely data negatively impacts advising and outreach to students experiencing academic problems. Currently, MCTC students have no centralized guidance where they can seek and receive academic support services. No one has primary responsibility to proactively guide students to available resources for assistance.

Through Title III, however, MCTC will implement a comprehensive faculty development initiative, based on proven practice and research. Instructors of high-risk courses will gain the knowledge, skills, and tools, to engage in effective course revision. High impact practices will be infused into revised courses, leading to improved course success. We will also develop innovative support services to accelerate remediation of under-prepared students and allow those who have failed or withdrawn to recover credit hours via specialized workshops. We will provide faculty and staff with a robust system of data collection and retrieval, giving them access to valuable student information. And we will centralize new and existing academic support services in easily accessible locations on each campus and provide personnel to guide students via individual and group interaction. In combination, these efforts will contribute to increased course completion, semester to semester retention, persistence to program completion, graduation, and university transfer, with expected increases of at least 6 percentage points in first-time student retention and at least 5 percentage points in graduation with an associate degree within three years of entry. The total Title III funding request of the 5-year period is $2,249,039. This proposal addresses the Competitive Preference Priority by instituting practices described in two studies found to have at least moderate evidence of effectiveness.

**Evidence Studies Citations:**

1)  Boatman, Angela. "Evaluating Institutional Efforts to Streamline Postsecondary Remediation: The Causal Effects of the Tennessee Developmental Course Redesign Initiative on Early Student Academic Success," *National Center for Postsecondary Research*, June 2012.

2)  Calcagno, Juan C. and Long, Bridget Terry Long. "The Impact of Postsecondary Remediation Using a Regression Discontinuity Approach: Addressing Endogenous Sorting and Noncompliance" *National Center for Postsecondary Research*, April, 2008

## P031A160185 Greenfield Community College

### Greenfield, MA

**Institutional Description:**Founded in 1962, Greenfield Community College is located in a poor and rural area of western Massachusetts and is the only institution of higher education in all of Franklin County, MA. GCC is the only affordable college or university in its 35-town service area. With a total enrollment of 2,126 in 2015 and an operating budget (not including restricted funds) of $18,901,189 for fiscal year 2015, GCC is one of the smallest of Massachusetts’ 15 public community colleges.

**Activity Description:**Integrating enhanced student assessment processes with First-Year Experience student coaching and career pathway advising techniques to improve student retention and completion.

Greenfield Community College proposes to improve student success while responding to the Competitive Preference Priority - Supporting Programs, Practices, or Strategies for which there is Moderate Evidence of Effectiveness. Project **C**oaching & **A**dvising for **R**etention and **E**ducation of **S**tudents (CARES), will incorporate **First-Year Experience Student Success Coaching**for undecided first-generation Liberal Arts students, **Enhanced Student Assessments**to decrease the attrition rates of students testing into one or more developmental course when enrolling at the College, **Professional Development for Title III and Academic Advising Professional Staff**to improve the capacity for career-related advising and student coaching/mentoring of at-risk students, and the **Acquisition of Equipment For Use In Strengthening Management and Academic Programs**.

**Goals/Expected Outcomes:**The following goals relating to the Project Activity include: Academic Programs: A. Strengthen effective student proactive coaching and advising capacity through college transition points; B. Strengthen effective student assessment and placement Institutional Effectiveness; C. Strengthen college capacity to provide comprehensive early- and post-enrollment support services for LAG undeclared students Fiscal Stability; D. Improve student retention.

**Activity Budget:**$1,640,349 over five years. Budget Breakdown: 19.2 percent ($314,126) supports the Title III staff activity coordination@ 50 percent; 26.3 percent ($431,613) supports purchase and installation of equipment in support of academic programs and institutional management; 46 percent ($755,842) to develop, pilot and implement new integrated academic/career coaching and developmental student success assessments; 5.4 percent ($88,768) for faculty and staff professional development (conferences and travel); 3.1 percent ($50,000) for endowment matched with non-federal funds.

**Project Management and Evaluation:**$430,293 over five years. The budget for project management and evaluation ensures thorough and effective administration of Title III. Evaluations of the impact of the Activity on the College will be undertaken by the Director of Assessment as in-kind support. Project Management and Evaluation Budget Breakdown: Project Directorship is being contributed in-kind by GCC. 46 percent ($197,959) supports the Title III Coordinator at 53 percent; 48 percent ($232,334) supports Administrative Assistance at 0.8 FTE; one percent for basic administrative supplies.

## P031A160128 Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

### North Adams, MA

**Persistence to Graduation – A Best Practices Program**

**Contact Person for the Title III Proposal:**Dr. Kristina Bendikas, Project Director, 375 Church Street, North Adams, MA 01247. Telephone: (413) 662-5526, E-mail: kbendikas@mcla.edu

**Institutional Background:**Founded in 1894, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA), a residential, four-year liberal arts college located in rural Berkshire County of western MA, attracts students from rural and urban areas. MCLA, a part of the Commonwealth’s three-tiered, higher education system, “prepares its graduates to be practical problem solvers and engaged, resilient global citizens” (Mission Statement). MCLA strives to provide an affordable college education to students, many of whom are from low income families and often the first in their family to attend a four-year college. The College is dedicated to providing access to higher education and providing students with academic support so that they can succeed. In 2014, MCLA received a positive report along with accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, which states that “the college is well positioned to continue its development as an exemplary public liberal arts college focused, above all, on the success of its students.”

**Title III Activity: Increase students’ persistence and four-year graduation rates through best practices in academic advising, academic support, and undergraduate research.**

This Title III project will provide a high quality college experience for students with a particular focus on Pell-eligible and ALANA (African-American, Latina, Native American, and Asian) students. The project will 1) increase the effectiveness of academic advising using early alerts, and degree audit technology; 2) increase academic support through an improved First Year Experience course, with supplemental instruction, and with online summer courses to help freshman students earn 30 credits by their third semester and build a trajectory for four-year graduation; 3) increase student participation in undergraduate research; 4) provide professional development to fully engage faculty in new advising, academic supports, and curriculum development which incorporates undergraduate research. These efforts will increase retention and four-year graduation rates; help stabilize finances; positively impact institutional management; and strengthen the institution.

This proposal includes a response to the Title III Competitive Preference Priority: Supporting Programs, Practices, or Strategies for which there is Moderate Evidence of Effectiveness. The project will incorporate the Difference-Education intervention based on research conducted by Stevens, N.M., Hamedani, M.G., & Destin, M. (2014): *Closing the social-class achievement gap: A difference-education intervention improves first generation students’ academic performance and all students’ college transition. Psychological Science.*

**Five-Year Project Budget:**$2,177,838

## P031A160206 Middlesex Community College

### Lowell, MA

**eMCC, Success from the Start : The Path to Completion**

With campuses in both urban Lowell, Massachusetts and suburban Bedford, Massachusetts, Middlesex Community College (MCC) is a comprehensive, two-year, publicly supported community college. Founded in 1971 and serving the most populous county in New England, Middlesex County, MCC enrolls 13,000 credit students and 15,600 non-credit students annually. In Fall 2014, 58 percent of students were women, and 42 percent were men while 61 percent of the student population were White, 17 percent Hispanic, 11 percent Asian, 7 percent Black, and 2 percent were two or more races. Enrollment of minority students has grown from 29 percent in fall 2009 to 38 percent in Fall 2014, including the dramatic growth of 45 percent in the Hispanic student population. In 2012-13, 46 percent of full-time beginning students were Pell Grant recipients.

**One activity:**$2**,205,024 over five years – eMCC, Success from the Start**

A previous Title III grant, completed in 2013, successfully undertook curriculum reform focusing on the design of developmental education and Gateway college-level courses as well as the development of a comprehensive advising model. Even with this success, MCC continues to struggles with very low completion rates (only 14.3 percent of first-time, full-time students entering in 2014 graduated within 150 percent of time), a problem that is exacerbated by an outdated technology infrastructure that is unable to provide comprehensive student services and up-to-date data and information to inform decision-making and assessment. The impact of this problem is compounded by the declining number of traditional-aged and other college enrollees and a 14 percent decline in state appropriations for public higher education per FTE between FY08 and FY14.

Middlesex proposes to implement ***eMCC: Success from the Start***through one activity to improve overall student persistence, retention, and completion outcomes. This will occur through two primary components to improve the student experience and academic performance by harnessing the College’s technology infrastructure and how information is used in service to student success. The first (**The Student Experience)**will include the development of student self-service related to enrollment functions and an integrated digital planning and advising system linked to learning assessments through analytics The second (**Academic Progress**) will shape student success by democratizing data leading to informed improvements. This will include building a digital “360 degree view of student progress” for assessing academic progress, informing and empowering both the students and the institution. Faculty and staff will have access to predictive analytics to guide timely interventions to promote student success.

