Amid the global pandemic, community colleges nationwide found themselves challenged like never before. More than 21 million Americans lost their jobs in March and April. How would this economic collapse affect college revenue streams, or fall semester enrollment? Would campuses even be open in the fall? Would students continue to register for…

This chapter describes some of the major principles, practices, and processes involved in designing and founding a new community college dedicated to improving student outcomes by doing things differently.

When asked what has made them successful, four community college leaders from around the country--not graduates of the Texas program--echo many of the ideas of Dr. John Roueche, director of the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin. They emphasize building relationships with students, faculty, staff and local…

Leadership, as it is practiced today in community colleges, has taken three brilliant ideas to excess and made them into guiding ideologies. The first is "growth," a means for gauging organizational legitimacy and success that has eclipsed other means. The second is "complexity," which has gained acceptance as a structural necessity for managing…

At community colleges, just as at four-year institutions, a wide range of governance models exists, including those that claim to be shared governance but aren't, those that don't even pretend to be shared governance, and, occasionally, truly shared governance. True shared governance at community colleges, just as at their four-year counterparts,…

Longitudinal cohort analysis is a powerful tool for helping colleges understand student performance. It involves tracking students as a group or cohort over a specified period of time. The results allow administrators, faculty, and staff to identify groups of students who are succeeding or falling behind and the points in the educational pipeline…

Stakeholder engagement is critical to the success of Achieving the Dream. Broad-based support for the college's student success agenda and institutional change efforts requires engaging faculty, staff, students, community members, and others in the change process. These stakeholders can bring to light critical obstacles to student success and help…

"Building Institutional Capacity for Data-Informed Decision Making" is the third installment of the Cutting Edge series, which aims to help colleges engage faculty, scale successful interventions, and create a strong culture of evidence through use of data to strengthen their institutional change and student success efforts. Though the…

The fundamental concepts of Achieving the Dream--using evidence to develop and evaluate strategies for improving student learning and success--are also important to successful efforts to meet accreditation requirements. Following the Achieving the Dream approach can help community colleges organize and document improvement efforts in ways that are…

People do not want to know the history, minutiae of policy, or operations, or even the political intrigues of a virtual consortium. People want to know if the consortium has value, whether it can help them, and if it is a threat. In this article, the author focuses on the operating principles and policies that have proven successful in the…

The Achieving the Dream (ATD) initiative works with more than 100 community colleges across the United States with the specific goal of increasing student success. Together, Achieving the Dream colleges graduate or transfer close to 250,000 students a year. With just a 5 percent increase in graduation rates, individuals can positively impact the…

This paper describes the journey of a mid-size community college towards developing and institutionalizing a core set of values into the culture. The aim is to establish a common guidepost to integrate planning, decision-making and behaviour within the learning community of Red Deer College (RDC). Consultative process was used to engage staff and…