Competitive Preference Priority. MCC requests the competitive preference priority.

The Activity will include implementation of a FAFSA renewal reminder text messaging intervention. Castleman, B. L., & Page, L. C. (2014). Freshman year financial aid nudges: An experiment to increase FAFSA renewal and college persistence. EdPolicyWorks Working Paper Series No. 29. Charlottesville, VA: EdPolicyWorks.Institutions.

Project Coordinator: Dr. Paula Pitcher, Vice President of Enrollment, Research, & Planning; MCC; 33 Kearney Square; LC 516; Telephone: (978) 656-3281; pitcherp@middlesex.mass.edu

**P031A160032 Regis College**

### Weston, MA

**Achieving with PRIDE: Increasing Student Persistence, Retention, and Achievement at Regis College**

**Institution:**Regis College (1927) has continued its commitment to access to education for traditionally underserved populations since its founding. Its nearly 1,000 undergraduates reflect this commitment in practice: over one third are first generation college students, nearly one half are racial/ethnic minorities, and over 40 percent are Pell grant recipients. The faculty to student ratio of 12:1 reflects the importance Regis places on undergraduate teaching and learning.

**Key Problem**: Disconnected support services and a disjuncture between students’ expectations and instructional delivery lead to a cascading pattern of attrition and a low rate of degree attainment. Exacerbating this issue are fractured data systems that limit real-time, integrated decision making. Ultimately, only 4 in 10 students graduate in four years.

**Project:**Entitled *Achieving with PRIDE*, the Activity focuses on students’ **P**otential and increases their **R**esilience, **I**nitiative, **D**rive and **E**ngagement through a multipronged approach to mitigate the identified issues impacting their persistence to degree completion. Research and best practices informed the Design Team’s construction of the Title III activity.

*First, proactive student engagement, advising and support*will fuse:  face-to-face and online academic coaching; analytics and a dashboard; differentiated advising with learning plans; a new Learning Commons and segment-specific retention initiatives. *Second, student-centered teaching and learning*will focus on the development of courses and toolkits infusing Association of American Colleges and Universities’ High Impact Practices with adaptive learning to secure students as members of an academic community and to personalize learning such that they can access academic content in different means and modes. *Finally,*substantially supporting both of these key initiatives, is technological integration and professional development. Together, the Activity is designed to transform Regis, leading to significant gains in students’ persistence to degree completion and strengthening institutional stability.

**Intended Outcomes:**In alignment with GPRA priorities to improve higher education’s quality and students’ degree attainment, the Activity will secure a 9 percent increase in first to second year retention, a 7 percent increase in second to third year retention, a 5 percent increase in the four-year graduation rate, a 10 percent increase in students’ sense of belonging after their first college year, a 10 percent increase satisfaction with the extent to which their coursework is relevant and useful, and a 10 percent increase in overall sense of satisfaction.

**Resource Allocation:**The five year request of $2,234,214 will impact 1,375 students. The request is allocated as follows, intended to seed, pilot and implement the Activity’s resources toward institutionalization: 68 percent in personnel including benefits; 26 percent in contractual; one percent in supplies; 2 percent in travel; and 4 percent in construction.

**Competitive Priority:**Regis College is addressing the Competitive Preference Priority citing Bettinger, E. P. & Baker, R. (2011). The effects of student coaching in college: An evaluation of a randomized experiment in student mentoring.

## P031A160011 Inver Hills Community College 

### Inver Grove Heights, MN

**Institutional Profile:**Inver Hills Community College (IHCC) and Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) are part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system comprised of 31 colleges and universities. IHCC has a full-year equivalent enrollment of 3,715 credit students and 4,567 non-credit/Workforce Training students. DCTC has a full-year equivalent enrollment of 2,065 and 4,916 non-credit/Workforce Training students. At IHCC 58.7 percent students are female, 39.8 percent male, and 1.4 percent are unknown while DCTC’s students are 41.3 percent female, 56.2 percent male, and 2.5 percent are unknown. Students of color are 30 percent at IHCC, 66 percent white, and 4 percent unknown and students of color at DCTC are 21 percent, 74 percent white, and 5 percent unknown. The enrollment at IHCC are 61.1 percent less than 25 years, 38.3 percent are 25 years and older, 0.6 percent unknown and at DCTC 46.4 percent are less than 25 years and 52.3 percent are 25 years and older, 1.4 percent are unknown. First generation students at IHCC are 53.4 percent, 40.1 percent are not, and 6.5 percent are unknown while at DCTC 53.2 percent are first generation, 28.6 percent are not, and 18.2 percent are unknown.

**Project Title:**Adult Learners: Service, Success, & Growth

**Problems:**High numbers of adult learners and first-generation students; declining student success rates; increasing demand for online and hybrid credit courses; advising system and related processes present numerous challenges; prior learning assessment policies, procedures, and application are inconsistent and not aligned with equivalencies or easily transferred; and limited professional development opportunities for faculty and staff.

**Goals:**(1) Increase success and completion for underserved adult learners; (2) Reduce time to degree for adult learners; and (3) Increase professional development for faculty and staff.

**Outcomes:**Increased success rates (i.e., retention, graduation, transfer); clear pathways for students in more career and technical education programs; completely online degree options expanded; accelerated blended/hybrid degree options expanded; increased number of students have an academic plan; increased number of students using advising services; increased faculty participation in advising; increased professional development opportunities; and increased advisors and counselors trained in implementing and facilitating online orientation and advising. 

**Strategies:**(1) Develop career ladders infused with proactive, intrusive academic and career advising; (2) Improve and expand prior learning assessment with competency-based education and assessment, and credit for prior learning; and (3) Provide professional development to faculty, staff, and administrators to effectively fulfill the needs of the adult learner. 

**Competitive Preference Priority:**This project addresses the competitive preference priority— supporting strategies for which there is evidence of moderate effectiveness. Bettinger, E.P., & Baker, R. (2011). *The effects of student coaching in college: An evaluation of a randomized experiment in student mentoring.*

**Funds Requested:**$3,082,688

## P031A160198 Craven Community College

### New Bern, NC

Craven Community College (Craven), one of 58 institutions that comprise the North Carolina Community College System, is a comprehensive community college that serves nearly 4,600 curriculum students. Forty-five percent (45 percent) of entering Craven students required developmental education in the 2013-2014 academic year. Since 2012-2013, a three-year average of 790 Craven students (approximately 17 percent of institutional student enrollment), have been classified under academic warning or probation status. The majority of these “at-risk” students receive minimal focused academic support and follow-up services. Craven has designed a comprehensive Title III project called **Connect 2 Success**to alleviate the following significant institutional problems: high student failure and attrition rates, inadequate support mechanisms, and inconsistent/incomplete student tracking data.

A total of $1,742,927.24 is requested over five years to: 1) increase the percentage of students successfully progressing through developmental math/English course sequences and gateway credit-bearing courses; 2) increase engagement of developmental and at-risk students with academic support services; 3) restructure college-wide academic support/retention functions; and 4) decrease revenue loss by increasing student persistence. 

The project’s institutional objectives will be accomplished through the following: 1) required advising and tutoring services for developmental and academic warning /probation students; 2)The creation of a Student Success Center to facilitate an integrated learning space for enhanced delivery of academic support/retention services at-scale; 3) enhanced faculty/staff professional development activities to provide resources for teaching and advising at-risk student populations; and 4) the implementation of Starfish Retention Solutions, a college-wide data management system to track student progress and educational goal/milestone attainment.

The competitive preference priority is not addressed in this proposal.

## P031A160052 Guilford Technical Community College 

### Jamestown NC

**Project Title**: *Increasing Student Success through Improved Teaching, Learning, and Academic Engagement*

Institutional Profile: Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) is a public, two-year comprehensive community college serving residents of Guilford County, North Carolina. Third largest of the 58 community colleges in the North Carolina Community College System, GTCC serves approximately 40,000 annually with five campuses, a small business center, multiple community sites, and online learning.  GTCC currently offers 71 degrees, 19 diplomas and 64 certificates, a total of 154 awards from 65 unique programs in addition to non-credit workforce training, business support and basic skills instruction (including high school equivalency preparation).

**Problems:**High failure rates in high enrollment gateway courses; low retention and graduation rates; student population with significant financial needs; limited faculty professional development in content, delivery, technology, and other aspects of instruction; learning support services are underutilized and misunderstood; inconsistent student supports, use of Early Alert, and challenges with appropriate and organized coaching; disorganized and ineffective one-on-one tutoring effort; and practice of evaluation and assessment related to learning support services is not consistent and effective.

**Goals:**(1) Improve student learning and retention; and (2) Create systems and processes to promote consistent learning support services college-wide.

**Strategies:**Project consists of two interrelated strategies focused on student success and completion through improved teaching, learning, and academic engagement: (1) Establish Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL); and (2) Expand Center for Academic Engagement (CAE).

**Outcomes:**Success in gateway courses increased; retention of first-time-in-college students increase; three-year graduation rate improved; new faculty members provided with the tools and resources to become successfully acclimated to GTCC; create a widespread culture of faculty mentorship; professional development support for key initiatives and process that promote personal and academic growth and success; a framework for feedback to encourage professional growth; a unique program which aids in the development of pedagogical skills for adjunct faculty; faculty excellence is recognized and rewarded; and systems and processes in place to promote consistent learning support services college-wide.

**Competitive Preference Priority:**This project addresses the competitive preference priority— supporting strategies for which there is evidence of moderate effectiveness: Bettinger, E.P., & Baker, R. (2011). *The effects of student coaching in college: An evaluation of a randomized experiment in student mentoring.*

**Funds Requested:**$2,228,091

## P031A160084 Pitt Community College

### Winterville, NC

Pitt Community College (PCC) is a comprehensive, public two-year college located in Winterville, North Carolina. The college primarily serves the citizens of Pitt County but also serves students from two other rural eastern North Carolina counties. PCC offers 58 Associate Degrees Programs as well as 98 Certificate and Diploma Programs in n a range of areas: humanities and fine arts, natural science and mathematics, social and behavior sciences, general studies, and vocational programs. Enrollment in Curriculum Programs during the 2014 fall semester was 12,469.

This grant proposes to improve student success at PCC with a focus on low income and other high-risk students. The project for achieving student success addresses three broad aspects of student success: **instruction, student services**, and the use of data to improve management and fiscal stability in one comprehensive, integrated activity.

Many students at PCC have not been achieving academic success at the level and pace needed to reach their goals. We propose to create a Summer Bridge Program and revise our advising service including creation of a centralized Advising Center. We also propose to expand tutoring, create supplemental instruction and closely link these with instruction. Through a Faculty Development Program, we will also train faculty and staff to more effectively use alternative instructional pathways that recognize the diversity of our student learners.

This proposal represents a comprehensive initiative to move from an instructional paradigm to a learning paradigm. It aims to increase the success of low-income students and other high-risk students enrolled in our college.  It will enable PCC to better retain these students by improving the quality of their educational experience and strengthening their links to advising and academic support mechanisms, including relationships with peers and faculty.  We expect to significantly increase the success outcomes of our low income and other high-risk students in n terms of improved academic performance and increased retention, graduation and transfer rates. Details of these outcomes and the comprehensive evaluation process that will be used are provided in n appropriate charts herein.

The proposal also addresses the Competitive Preference Priority which includes "Supporting Strategies for which there is Moderate Evidence of Effectiveness."

## P031A160191 Georgian Court University 

### Lakewood, NJ

Georgian Court University (GCU), established in 1908, is a private, four-year institution located in Lakewood Township in Ocean County, New Jersey. GCU offers 31 undergraduate and nine graduate degree programs. In fall 2014, GCU enrolled 2,308 students, including 1,621 undergraduate and 687 graduate students. Nearly 95 percent of students are NJ residents. Among full-time undergraduates, 97 percent receive financial aid, 45 percent are Pell grant recipients, and 45 percent are first generation college students.

GCU requests $1,994,306 over a five-year period for its SIP, Chart the Course to Graduation, to strengthen the institution and increase the number of first-time, full-time undergraduate students who persist from first year to second year, increase the number of students who graduate in six years, and increase overall enrollment.

**Need:**Most students come to GCU academically unprepared and struggle with math, writing, and reading deficiencies, financial problems, and difficulties acclimating to college. GCU’s average retention and graduation rates are too low: 69 percent retention rate for first year to second year; and 50 percent six-year graduation rate. GCU lacks financial resources to significantly expand student support services.

**Objectives:**

Over the grant term:

· 85 percent of first-time, full-time freshmen will persist to sophomore year

· 80 percent of second-year students will begin the year with at least 30 credits completed

· 75 percent of full-time students will graduate within six years

· Enrollment of full-time, degree-seeking students will increase to 3,000

**Activities:**Establish a new Math Lab and Writing Center to assist students who need skills development; expand targeted term general education courses in winter and summer to assist students with accelerated credit completion; and establish a new faculty advising core model to increase retention and timely graduation.

**CPP**: GCU will address the Competitive Preference Priority – Supporting Programs, Practices, or Strategies for which there is Moderate Evidence of Effectiveness, citing research findings in the study: Scrivener, S., Weiss, M. J., Ratledge, A., Rudd, T., Sommo, C., & Fresques, H. (2015). *Doubling graduation rates: Three-year effects of CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) for developmental education students*. New York: MDRC.

## P031A160134 Mercer County Community College

### West Windsor, NJ

**Contact Information:**Patricia C. Donohue, PhD, President, Mercer County Community College; 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor, NJ 08550; (609) 570-3613; donohuep@mccc.edu

**Institutional Background:**Mercer County Community College (MCCC) is a public, comprehensive community college founded in 1966. Mercer County Community College Campus maintains two campuses, one in West Windsor, NJ and one in the City of Trenton. The College offers an array of study areas that cover over 60 majors and is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. The State of New Jersey’s Commission on Higher Education has authorized Mercer County Community College to award the associate degree.

**Project Title:**Achieving Milestones: Persistence and Success in the First 30 Credits through Completion.

**Project Background:**Since 2010, Mercer County Community College has undertaken a series of intensive self-studies. These include a Foundations of Excellence self-study with the guidance of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education (2010-2012), and the 2014-2015 Middles States Commission on Higher Education Self Study to achieve reaccreditation. The Foundations of Excellence (FoE) self-study revealed institutional strengths, but also significant weaknesses, especially in the College’s communication with first-year students, leveraging of assessment, and advising. In January 2012 the Office of the First 30 was created to address these issues. With extensive cross-college collaboration, the Office of the First 30 created an integrated set of first-year student supports. While progress has been made, student outcomes such as retention and graduation rates are still unacceptably low. Concerns with communication, advising, and assessment persist and were reiterated in the Middle States 2014- 15 Self Study. In order to address these reaccreditation recommendations and significant obstacles to student success, MCCC proposes this Title III project.

**Evidence Study:**The Milestones Project addresses the Competitive Preference Priority *Supporting Strategies for which there is Moderate Evidence of Effectiveness*by implementing the student success coaching strategy demonstrated to be effective by Bettinger, E.P., Baker, R. (2011) study “The Effects of Student Coaching in College: An Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Mentoring”*.*This study meets standards for “moderate evidence of effectiveness.” 

**Implementation Strategies:**Student Success Coaches will provide case-management intrusive advising for first year students. The College will implement the Colleague Retention Alert early alert system using Faculty Retention Specialists to respond to the needs of continuing students. A Director of Assessment and Analytics will collect and analyze data to identify loss and momentum points and benchmark individual and student cohort progress. A Student Communication Specialist will develop an Enrollment and Retention Communication plan to improve communication with students. The plan will coordinate the resources of a financial aid contact center and Colleague Communications Management, including SMS capacity, to respond to student inquiries in a timely manner and proactively “nudge” students with reminders of important deadlines, especially those related to financial aid.

**Five-Year Project Budget:**$2,250,000

## P031A160201 Shawnee State University 

### Portsmouth, OH

Shawnee State University is located in Portsmouth, in the Appalachian region of southern Ohio. As an open-access institution with a majority of students being first generation and low income, the University is challenged **by low retention, course completion, and graduation rates**. 

*Strengthening Advising and Academic Resources*is the activity that the University proposes for Title III funding to address the above key problem area. The components of the activity are:

1) Creating a Shared and Integrated Advising System – SSU seeks to establish a comprehensive, student-centered advising system for all first-year, transfer, international, military veteran and non-college prepared students, coordinated with a decentralized system of faculty advisors for students who advance to sophomore status. The advising system will include a heavy emphasis on transition advising and an early alert system to identify and intervene with at-risk students.

2) Strengthening Developmental Education Delivery Systems – The summer bridge program is designed to provide entering freshmen with a means to become college-ready prior to fall semester of freshman year. Student cohorts will be offered a set of three courses in the summer that will allow them to enter fall semester college-prepared and remediation-free. Additionally, SSU proposes a redesigning of developmental reading courses to focus on an advanced literacy component through non-credit coursework and implementation of a Reading Lab.

3) Strengthening Instructional Support Services - The new advising system will be distinguished by better coordination of advising and instructional support services (tutoring, supplemental instruction), to reduce poor performance in milestone courses.

4) Improving Academic Performance through Realignment of Curricular Programmatic Requirements - SSU’s academic programs will undergo program review to identify and address those containing high credit requirements (not including those constrained by accreditation standards) and other obstacles to program completion.

## P031A160158 Wilmington College 

### Wilmington, OH

**Institutional Description**: Wilmington College (WC) is an independent, co-educational, four-year, career-oriented, liberal arts college in rural southwestern Ohio. Founded in 1870 by the Religion Society of Friends (Quakers) in Wilmington, Ohio, the College is within an hour's drive of Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, three of Ohio's major cities. There are approximately 1,100 students on the main campus and another 50 enrolled in two branches near Cincinnati.

**Student Characteristics**: A significant portion of our students are at high-risk for academic failure. Approximately 50 percent of WC’s student body is first-generation college students, and 50 percent are identified as being from families with an annual income of less than $50,000. Forty-three percent of our students are awarded Pell grants and 99 percent of WC students receive financial aid, with an average aid package of $25,000. Retention rates (fall to fall enrollment of full-time, first-time freshmen) have ranged from 68-70 percent, with a significant reduction in numbers from year two to year three. The four-year graduation rate for the 2008 cohort of students was 47 percent.

**Institutional Challenge**: Despite a wide range of retention initiatives based on high impact practices, WC’s retention and graduation rates have remained relatively unchanged for the last five years. Increasing and maintaining stable enrollment is critical to the survival of the college. Current tools for retention are underutilized and could be more effective with upgrades, professional development and addition of professional Student Success Coaches. Student Success Coaches are adapted from an empirically proven effective strategy addressed in the Competitive Preference Priority. In addition, the current technology infrastructure is unable to adequately provide data needed for assessment and planning. The college does not currently staff sufficient research professionals needed to move forward with strategic planning efforts.

**Project Description:**Integrating Data, Planning and Student Coaching to Improve Student Success.

**Institutional Goal**: Improve the viability of the College through stable enrollment, supported by infrastructure and a culture of assessment that creates a more effective and comprehensive student success model.

**Primary Project Activities:**

1. Establish a culture of assessment at Wilmington College.

2. Strengthen the technology infrastructure to support assessment and planning through upgrades and replacement of fiber optics.

3. Increase retention and graduation rates through improved use of analytics, student coaching and mental health assessment.

**Competitive Preference Priority**Bettinger and Baker, *The Effects of Student Coaching in College: An Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Mentoring.*

## P031A160048 Northeastern Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College

### Miami, OK

Northeastern Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (NEO) is a comprehensive two-year, public, open door college, located in the northeast corner of Oklahoma. The College is situated in Miami, Oklahoma, which was once a booming iron and lead mining town. Today, however, most area residents experience socioeconomic distress, following generational patterns of poverty and low educational attainment. Nationally, Oklahoma ranks seventh highest in the percentage of residents who live in poverty (17 percent), and NEO service area counties have even higher rates of poverty, ranging from 18 percent to 22 percent. Tellingly, only 14 percent of area adults have earned a bachelor’s degree compared to 28 percent for the U.S. (Census, 2013).

NEO’s mission to provide “*opportunities that promote excellence in learning, service, and leadership in a global society”*is critical to the region’s residents, and the College serves as the educational access point for thousands of disadvantaged area residents. In fall 2014, NEO served 2,217 students, offering Associate in Arts, Science, and Applied Science Degrees and Certificates in 46 transfer and occupational programs. 

Fall 2014 Student Profile:  Forty-one percent (41 percent) of NEO students are minority (Native American, 23 percent) up from 31 percent just six years ago. Most NEO students enroll full-time (73 percent), average age 24; 55 percent are female, and 82 percent receive financial aid**.**Almost all NEO students are first generation in college students (82 percent). According to the Survey of Entering Student Engagement, many NEO students juggle multiple responsibilities in addition to their college studies, including jobs (63 percent work) and parenting (23 percent). Over half (55 percent) are commuters. 

Increasingly, NEO students are turning to flexible online and hybrid course offerings as a way to pursue higher education while juggling work and family responsibilities. In fact, since 2009, NEO has experienced a 44 percent growth in online/hybrid course enrollments. At the same time, regional company Bolt Fiber Optic Services began work in 2014 on a $9 million initiative to bring super speed internet access to Northeast Oklahoma. NEO is eager to leverage increased demand for online and hybrid programming and the opportunity afforded by internet upgrades throughout the service area to increase educational access for disadvantaged area residents.

However, the College is facing several key institutional problems and weaknesses—insufficient online offerings, inadequate capacity, and limited resources—that stymie the institution’s efforts. To address the institution’s identified problems and weaknesses; NEO proposes a project entitled **Investing in Access and Success**that is composed of two interrelated initiatives:

*Initiative 1: Increase Access through High Quality Online and Hybrid Degree Options*.

Through this initiative, NEO will add a new, hybrid Network Security CIS option; revise its online Business program according to best practices in online education; and convert its Agriculture, Process Technology, and Psychology programs for online/hybrid delivery. 

*Initiative 2: Increase Access to Support Services.*Through this initiative, NEO will develop a suite of online services to bolster students’ academic and non-cognitive skills. The services will include self-paced, interactive modules for basic skills in reading, writing, and math as well as for non-cognitive skills, such as time management and study skills. A new online coaching system will also be developed to create virtual connections between students in online and hybrid courses and faculty/staff on campus. 

NEO’s Year 1 budget request is $449,945.

NEO is addressing the Competitive Preference Priority, citing the following two studies: **1**. *The Effects of Student Coaching in College: an Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Mentoring,*Bettinger and Baker (2011) and **2.**Thomas, Simmons, Jin, Almeda, and Mannos, “Comparison of Student Outcomes for a Classroom-based and Internet based Construction Safety Course,” *Journal of SH&E Research*(2005).

## P031A160257 Central Oregon Community College 

### Bend, OR

***Strengthening Transitions, Increasing Retention (STIR)***

**Applicant Institution:**Central Oregon Community College (COCC) is a four-campus, rural community college serving a 10,000-square-mile district encompassing five Central Oregon counties. The College serves nearly 18,000 credit and noncredit students via transfer and career and technical programs, adult basic skills, continuing education, business development, and community learning classes. The ethnicity of its student body is: 3.6 percent American Indian or Alaska Native; 1.8 percent Asian; 1.1 percent Black or African American; 79.8 percent Caucasian; 8.2 percent Hispanic or Latino; 0.8 percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; and 10.8 percent Other/No Answer. Some of the College’s service areas have a “minority majority” for Latino and Native American populations. COCC has 120 full-time faculty, 55 adjunct faculty, 164 part-time faculty and over 200 staff.

**The Project and its Objectives:**Through this project, COCC aims to increase the number of students successfully transitioning from developmental to college-level math and writing as well as increase the first-to-second term and first-to-second year retention rates of new students by five percent across all categories by the end of the grant. To this end, primary activities are**:**

· Alignment of student learning outcomes and content at all developmental education course levels

· Professional development and training for faculty teaching developmental courses

· Implementation of best practices in pedagogical delivery for math, including pathways for STEM and non-STEM majors

· Expansion of technology-led instruction on all four campuses

· Design and development of a First-Year Experience (FYE) program to support new students, including redesign of the FYE course and implementation of academic planning tools

· Implementation of culturally responsive Native American and Latino strategies for developmental education instruction and services

All activities are designed with a focus on increasing diversity, serving students with financial need, and with recognition that services must be provided across all four campuses.

STIR will address the Competitive Preference Priority.

*“COCC’s commitment to a strong shared governance process led to significant cross campus participation in college planning, including engagement at strategic planning levels as well as student success operational planning. From this work emerged a road map to improve student success in developmental education courses and a supporting package of wrap around services through a comprehensive first year experience program. With more than 90 percent of incoming students testing into developmental level courses and 64 percent being Pell eligible, it is critical that we move forward to implementation of these plans. Therefore, I pledge that the entire College stands ready to take action to address the needs of our least prepared and most financially needy students.”*Dr. Shirley I. Metcalf, COCC President

## P031A160133 Mt. Hood Community College

### Gresham, OR

**Project Title**: “*Mt. Hood Institutional Retention Initiative (MHIRI)*”

**Institution**: Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) is a two-year, public, community college. The main campus is located in Gresham, Oregon.

**Students**: FTE Enrollment for FA 2014 was 5,674 (IPEDS). Fifty-two percent (52 percent) of students are female; 48 percent are male. Forty-one (41 percent) of students attend full-time. With respect to student race/ethnicity, 59 percent are Caucasian; 11 percent are Hispanic/Latino; 13 percent are race/ethnicity unknown; 6 percent are Asian; 4 percent are multiracial; 5 percent are Black or African American; and less than 2 percent are in other categories.

**Employees**: MHCC employs 156 full-time faculty and 388 part-time faculty. The student-to-faculty ratio is 20-to-1. Non-instructional employees include 227 full-time and 317 part-time. 

**Activity Description**: MHCC’s proposed activity, “*Mt. Hood Institutional Retention Initiative (MHIRI)*” addresses the institution’s problems of low enrollment, retention, and graduation rates by using multiple strategies to enhance retention across the institution. Components of this activity include: (1) Centralize MHCC’s effective, but fragmented, student success initiatives by establishing a FT Retention Coordinator; (2) Expand the scope of non-cognitive skills assessments for students and follow-up advising across the institution; (3) Redesign HD100C, College Success, to include an evidence-based intervention that impacts student retention; (4) Increase the number of Learning Communities available to students; (5) Provide training in student-centered retention strategies to 72 percent of FT faculty; 52 percent of PT faculty; and 70 percent of FT non-instructional staff to improve customer service across the institution; and (6) conduct an Enterprise Resource Program (ERP) fit/gap analysis of the College’s information system, with an emphasis on workforce management, in order to replace the College’s paper-based human resource functions with a more efficient system.

**Competitive Preference Priority**: MHCC’s project incorporates a social belonging intervention into a redesigned version of the College’s “College Success” course, HD100C. The intervention is based on: Stephens, N. M., Hamedani, M. G., & Destin, M. (2014). Closing the social-class achievement gap: A difference-education intervention improves first-generation students’ academic performance and all students’ college transition. *Psychological Science, 25*(4), 943–953. This study meets What Works Clearinghouse standards for moderate evidence of effectiveness.

**Key Performance Measures**: Institutional objectives/key performance measures to be achieved by the end of the grant period include: (a) increase fall-to-fall FT student retention by 7 percent; (b) increase the graduation rate by 8 percent; (c) increase use of non-cognitive assessments and follow-up advising; (d) increase the number of learning community sections offered from a baseline of 9 to 34; (e) provide training in student-centered retention strategies to a majority of MHCC employees; (f) increase overall enrollment by 7 percent.

**Budget**: A total of $2,186,639 is requested over the grant period. Of this, sixty-nine percent (69 percent) is for personnel (includes fringe), including the salaries of the FT Retention Coordinator, one FT Advisor, and one PT Learning Communities Specialist. Twenty-three percent (23 percent) of the budget is for contractual services, including training in student-centered retention strategies for faculty and staff and the services of an external evaluator; seven percent (7 percent) is for supplies, including non-cognitive assessments for students, and one-percent (1 percent) is for travel.

## P031A160138 Treasure Valley Community College

### Ontario, OR

**Contact:**Dr. Paul Kraft; e-mail: pkraft@tvcc.cc; Telephone: (541) 881-8822

**Applicant: Treasure Valley Community College**is a small two-year public community college located in rural, agriculture-based southeastern Oregon along the Oregon/Idaho border. Since its humble beginning, the college has grown into a **dynamic hub of post-secondary education**for its communities, which include all or part of the poorest counties in Oregon. The college offers academic transfer, developmental education, and professional-technical degrees and certificates. Latino enrollments are positioned to climb steadily from the current 19 percent, with the largest feeder high school at 66 percent Latino enrollment. Treasure Valley enrolled 3,504 students Fall 2014.

**Overview of Title III Project**: Institutional Problems addressed with the Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) grant are documented and analyzed. Underprepared students enrolled in pre-college developmental math classes are getting stuck in a quagmire of course failure and course repetition, fragmented student support services are failing underprepared and underserved students, and institutional effectiveness is jeopardized by limited institutional ability to track student progression. The single, integrated Activity*, Increasing Retention, Progression and Graduation,*is comprised of five components, all of which are critical to improving the success of underprepared and underserved students. Goals for overcoming problems are delineated along with measureable objectives to assess their attainment. Activity Components include:

**Component 1:  Transform and strengthen student support services***to assist underprepared and underserved students maintain critical momentum and progression toward their educational goals.*

**Component 2:  Improve delivery of developmental math***to increase the number of students successfully progressing in a shorter period of time through the developmental math sequences to enter a first college-level math courses.*

**Component 3:  Strengthen support for online learners***to close the success gap between online and on ground learners.*

**Component 4:  Enhance faculty and staff***development to increase faculty knowledge and implementation of research-based student success strategies and use of emerging technologies.*

**Component 5:  Increase capacity to track student progress***by utilizing student tracking indicators to make informed, data-based decisions about retention, progression and completion, and to address data requirements for accreditation, strategic planning and state performance outcomes.*

Strong Personnel, Project Management and Evaluation Plans are included, as well as justified and itemized Budget.****(*Total Five Year Request: $ 2,229,098)*

**Competitive Preference Priority:**The proposal addresses and responds fully to the Competitive Preference Priority with a narrative section and required attachments in Appendix D.

## P031A160165 University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg

### Greensburg, PA

The University of Pittsburgh is a nonsectarian, coeducational, state-related public university made up of five campuses and 15 schools located throughout Western Pennsylvania. The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg (Pitt-Greensburg), established in 1963 is an entirely undergraduate college offering 25 liberal arts and pre-professional majors. Pitt-Greensburg offers the advantages and environment of a small liberal arts college along with the resources and prestige of a larger university that is consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities (U.S. News and World Report, 2015).

**Overview of Proposed Project -**The performance, process and outcome objectives of the proposed Pitt-Greensburg Title III program align with the purposes of the Strengthening Institution Program (SIP) designed to improve and strengthen academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability while increasing the enrollment, retention and graduation rates of students. Pitt-Greenburg currently faces a number of challenges that have negatively affected each of these areas, including: limited major areas of study; challenging technology expectations; outdated classroom technology; difficulty in meeting the academic needs of a new profile of students; deficiency in support for professional development for faculty; and lack of staffing and support for institutional research.

The proposed Title III SIP grant in the amount of $2,037,865, combined with extensive institutional resources, will enable Pitt-Greensburg to expand and modify our program offerings, improve our facilities, increase our academic support services, and implement changes in how we conduct business and make decisions.

**Selected Activity Outcomes:**

· Increase enrollment of first-year students as a result of new majors by 10 percent over Fall, 2015 numbers. *Reduce enrollment gap by at least 35 percent by 2020 as a result of offering new majors.*

· Increase sections of courses emphasizing critical thinking. *By 2020, 5 subjects, 2 sections, each serving 50 students.*

· Increase the number of majors that have redesigned their curricula to incorporate a significant digital experience appropriate to the field by 50 percent. *By Fall 2020, at least half of the current degree programs to reflect appropriate levels of digital programming in the classroom.*

· Increase the number of tutoring appointments by 25 percent to support an increased retention. 

· Retain 68 percent of conditional admits from first to second year. *(Represents an increase from 55 percent).*

· Approximately 680 students each year will experience the benefits of instruction using two proposed “agile” (or collaborative) learning spaces; *By Fall 2020, equipment in 100 percent of classrooms will be upgraded from analog to digital. **Note: The activities leading to this outcome address the Title III Competitive Preference Priority, based on a moderate evidence of effectiveness.***

· Improve the tracking, data management and analysis capabilities so that early intervention and student progress is available for 100 percent of students.

· By Fall, 2020, improve the tracking, data management and analysis capabilities and double the number of reports available to guide data-driven decision making on campus.

· Increase the recruiting yield by 10 percent by September, 2018 and an additional 10 percent by September 2019 as a result of analyzing financial aid practices to more precisely target awards based on merit as well as need.

· Increase annual fundraising capacity by 25 percent and build an endowment to support future equipment acquisition and maintenance. *($500,000 endowment by 2020.*

## P031A160283 Westmoreland Community College

### Youngwood, PA

***Proposed Project*:***Expanding Opportunities for Access and Success for Today's Learner*

***Background/Service Area*:**Westmoreland County Community College (WCCC) is a publicly funded two-year community college in southwest Pennsylvania comprising a main campus and seven education centers to serve every area of the region (3,221 square miles). Established in 1970, WCCC serves a four-county area in the heart of the northern Appalachian Region, a vast area characterized by low income and low educational attainment levels. Total population of the service area is 618,955 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). Residents in the service area have lower incomes than Pennsylvania and U.S. residents (three of the counties have annual incomes ranging from $39,115 to $44,388, compared to $52K+ median income in Pennsylvania and $53K+ median income in the United States). Also, poverty levels in those counties exceed the state level of 13.3 percent, and no county in our service area meets or exceeds the national rate of 28.8 percent or state rate of 27.5 percent for attainment of a bachelor’s degree; two of the counties have rates below 16 percent.

***Institutional Problems*:**WCCC is a 100 percent commuter college, with many students having commutes of up to two hours. In some cases, winding mountainous roads make travel treacherous, particularly in winter when snow/ice exacerbates travel difficulties. In addition, work obligations create significant challenges for many WCCC students who attempt to attend classes on campus; 77 percent of students work. Despite this student profile, only 21 percent of courses are available online and no academic program is available as a fully online option. Also, courses currently offered online are non-interactive and ineffective. Moreover, access to academic and other student support services is primarily available face-to-face. However, insufficient technology infrastructure and inadequate faculty capacity to develop and deliver online courses have prevented WCCC from increasing online course offerings or providing online support services.

***Proposed Solutions*:**WCCC’s institutional problems will be strategically addressed through the proposed project (**$2,249,959 request**over five years), which includes the following elements:

1. We will **develop online courses**(General Education/Business) to increase curricular offerings for students in need of accessible, flexible course options. This includes comprehensive **professional development for faculty**, who will develop and pilot 35 courses for online delivery. The General Management AAS business program and the General Studies Transfer program will be made available as 100 percent online options, a first for WCCC.

2. We will **develop comprehensive online support services**to boost the success of our students, constrained by distance and/or work schedules, (tutoring, Supplemental Instruction, advising, degree planning, early alert, financial aid, registration, career assessment/planning, accessing support services via mobile devices) – to provide 24/7 access to crucial student services.

3. We will **upgrade the technology infrastructure**, to include key hardware components that automate/integrate all processes, the core infrastructure of the overall network, and the addition of web-based solutions required to carry out project initiatives.

Through this Title III application, WCCC is addressing the **Competitive Preference Priority:**Agarwal, Rajshree and Day, A. Edward (1998). “The Impact of the Internet on Economic Education,” *Journal of Economic Education*, 29:2, 99-110.

Thomas, H.F., Simmons, R.J., Jin, G., Almeda, A.A., and Mannos, A.A. (2005). “Comparison of Student Outcomes for a Classroom-based vs. an Internet-based Construction Safety Course,” Journal of Safety, Health and Environmental Research, Vol. 2, Num. 1.

## P031A160131 Charleston Southern University

### North Charleston, SC

Charleston Southern University (CSU) is a four-year, private, liberal arts institution located in South Carolina’s Charleston - North Charleston MSA (population 682,904). Currently, CSU serves 2,968 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students (Fall 2014), with a 29 percent African American undergraduate student population. The University is known for its solid academic offerings, including 45 undergraduate majors and six graduate degrees options. One of its most popular majors, Criminal Justice, is offered at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. For the past two years, CSU has experienced enrollment growth (+8.1 percent), and the University is eager to continue this trend. However, the growth has strained CSU’s capacity on campus leaving the University without the classroom space for continued enrollment increases. While CSU owns ample grounds on which to build, the University runs on a slim operating budget and does not have the funds to construct new buildings to create more space to host on campus classes. At the same time, CSU traditional undergraduate students are increasingly requesting access to high quality, flexible online and hybrid program options that are currently only offered through CSU’s graduate programs or accelerated, structured adult degree programs. Considering the high need for flexible programming among our students (60 percent commute; 67 percent work; of working, 57 percent work fulltime) and the University’s inability to invest in new buildings due to limited financial resources, CSU is looking to innovative new instructional models and distance education to solve capacity problems and expand access to programs and services.

CSU has designed a Title III project entitled, **Success Through Access and Robust Support (STARS),**which will directly address gaps and weaknesses that hinder the University from adequately serving our students. CSU’s proposed activity includes three initiatives:

*Initiative 1: Improve Faculty Capacity to Offer Courses Using a Shared Classroom Model*—Modeling after the success of other institutions using this strategy, CSU will develop a new faculty certification for shared classroom active learning instruction (a course meeting on campus half the time and using active learning out-of-classroom instruction, such as flipped classroom activities, the other half of the time). The new model will not only save classroom space which will allow CSU to enroll more students, but through its active learning emphasis, it has proven to be effective in increasing student success at other colleges and universities.

*Initiative 2: Expand Access through Online and Hybrid Programming*--CSU will upgrade its distance learning infrastructure to support dynamic online and hybrid learning. The University will also renovate and equip a Faculty Studio. With the appropriate tools in place, CSU will convert its 13 Liberal Arts Core (general education) courses to online/hybrid format and redesign its existing online/hybrid Criminal Justice core courses, adhering to rigorous Quality Matters standards. Online faculty will receive training to become Quality Matters certified instructors.

*Initiative 3: Expand Access to Support Services*—CSU will develop five new online student support services: orientation to online learning, mentoring, academic planning, advising, and mobile services. 

CSU is responding to the Competitive Preference Priority, citing the following two studies: 1. Agarwal and Day (1998) “The Impact of the Internet on Economic Education,” *Journal of Economic Education*in support of the effectiveness of implementing courses with internet elements; and 2. Walton and Cohen (2011) *A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students*in support of the effectiveness of social-belonging interventions to promote the success of disadvantaged students, especially minority students. 

The Year One budget request is $449,940

## P031A160155 Horry-Georgetown Technical College 

## Conway, SC

Horry-Georgetown Technical College (HGTC) requests $1,877,463 in Title III grant support for the *Communicate and Connect for Campus Engagement*(C3E) initiative. The project will strengthen both the cognitive and non-cognitive performance of students using strategies that foster highly individualized communications and flexible, technology-mediated learning environments. As the only public two-year college in northeastern coastal South Carolina, HGTC provides a key entry point to higher education for students who are often academically and socially unprepared for the rigors of college work. Many HGTC students grapple with job demands, minimal peer and family support and understanding, and low achievement norms. These factors amplify the importance of nurturing early campus connections and engagement. Backed by a comprehensive analysis of strengths and weaknesses, project activities will focus on enhancing institutional viability by helping a greater number of students achieve their educational goals and successfully graduate. 

The C3E initiative consists of two activities:

*Activity 1 - Individualized Communication for Student Campus Engagement*will be anchored by the implementation of a life cycle constituent relationship management (CRM) system that will improve internal communication and campus connections. Key to meeting institutional objectives for student persistence, academic success, and graduation is a coordinated communications and connections strategy that supports proactive and individualized intervention and support. C3E will leverage these resources through: 1) the implementation of a life cycle *Constituent Relationship Management*(CRM) system; 2) the creation of a comprehensive *Communications Plan*; and 3) the addition of an *Internal Communications Specialist.*

*Activity 2*- *Instructional Communication for Engaged Learning*focuses on creating an engaging learning environment in both distance and traditional courses at HGTC. The activity components are centered around a strategic, cohesive management approach for technology-mediated learning for distance and traditional courses across all programs to include: 1) intensive Faculty Development; 2) the creation of Distance Learning Program labs; 3) the expansion and accreditation of distance learning programs; 4) the addition of an *Instructional Design and Support Specialist*to provide dedicated professional support for course design, delivery, and evaluation; and 5) the comprehensive assessment of instructional quality and outcomes in all learning environments. These activities are guided by an institutional urgency to improve student retention, academic standing, and graduation.

C3E activities and strategies are based on institutional experience and on evidence-based research for improving campus communication, deepening student engagement in the classroom and on campus, and the delivery of enriched, technology-mediated instruction. HGTC will adapt the findings of two recent studies in support of each activity, as detailed in the *Competitive Preference Priority*and *Implementation Plan*narratives (Bettinger, E. P., & Baker, R. (2011). *The effects of student coaching in college: An evaluation of a randomized experiment in student mentoring*. & Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., Lack, K. A., & Nygren, T. I. (2013). *Interactive learning online at public universities: Evidence from a six-campus randomized trial*. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management*,*33(1), 94-111.

The Title III investment in C3E will advance the College’s effort to create an energized and engaging learning environment complemented by a highly connected campus community that provides meaningful support for each student through transformational and transactional communication.

## P031A160010 Trident Technical College 

### Charleston, SC

**Institutional Profile**: Trident Technical College is a public, two-year, multi-campus comprehensive community college that serves Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties in South Carolina’s coastal low country. With an annual fall enrollment of over 16,000 students, Trident Tech is the largest in the state’s sixteen technical college system and the second largest undergraduate education provider in South Carolina.

**CDP Problems Addressed**: An uncharted road to success, disjointed and bureaucratic student services, outdated technology infrastructure, and poor software integration and utilization have led to a low enrollment rate of admitted students, a declining persistence rate, a declining retention rate, and a low graduation rate. Fewer than six of every ten prospective students admitted to TTC complete the onboarding process and enroll in classes; of those who do enroll, only one in ten will graduate within three years.

**Project Description**: The proposed Title III project – *Trident Tech Pathways*: Navigating a Course to Completion – consists of one overarching activity: creating an integrated system of supports that will increase the level of student achievement by re-engineering the path to graduation***.***The requested grant amount is $2,247,685 over five years to support two key implementation components: 1) Guided Academics; and 2) Integrated Support Services. Guided Academics will include the development of MetaPathways and new individualized academic supports, including an electronic learning plan to clearly map student progress toward a degree, an advising protocol to enhance the consistency and effectiveness of academic advising, and an electronic early alert system to ensure timely notification of students experiencing difficulty in coursework.

Integrated Support Services will establish a Pathways Hub to become a one-stop site for services that include intake, orientation, coaching, assessments, monitoring and interventions, and referrals to other campus resources. The emphasis on regular outreach and personal contact will help students connect early on to the college experience with a clear understanding of the path ahead and the supports there to assist them.

**Project Goals**: The overarching goals of the project are to increase student satisfaction with advising and access to services and to increase persistence, retention and 3-year graduation rates.

**Project Objectives**:

1)  Decrease the performance gap in student satisfaction with advising from 1.1 to 0.7 as measured by Noel Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory

2)  Decrease the performance gap in student satisfaction with access to services from 1.3 to 0.7 as measured by Noel Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory

3)  Increase the percentage of admitted students who enroll in the fall term from 56 percent to 66 percent 

4)  Increase fall to spring persistence from 72 percent to 77 percent

5)  Increase fall to fall retention from 42 percent to 52 percent

6)  Increase 3 year graduation rate from 10 percent to 15 percent

7)  Decrease the average excess credits at graduation from 20 to 10

**This project addresses the Competitive Preference Priority.**The study referenced is Bettinger, E.P., and Baker, R. (2011). “The Effects of Student Coaching in College: An Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Mentoring.”

## P031A160171 Dakota State University

### Madison, SD

Dakota State University******is a comprehensive, public four-year liberal arts university located in Madison (Lake County) and serves the rural eastern region of South Dakota. Governed by the South Dakota System Board of Regents (SDBOR) and accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, the University enrolled 2,736 undergraduate students in 34 associate and baccalaureate degree programs during fall 2014. DSU offers degrees in three academic colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business and Information Systems, and the College of Education. DSU is a key player in providing access to quality postsecondary education and is challenged to ensure first-generation, low-income students have equitable and accessible support needed for them to succeed and persist to degree completion.

***Students Challenged to Succeed in College***: Among DSU students, almost half are first generation college (45 percent) and low-income (42 percent). Over a quarter is nontraditional-aged (25.8 percent) and among first year students, 47.7 percent were academically underprepared for college-level studies. A 38.1 percent attrition rate for first time, full time students and declining enrollments threaten institutional stability, resulting in a loss of over $1.2 million in revenue annually. Contributing to the attrition problem is low success in completing high-risk gateway and majors courses in the three colleges.

***Proposed Title III Activity*:**Addressing institutional problems and weaknesses, the proposed Activity has three components: (1) *Individualized Student Coaching*provided by professional advising and peer coaches; (2) *Expanded Learning Assistance*to build writing and reading and science reasoning skills provided by peer Learning Assistants; and (3) *Supplemental Instruction with Peer Leaders*to support increased success in high-risk gateway and majors courses.

 - *Learning Engagement Center:*Central to providing expanded student support services will be the development of a multi-purpose Learning Engagement Center (LEC) where new student support activities will be developed and piloted. New support activities include Supplemental Instruction for high-risk gateway and majors courses, provided by SI peer leaders who will attend classes with students and provide group instruction in the LEC. Sessions will be recorded and made available online to all students. Students will also have access to learning assistance to build writing and reading and science reasoning skills provided by peer Learning Assistants and monitored by faculty in the LEC.

*- Individualized Student Coaching**:***Four professional advising coaches, each representing General Studies, Business and Information Systems, Education, and Arts and Sciences studies, will deliver individualized support, particularly for those most at risk of failing to persist year to year. The Coaches will manage the alert and intervention technology, tracking the progress of students and providing intervention services for both online and on campus students. Career advising will be developed for general studies, transfer and majors in the three Colleges. Peer Coaches will assist in making constant contact with students (in person, by phone, texting, email and social media). *This strategy addresses the Competitive Preference Priority.*

**Competitive Preference Priority:**The DSU individualized coaching activity is modeled on an intervention meeting moderate evidence of effectiveness recognized by the What Works Clearinghouse and cited in Bettinger, E. P., & Baker, R. (2011). *The effects of student coaching in college: An evaluation of a randomized experiment in student mentoring.*The intervention involved coaches contacting students via telephone, e-mail, text messages and social networking sites over the course of two semesters to identify individualized strategies for overcoming barriers to academic success.

## P031A160001 Lee University 

### Cleveland, TN

**Lee University:**Lee University is a private, 4-year university enrolling 5,098 students in primarily bachelor’s level, liberal arts degree programs. Drawing heavily from the southeast, students come from across the nation and over 50 countries. Students are 58 percent female, 17 percent ethnic minority, and 25 percent first generation college students. The faculty includes 168 full-time members and 241 adjunct and part-time faculty, with a 17:1 student to faculty ratio.

**Proposed Project: *Joining Forces for Student Success.*$2,158,233 over 5 Years**

To improve student success and completion, Lee will implement a plan to strengthen the support for students through expanded analytics, unified services, and integrated instruction. At the center of the project is the establishment of a robust ***Student Success Center***that coordinates and reinforces the three interlocking initiatives in a comprehensive, technology-rich system of support. First, additional assessments will gather information on students as they enter the University, employing predictive analytics to identify students who are at risk and to target individualized support beginning with transition to college through an enhanced orientation process. An early warning system will alert faculty and staff to emerging student problems, facilitated by communication tools to share information with those who can help. Second, a cross-sector team of support services staff and faculty will develop an integrated approach to retention, coordinated through a centralized Student Success Center that will feature individualized coaching and peer mentoring, improved faculty-led advising integrated with career services, and expanded tutoring and supplemental instruction enhanced by technology and space for collaborative learning. Finally, faculty teams will redesign strategically-selected courses in four phases: 1) first-year seminar sequence with an e-portfolio; 2) gateway courses in English and math to develop pathways to competency; 3) gateway core courses with scaffolding and active learning strategies; and 4) major courses with high-impact practices. This Activity will improve student success by enabling the University to provide support that is individualized and proactive, comprehensive, and integrated with instruction from beginning to end.

These initiatives are supported by research, with the coaching strategy based on moderate evidence of effectiveness as detailed in the Competitive Preference Priority attachment:

Stephens, N.M., Hamedani, M G., & Destin, M. (2014). *Closing the social-class achievement gap: A difference-education intervention improves first-generation students’ academic performance and all students’ college transition.*Psychological Science. 

Bettinger, E.P., & Baker, R. (2011, March 7). The effects of student coaching in college: An evaluation of a randomized experiment in student mentoring. 

Expanded analytics, unified services, and integrated instruction will increase student retention and achievement, resulting in an 11 percent increase in the four-year graduation rate, one of the key performance measures for the Title III Program.

**Tie-Breaker (2012-13):**Endowment per FTE = $3,399.21 Library Materials per FTE = $65.97 

## P031A160053 Pellissippi State Community College 

### Knoxville, TN

Pellissippi State Community College’s (PSCC) Title III Institutional Goal is to increase the capacity of the College to design and implement a comprehensive faculty professional development program that will strengthen student learning and retention through improved academic quality and teaching. 

The institutional goal is in alignment with the College’s strategic plan goals of expanding innovative instructional programs, delivering exceptional student experiences, and supporting quality teaching. The College has focused on several successful student initiatives designed to improve the student’s first-year experience that have led to increased student interactions, student engagement, and student success. While several initiatives have been successful in increasing student success across the College, a dedicated focus on faculty development in the classroom has not been addressed as a means of increasing student success. 

The College’s Quality Enhancement Plan was designed to address this need by focusing on increasing student learning through more engagement in the classroom. Through this focused classroom emphasis, improvements have been made in student learning outcomes. When the QEP was formed, there was an expansive need for faculty development in the areas of active learning strategies, student engagement, and assessment. However, it became evident that there was not a comprehensive means of providing this professional development and, thus, a need for a wider approach to faculty development across the College has become clear. 

Pellissippi State’s Title III activity will increase the overall capacity of the College to design and implement a comprehensive faculty development program that will create a culture of excellence in teaching and improved student learning and retention by providing extensive development opportunities and programming across the College. The PSCC Title III application will address the Competitive Preference Priority.

## P031A160043 Roane State Community College 

### Harriman, TN

Roane State Community College (RSCC) is a comprehensive, public, two-year postsecondary institution located in Harriman, Tennessee that serves the needs of a diverse eight-county service area. With nine campus locations, RSCC offers a wide range of flexible teaching delivery modes and distance education technologies. The college awards the Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, and Associate of Science in Teaching degrees for students who intend to transfer to a four-year institution. Additionally, the college awards Associate of Applied Science degrees and Technical Certificates for students who want to enter the workforce. Nearly half of students enrolled at Roane State are low-income (45.5 percent), and over half (53.8 percent) are first-generation college students.

Roane State will implement a Title III Strengthening Institutions Program project entitled *MY-GPS (Mapping Your Guided Pathway to Success)*, a single **Activity**to improve academic success and completion by providing students with enhanced academic and career planning options and holistic support services. Strategies include Program Guided Pathways, enhanced student success services including success coaching and mandatory advisement, and course scheduling that facilitates timely program completion.

**Title III Goal and Objectives**: Roane State Community College will increase student completion rates by implementing an integrated model of student services designed to enhance student success. By September 30, 2020, Roane State will:

(1) Increase the  percent of first-time, full-time degree or certificate-seeking students who were in their first semester of college the previous fall and are enrolled the current fall semester from 62.9 percent to 64.9 percent

(2) Increase the  percent of first-time, full-time degree or certificate-seeking students who graduate within 150 percent of normal time from 17.4 percent to 20.7 percent

(3) Decrease the  percent of students who graduate from an associate program with more than 150 percent required credit hours from 12.5 percent to 8 percent

(4) Decrease the  percent of students who graduate from a certificate program with more than 150 percent required credit hours from 50 percent to 45 percent

(5) Decrease the  percent of “withdrawal” grades from 7.7 percent to 4.1 percent

(6) Decrease the  percent of students who change majors more than once in any single semester from 1.7 percent to .5 percent

**Competitive Preference Priority:**Roane State’s Title III Strengthening Institutions Program proposal addresses the Competitive Preference Priority: Supporting Programs, Practices, or Strategies for which there is Moderate Evidence of Effectiveness.

Stephens, N.M., Hamedani, M.G., & Destin, M. (2014). Closing the social-class achievement gap: A difference-education intervention improves first-generation students’ academic performance and all students’ college transition.  *Psychological Science, 25(4)*, 943-953.

## P031A160099 West Texas A&M University 

### Canyon, TX

**Building Relationships to Bolster Retention**

West Texas A&M University (WTAMU), a member of the Texas A&M University System, is the northernmost university in the state and the only public university within a 100-mile radius. Centrally located in the largely rural Texas Panhandle, WTAMU is the region’s principal site of academic and technical training, research and cultural activities. WTAMU currently offers 58 undergraduate degree programs, 39 master’s programs and one doctoral program through five colleges and two schools; these programs are served by 287 full-time faculty. Fall 2014 enrollment totaled 8,972 students: 7,133 undergraduate and 1,839 graduate students. WTAMU’s undergraduate enrollment has increased by 590 students since Fall 2012, with Hispanic students constituting nearly half this increase. As a result, the University attained Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) status in fall of 2014. African American undergraduate student enrollment has also seen growth, showing a 20 percent increase from 2012 to 2014. WTAMU’s undergraduate population also exhibits high percentages of first-generation status (45 percent) and Pell Grant eligible (40 percent) students; many students come to WTAMU from the 26 counties of the Texas Panhandle (65 percent), and 75 percent carry full-time enrollment.

WTAMU is experiencing three substantial challenges as it grows. Retention rates of first and second-year students, especially those of minorities and undeclared majors, are below state and national averages. Graduation rates also fall below these averages, with four-year graduation rates for minority groups consistently below 20 percent. Student services intended to support student success and progress to degree operate in an uncoordinated manner and are not able to meet the individual contact needs of students.

An analysis and review process led to the conclusion that intentional, growth-inducing relationships targeted to meet widespread student needs and the particular needs of individuals are critical for the development and retention of students in higher education. The proposed Building Relationships to Bolster Retention project (BR2BR) was designed around a commitment to this concept. Five activity themes are planned for BR2BR: 1) coaching of first and second-year students by full time Retention Coaches; 2) coordination and expansion of student service offerings; 3) curricular and co-curricular changes to increase sense of community among students; 4) integration of personal and career goal development into all BR2BR programming; and 5) professional development for faculty and staff related to all the BR2BR initiatives.

The project is intended to serve an unduplicated headcount of at least 6,000 students during the five year funding period. WTAMU anticipates that overall retention and graduation rates will rise as a result of the project activities and that minority students will show gains at as much as twice the improved overall rates. The changes made through grant-funded activity will be sustained by revenue increases resulting from greater student retention. The activities are designed to be highly replicable at public and private institutions across the United States.

**Addressing Competitive Preference Priority:**Yes

**Study Referenced in the CPP Statement:**Bettinger, E. & Baker, R. (March, 2011). The effects of student coaching in college: an evaluation of a randomized experiment in student mentoring. Stanford University (also published in *Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis,*36(1), 3-19).

## P031A160253 Salt Lake Community College

Salt Lake City, UT

**Comprehensive Development Plan Supporting Math and Science Achievement at Salt Lake Community College**

Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) is a public, comprehensive, two-year community college located in Salt Lake City, Utah. The college has a comprehensive array of programs designed to serve workforce, transfer, and community education needs. With over 200 certificates and programs in its catalog and nearly 60,000 students enrolled, SLCC is one of the largest two-year colleges in the country. SLCC was reaccredited in 2015 by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. 

SLCC requests $2,236,497 over five years to implement a series of innovations that will help solve serious problems in math and science education. An increasing number of students enter SLCC each year underprepared for college level math and science; the result is that many students struggle to complete key courses that are required to graduate or transfer. The project proposed here has two main goals: 1) establish student support mechanisms to enable student success; and 2) establish data analysis, reporting, and assessment systems to determine the ongoing effectiveness of those mechanisms. 

To accomplish these goals, SLCC has developed a comprehensive plan that proposes four main activities. First, SLCC will remodel a portion of its Science and Industry Building to create a new Math and Science Resource Center (MSRC). The MSRC will be centrally located and easily accessed with an array of learning supports available. Second, SLCC will create a supplemental workshop program that will offer strategic support for students at critical times during the academic term. The workshop series will be developed and taught by faculty members in high attrition gateway courses in science and math. Third, an early alert system for identifying at-risk students will be developed and used in an intrusive advising strategy. This approach will actively reach out and connect struggling students with learning supports to help them persist and be successful. The fourth activity will be the creation of performance indicators and quantitative measures of success for the academic divisions within the School of Science, Math, and Engineering. These indicators will give project members, faculty and administrators tools to monitor success, identify problem areas, and create meaningful responses that are evidence-based.

Competitive Preference Priority

This proposal addresses the Competitive Preference Priority: Supporting Programs, Practices, or Strategies for which there is Moderate Evidence of Effectiveness. The plan proposed here incorporates strategies for which there is moderate evidence of effectiveness. These strategies include supplemental instructional strategies and an intrusive advising approach. Program personnel will use these strategies to improve performance in math and science courses thereby increasing completion of academic degrees by students studying at SLCC.

Fowler, Paul R.; Boylan, Hunter R. (2010). *Increasing Student Success and Retention: A Multidimensional Approach*. Journal of Developmental Education, v34 n2 p2-4, 6, 8-10. Scrivener, S., Weiss, M. J., Ratledge, A., Rudd, T., Sommo, C., & Fresques, H. (2015). *Doubling graduation rates: Three-year effects of CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) for developmental education students*. New York: MDRC.

11/18/2016

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